Your court case is one fight. Your driver's license is a second, separate fight with its own deadline — and it doesn't wait for the courtroom. Rev. RJ Dieken, Esq. defends both, across 30+ Montana counties, and travels to you.
Free consultation available after confirmation of case details and attorney availability · 7 days a week
You don't need to figure out the whole case right now. You need to protect your options. That comes down to three moves.
The temporary permit, the suspension notice, the citation — the dates printed on those documents are where your deadlines come from. Photograph everything and put the originals somewhere safe.
No statements to officers, no explanations to the prosecutor's office, no posts online. Anything said now can only narrow your options later. Silence costs nothing.
Your first court appearance can come within 72 hours of arrest. Walking in after an attorney has already examined the stop, the test, and the paperwork is a very different position than walking in cold.
A Montana DUI moves on a schedule most people have never seen before. Here it is, plainly.
The arresting officer's report, the chemical test result (or the refusal), and the license paperwork are typically forwarded to the county attorney and the state within a day of the arrest. The prosecution's review begins before yours does — unless you change that.
Before you post bail, read this: a first-offense DUI in Montana carries a mandatory minimum of 24 hours in jail — and time already served generally counts toward it. Bailing out at hour six can mean coming back to serve that day later anyway. It's often worth a phone call before posting bail.
Your first court appearance on a misdemeanor DUI typically comes within 72 hours of arrest — sometimes sooner. This is also the best window to lock down evidence that fades: dash-cam and body-cam footage, breath-machine calibration logs, witness memory. Early defense work here shapes everything downstream.
If you refused the breath or blood test, Montana's implied consent law (§ 61-8-402) gives you 30 days from the refusal to request a hearing on the automatic license suspension. Requesting that hearing preserves something important: in some cases, it's how you may be able to get your license back. Miss the window and even that chance is gone — no matter how the criminal case turns out.
These are the statutory ranges. The gap between the minimum and the maximum is where defense work matters most.
| Offense | Jail | Fine | License | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st (misdemeanor) | 24 hrs – 6 mo | $600 – $1,000 | 6-month suspension | Interlock possible |
| 2nd | 7 days – 1 yr | $1,200 – $2,000 | 1-year suspension | Interlock required |
| 3rd | 30 days – 1 yr | $2,500 – $5,000 | 1-year suspension | Treatment required |
| 4th (felony) | Up to 5 yrs prison | Up to $10,000 | Extended | Permanent felony record |
A charge is a set of claims, and every claim rests on procedure. These are the pressure points a defense review examines in every Montana DUI file:
No lawful reason to pull the vehicle over means everything gathered afterward can be suppressed.
Weak, vague, or contradicted officer observations undercut the arrest that everything else depends on.
Calibration logs, maintenance history, and operator certification — a bad record can keep the number out.
These tests have strict administration standards. Done wrong, the results carry no legal weight.
In refusal cases: were the consequences properly explained before the test was requested? Often they weren't.
Montana has no per se THC limit. Detection in blood hours later is not proof of impairment at the wheel — making marijuana DUIs among the most defensible charges filed.
Based in Billings, licensed across Montana, and built as a mobile practice on purpose: DUI arrests happen in small counties as often as big ones, and the defense should show up either way. Rev. RJ Dieken, Esq. meets clients where they are — their town, their courthouse, or virtually — seven days a week.
Before private practice, he worked as a Montana public defender — which means he has sat on the defense side of hundreds of state prosecutions and knows, from the inside, how these cases get built and where they come apart.
He also hosts the Supreme Court Decision Syllabus Podcast — over 800 episodes of daily constitutional analysis since 2018. That habit of working through search, seizure, and due-process law every single day is not decoration; it's exactly the body of law that suppression motions in DUI cases live on. scotuspodcast.com
Mobile DUI defense across southern and western Montana — from Yellowstone County courtrooms in Billings to the smallest district courts in the region. If your county isn't below, call anyway; it's probably covered.
The consultation. Your situation reviewed, your real deadlines identified, your questions answered honestly.
First-offense DUI (misdemeanor, no aggravating factors). Case review, license-deadline work, arraignment, negotiations.
Marijuana / THC DUI. The most technical — and often most defensible — DUI charge in Montana.
Aggravated first offense — BAC 0.16+, test refusal, passenger under 16, or a minor accident.
Second-offense DUI (misdemeanor). Higher stakes, mandatory interlock exposure, tighter defense work.
Felony DUI (4th offense, or injury cases). Retainer-based: $10,000 up front at $350/hr — unused portion returned.
Flat fees may cover a bench trial for clients who keep the defense focused. Where aggressive motion practice serves the case, it's available and quoted separately. Fees are paid up front. Compare that to what a conviction quietly costs over the following years — fines, 3–5 years of raised insurance, interlock device costs, and lost wages during a suspension routinely exceed $5,000.
Not necessarily — but a suspension may already be in motion on the administrative side, separate from your court case. After a refusal, you have 30 days to request a hearing — and in some cases that's how you may be able to get your license back. Check the paperwork the officer handed you; the dates on it control your deadlines.
The statute allows 24 hours to 6 months for a first offense. Where a case actually lands inside that range depends on BAC, aggravating factors, and the quality of the defense. Many first offenses resolve without additional time beyond booking — but that outcome has to be earned, not assumed.
Often yes. A breath number is only as good as the stop, the machine, its calibration records, and the officer's procedure. If any link in that chain fails, the number can be kept out of evidence. That's exactly what a defense review looks for.
Flat fees, quoted up front: $6,500 for a standard first offense, $7,500 for marijuana/THC DUI, $8,500 for an aggravated first offense, $9,500 for a second offense. Felony DUI is retainer-based from $10,000. No hourly meter on flat-fee matters, and the consultation is free.
Yes. Legal to use is not legal to drive impaired. But THC cases are frequently the most defensible DUIs, because Montana has no per se THC number and detection in blood does not prove impairment at the wheel.
That's the point of a mobile practice. Rev. RJ Dieken, Esq. travels to clients and courthouses across 30+ counties in southern and western Montana. If your county isn't listed on this page, call anyway — it's likely covered.
Montana is zero-tolerance under 21: the limit is 0.02% BAC, and a first violation means a 90-day suspension and a $100–$500 fine — plus a record that can follow college, scholarship, and enlistment applications. Call before your child makes any further statements or appears at anything without counsel.
Or skip the form entirely: tap to call — 7 days a week, 7 AM to 8 PM.