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Of all the intoxicants that people can use and abuse before driving, alcohol is by far the most common. In fact, approximately 1.5 million people are arrested any given year for drunk driving. While this number will hopefully go down each passing year, it doesn’t do any good if you’ve made the mistake to drive while intoxicated and been arrested for a DUI. When this happens, there are certain steps you should take to move forward from it.

In this article, we’ll give some practical tips and tricks about how to get your life back after you’ve been arrested for a DUI. While it may seem like your life is over, there are ways to move forward despite any guilt or humility you feel.

You’ll Want to Hire an Attorney

When you’ve been recently arrested for a DUI, depending on your location, you will either be taken to a hospital, jail, or a private residence while your car is impounded. The most common of these is jail, where you will be allowed to sober up and monitored for any signs of wayward behavior. Your first step, as soon as you are able to think clearly, should be to call a lawyer and request for your case to be examined. If you cannot find or locate a DUI defense attorney, then any general lawyer will do, but the important thing is that you want to start taking meaningful action toward your charge and remove yourself from state custody.

Decide If You Have a Problem With Drinking or Just Made a Mistake

Upon regaining your freedom and meeting with your DUI attorney or lawyer, it would be beneficial to do an internal examination of how you got in this situation. When you were arrested for a DUI, did you simply make a mistake one night? Or are you a problem drinker, alcoholic, or have some other problems that you need to deal with? Deciding which of these is true is the best way to move forward with your case and get your life back. It will let you know whether you need to meet with a therapist, social worker, or another professional who is oriented towards helping people live their best life.

Pay Your Debts to Society

If you’ve managed to get yourself a competent DUI lawyer, then they should be able to arrange for you to get your license back, pay any financial obligations, and hopefully avoid having to also hire a criminal attorney for criminal charges. Depending on how you were arrested for your DUI, you may have a significant amount of debt to society to repay. Whether this means that you have to volunteer in your community, pay a hefty fine, or go back to driving classes is dependent. Hopefully, you are not in a situation where you have caused major harm to a person or property, and these will be relatively minor proceedings in which you will work out satisfactory repayment details. Even if it isn’t mandatory, consider volunteering anyways if you feel like you need to give back in some way.

Stick to Your Strategy and Do Better In the Future

Whatever the case for your DUI ends up being, as long as you are taking steps forward, as opposed to backward, you are on the right road. You made a mistake by driving intoxicated, but this doesn’t have to define you as a person or ruin your entire life. By calling a DUI lawyer and getting the details of how you got arrested for a DUI straightened out, you’ll be one step closer to getting your life on track.