After a DUI Charge in Virginia Beach

Following a DUI charge in Virginia Beach, it is often a good idea for someone to enroll in an alcohol education course. An alcohol education course is a program that educates people about alcohol abuse. Typically these programs are not only educational but they also provide counseling and drugs and alcohol screening. The point is to get somebody out of their abusive cycle and to understand the consequences of their choices and what got them to that place in the first place. To learn more about what course of action might better benefit your case, call a Virginia Beach DUI lawyer.

Length of Alcohol Education Courses in Virginia Beach

There are a lot of different kinds of treatment programs with different pros and cons to each. Depending on each person’s personal situation, one will be better than the other.

The duration of alcohol education courses depends on which course you take. If you take AA meetings in Virginia Beach for example, they’re just random meetings and you can go as many times as you wish and you can repeat. It can be as little as just two weeks or it can be 12 weeks, which is typically the entire course. Or if you do a private session then they can adjust the session to your own needs. Somebody who really needs a lot of treatment will be in treatment for a longer period of time than someone who’s kind of just doing it for their own personal benefit without really having much of a problem.

Approaching an Alcohol Education Course

People should approach alcohol education courses in Virginia Beach as if it were the most important thing that they have to do. There’s not a lot of time in between receiving the DUI and when the court case actually comes up for the hearing. In this short time period, it’s super important that people really give it their all in the courses, giving 100% effort into every aspect of it. A lot of these programs will give you an evaluation at the end that you can present to the judge and the best thing that you can show a judge is a good evaluation that says that you took this seriously. A Virginia Beach judge will want to see that you showed up every day and dedicated yourself to these courses.

It’s not really an issue at that point anymore whether the client needs the treatment or not. It’s more a mitigating factor to use in court to get them good results on their case.

Impact of a Virginia Beach DUI on Insurance

DUIs can cause insurance rates to drastically increase. Some insurance companies won’t even have somebody on their insurance that has had a DUI and they will completely drop the driver altogether. High risk insurance is generally required for anyone who wants a restricted license after their licenses have been suspended for a DUI, which can be extremely expensive.

Speaking to Your Insurance Provider

Unless your insurance has something in the contract that requires someone to inform your insurance provider of a charge for a DUI, there’s no advantage to telling your insurance of just a charge rather than a conviction. The risk of doing this is that their insurance company could cancel the insurance just for the fact that they were charged or they can escalate the insurance premium before the conviction is even a possibility.

Other DUI Damage Control Considerations in Virginia Beach

It’s important for people just to know that they have a lot of free time while their case is pending in the Virginia Beach court system and they should be really conscious of how they’re using this free time. They should be very careful to not get any other convictions obviously related to alcohol or otherwise because all of these kinds of things that happen in this one to two month period could creep up on them during trial and either make or break it for them.