License Restoration Questions - Drinking Patterns & Habits
What questions will I face about Drinking?
How would you characterize your drinking habits?
When was the last time you drank?
Have you consumed any beer/wine/champagne at the Holidays?
Where were you at Christmas? New Year's Eve, etc? Did you attend any weddings or other celebrations where alcohol is usually served? How did you spend your time during these occasions?
Drinking Habit Questions Explanation
These questions at the restoration hearing are beginning to focus on the primary concern of the Secretary of State. You may safely expect some of the greatest scrutiny in your responses at this point. It is the author's opinion that no less than a one-year period of proven sobriety is required for serious consideration of restored driving privileges. In that light, you should no longer have “drinking patterns” in your life. Any response that you only drink “on occasion” will doom your efforts at securing any form of license. After all, if you have continued to consume alcohol in limited instances, you have not demonstrated the future ability to refrain from alcohol in instances where you may need to drive. You are presumed co-dependent upon alcohol. As a co-dependent, any allegation that you control your drinking to instances where you will not be driving is futile. You must maintain a zero-tolerance attitude in relation to alcohol. In so doing, you demonstrate a lifestyle that no longer has room for alcohol or any of the dangers it may pose when consumed before driving.
If you have one or more drunk driving convictions on your record, you cannot and will not convince anyone, including your lawyer, that your offenses were “isolated instances;” they were, in all likelihood, the only instances in which you were caught breaking the law. The secretary of state possesses no such naivety. Indeed, the hearing officer is well aware of statistics that suggest people caught drinking and driving have, in all likelihood, driven drunk on numerous occasions where they did not get pulled over. Therefore, only an honest and compelling demonstration that you no longer drink AT ALL will compel a hearing officer to entertain the possibility of granting you driving privileges.
If you take the above explanation seriously, as you should, you will take to heart the seriousness of your need to continually strive for a sober lifestyle. If you are striving in earnest, you have (and will) be tempted to drink alcohol on occasions when, at some point in your past, you considered drinking a very natural and acceptable thing to do. You should therefore account for places and circumstances where alcohol was present, and describe how were able to avoid its consumption in instances where virtually everyone else was “indulging.” A persuasive demonstration that you can still enjoy such occasions without consuming alcohol goes further to show that you have incorporated methods for eliminating the use of alcohol in your life. For more information on proper license restoration preparation and to seek a good attorney for your hearing, call Attorney Joseph Awad, a Michigan DUI lawyer, right now. The call is free and the feedback you will receive will take you miles in the right direction:
(734) 507-1333