Protect your rights, your record & your future.
An Arrest Is a Charge, Not a Conviction
Most people we meet on a DUI have never been arrested before. They are holding a piece of paper with a court date on it, they have already replayed the traffic stop a hundred times, and nobody has told them what actually happens next. That is the conversation we have first.
A drunk driving case is built out of pieces that can be examined: the reason for the stop, how the field sobriety tests were given, whether the breath instrument was calibrated and operated correctly, and whether the officer followed Maryland's advice-of-rights procedure before asking for a sample. We go through all of it before deciding what your case should look like.
Impaired driving is one part of our broader
criminal defense practice, and it often arrives attached to other charges from the same stop, including reckless driving, driving on a suspended license, and other
serious traffic offenses.
What's the Difference Between DUI and DWI in Maryland?
Maryland charges two separate impaired driving offenses, and the difference is the degree of impairment the State says it can prove. DUI, driving under the influence, is the higher charge, supported by a breath or blood result of 0.08 or above. DWI, driving while impaired, covers impairment to a lesser degree, and a result of 0.07 or above is evidence of it. Both are criminal charges, and both put your license at risk.
DUI, Driving Under the Influence
The more serious of the two. A breath or blood result of 0.08 or above supports the charge, and so can an officer's testimony that you were substantially impaired.
DWI, Driving While Impaired
Charged where the State says alcohol impaired your driving to a lesser degree. A result of 0.07 or above is evidence of impairment, and DWI is frequently the charge a DUI case resolves into.
Drugged Driving
Maryland's impaired driving statutes cover controlled substances and prescription medication taken as directed. There is no breath test for these cases, which means the State leans on officer observation and blood results.
Underage DUI
Drivers under 21 face a separate zero tolerance standard, and a conviction reaches a provisional license quickly. These cases carry consequences for college applications, financial aid, and insurance that follow a young driver for years.
Understand what’s at stake—and how we can help protect you.
What a Maryland DUI or DWI Conviction Actually Costs
Maryland's penalties are set by offense and by history, and the numbers are worth knowing before your first court date.
- A first DUI carries up to one year of incarceration, a fine of up to $1,000, and 12 points against your driving record.
- A first DWI carries up to 60 days of incarceration, a fine of up to $500, and 8 points.
- A second DUI carries up to two years and a fine of up to $2,000, along with a mandatory minimum jail term.
- Third and subsequent offenses climb from there, in both incarceration exposure and fines.
- Maryland's ignition interlock program reaches most impaired driving dispositions, including many that do not end in a jail sentence.
Drunk driving and drugged driving are misdemeanors in Maryland, so a first offense DUI is not a felony. Causing a death or a life-threatening injury while impaired is charged separately, and those charges carry years of prison exposure rather than months.
The sentence is also not where the consequences stop. A conviction sits on your driving record and your criminal record, where employers, licensing boards, and insurers can find it. Maryland expungement law is narrow on impaired driving, which is one more reason the resolution you accept at the start matters
Your License Case and Your Criminal Case Are Two Different Cases
A DUI arrest opens two proceedings at once. One is the criminal charge in District Court. The other is an administrative action against your license, run by the MVA and heard by the Office of Administrative Hearings. They have different rules, different decision makers, and different deadlines, and winning one does not automatically resolve the other.
The license case is the one that surprises people. The window to request your hearing is measured in days from the traffic stop, not weeks. Request it in time and your suspension can be held off while the case is pending. Miss it and the suspension takes effect without anyone hearing your side of it.
Refusing the breath test carries its own suspension, and it is a longer one than a failed test brings. That does not make the refusal indefensible. It makes the hearing more important.
We handle both proceedings. You do not need to find a second attorney for the MVA side, and you will not be sent to a case manager to sort out the calendar.
We Know the Courthouse on Your Summons
Impaired driving charges in this region are tried in District Court, and which building you report to depends on where you were stopped. These are the courthouses we appear in:
Knowing the room matters more in DUI practice than in almost any other kind of case. Judges in these counties differ on probation before judgment, on alcohol education requirements, and on what a workable disposition looks like for a first offense. We have spent decades in front of these benches, and we build a case around the courthouse it is actually going to be heard in.
How Palumbo, Palumbo, and Lovelace Defends a Maryland DUI
Our criminal work is led by an attorney who spent time on the prosecution side, which means we read a DUI file the way the State reads it. We know what the prosecutor needs to prove, where the proof tends to be thin, and which cases are worth trying rather than negotiating.
- You work directly with an attorney from the first call through the last court date.
- We review the stop, the field sobriety tests, the breath or blood evidence, and the paperwork before we talk strategy.
- We appear at both the District Court case and the MVA hearing.
- We have practiced in Southern Maryland for more than 50 years, roughly 40 of them from the same Fort Washington office.
We will tell you honestly what your case looks like. If the right outcome is a negotiated disposition that protects your license and keeps a conviction off your record, we will say so. If it is a trial, we are ready for that too.
Questions People Ask Us After a DUI Arrest
DUI Defense Across Prince George's County and Southern Maryland
Southern Maryland is where we live and where we raise our families, not a market we drive into for court dates. We defend impaired driving charges from Fort Washington and Upper Marlboro through Charles County, from DUI defense in Calvert County and the Prince Frederick courthouse to citations written in St. Mary's and Anne Arundel.
Call us before your court date, and before the MVA deadline passes. The first conversation is free, and it usually takes about fifteen minutes to tell you what you are actually facing.