San Diego Underage DUI Attorney

California treats drivers under 21 differently, and more harshly, than adults. Where an adult faces a 0.08 percent threshold, an underage driver is subject to a zero tolerance standard that begins at 0.01 percent. A student who had one beer hours earlier can lose their license for a year without ever being convicted of a crime.

What makes these cases confusing is that three different laws can apply to the same traffic stop, each with its own threshold and its own consequences. Understanding which one you are actually facing is the first step. Marc Kohnen has been defending young clients in San Diego since 2008, and in these cases the record and the license are usually more consequential than the immediate penalty.

Three Separate Laws, Three Different Thresholds

An underage DUI arrest can involve any combination of the following:

• Vehicle Code section 23136 — the zero tolerance law. A BAC of 0.01 percent or more for a driver under 21. This is a civil administrative action by the DMV, not a criminal charge, and it carries a one-year suspension of the driving privilege
• Vehicle Code section 23140 — a BAC of 0.05 percent or more for a driver under 21. This is an infraction, carrying a fine, a program, and a license suspension, but no jail
• Vehicle Code section 23152 — the same DUI statute that applies to adults, charged when the BAC is 0.08 percent or more or when the driver was actually under the influence. This is a misdemeanor with the full range of adult consequences

The Zero Tolerance Suspension Is Not a Conviction

Section 23136 catches families off guard because it operates entirely outside the criminal courts. There is no courtroom, no judge, and no criminal conviction — the DMV simply suspends the license for a year based on the officer's sworn report. The criminal case may be dismissed, reduced, or never filed at all, and the suspension still stands.

It also has its own deadline. As with an adult DUI, the request for an administrative hearing must be made within ten days of the date the suspension order was served. That is the only opportunity to contest it, and it is missed constantly, because the paperwork looks like a formality and the family is focused on the criminal case that may not even exist yet.

The Roadside Test Rules Are Different Too

For an adult not on DUI probation, the handheld preliminary alcohol screening device offered before arrest is generally voluntary. For a driver under 21, it is not. Under the zero tolerance provisions, an officer may require an under-21 driver to submit to a PAS test, and declining it carries its own one-year suspension for refusal.

The advisement requirements still apply, and they are frequently the defense. The officer has to convey specific information about the test and the consequences of declining it. A garbled or incomplete admonition, or an admonition given to a frightened teenager in language they plainly did not follow, undercuts the refusal allegation built on it.

Where Low-BAC Cases Are Defended

At 0.01 percent the margin for error is almost nonexistent, and that cuts in the defense's favor. A handheld PAS device measuring a reading that low is operating at the very bottom of its range, where accuracy, calibration, and mouth alcohol contamination matter enormously.

Mouth alcohol is the recurring issue. A reading at these levels can come from something other than a drink — recent use of mouthwash, breath spray, or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, or a burp or reflux episode that brings vapor up from the stomach shortly before the test. This is exactly what the required fifteen-minute observation period before a test is meant to rule out, and whether that period was actually observed is a documented, checkable fact. Cough syrup and other over-the-counter medications can also register. Calibration and accuracy records for the specific device exist and can be requested.

• Was the fifteen-minute observation period actually completed before the test
• Are the calibration and accuracy records for that specific device current
• Was there an innocent source of mouth alcohol — mouthwash, sanitizer, medication, reflux
• Did the stop itself have a lawful basis
• Was the required advisement given before the PAS test was demanded
• Was the driver actually driving, or parked, when contacted

What a Conviction Costs a Young Person

The immediate penalty is usually not the real problem. The lasting consequences are, and they land at the worst possible moment in a young person's life.

A DUI on the record shows up on background checks for internships, jobs, and housing. It can affect college disciplinary proceedings and eligibility for some scholarships and financial aid. It complicates professional licensing years later in nursing, teaching, law, and the trades. Insurance costs rise sharply and stay elevated. For a non-citizen student, any criminal conviction warrants careful immigration analysis before any plea is entered. And a one-year license suspension at 17 or 19 can be the practical difference between staying enrolled and dropping out.

That is why the objective in these cases is usually not just avoiding jail — nobody was going to jail — but keeping the record clean. Where the case is in juvenile court the confidentiality and sealing rules are different and generally more favorable, which is another reason the correct forum matters.

Talk to Marc Before the Ten Days Run

If your son or daughter was arrested for DUI in San Diego County, the DMV hearing request is the urgent item, and it is due within ten days of the arrest regardless of what happens with the criminal case. Marc handles the DMV side and the court side together, and he meets with the family personally.

Call (619) 398-2500 for a free, confidential consultation. The line is answered 24 hours.

More on DUI & DWI

• DMV Hearings — Ten days to demand a hearing under VC §13558 — or the suspension takes effect without one.
• First Offense DUI — VC §23536 penalties, probation terms, and where a first-offense case is actually won.
• Felony DUI — Injury, a fourth offense in ten years, or a prior felony DUI — state prison exposure under VC §23153 and §23550.
• Chemical Test Refusal — VC §23612 implied consent — a one-year suspension that outlives a dismissal, and how refusals are challenged.
• DUI of Drugs — No legal limit means the People must prove real impairment — cannabis, prescriptions and the DRE evaluation.

Back to the DUI & DWI overview.