Underage DUI: Zero Tolerance and What Parents Should Know

If this is about your teenager, here is the part most parents do not know: the licence can be suspended through the DMV even where there is no criminal conviction at all, and the clock on challenging that is very short.

Three different thresholds

Drugs are covered too, under VC 23152(f), with no numerical threshold.

Is there even a bail amount?

Frequently not, and we would rather say so. An administrative suspension involves no bail. An infraction involves no bail bond. And most misdemeanours default to release on a written notice to appear under Penal Code 853.6 — see cite and release. Ask the facility whether a bail amount has been set at all before paying anyone.

What turns an under-21 case into custody is usually something additional: intoxication reaching the PC 853.6(i) exception, another charge from the same stop, or an outstanding warrant — see holds and multiple cases.

The deadline parents miss

The DMV process runs separately from any criminal case and generally allows 10 days from the arrest to request an administrative hearing. Families concentrating on getting a young person home let it pass without realising it existed — see DUI test refusal, where the same deadline applies.

If the driver is under 18

A minor is generally not in the adult bail system at all, and there is usually no bail amount to post. That is a juvenile matter under a different statutory scheme — see can a juvenile get bail in California. The useful calls are to a lawyer who handles juvenile matters and to the facility, not to a bail agent.

Working out the amount, and what can change it

The figure comes from the countywide schedule Penal Code 1269b requires each county’s judges to adopt and revise annually. A judge may raise bail under 1269c, a hearing may be required in serious cases under 1270.1, and under In re Humphrey (2021) 11 Cal.5th 135 a court must consider ability to pay before setting money bail that results in detention.

Local guides: Anaheim, Brea, La Habra, Fullerton, Buena Park, Yorba Linda and Tustin.

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Please note: American Freedom Bail Bonds is a licensed bail bond agency, not a law firm. Nothing here is legal advice and we cannot predict how any case will be charged or resolved. California bail license 1841014.