Menu
Menu
After a DUII arrest, officers usually hand you several important documents before release. These papers often arrive during an extremely stressful moment and can be difficult to understand. This guide explains your Oregon DUII paperwork, including what those documents are, why they matter, and critical deadlines to protect your rights.
The first and most important document in DUII cases is the unusually long ticket called the citation. The citation will generally be formatted as follows from top to bottom:
Follow the section names on the left side of the citation. Those sections include “Defendant,” “Time/Place,” “Rel. Info,” and “Offense(s).” Mistakes in these sections will not have an effect on your case, but typos will end up in the court’s file (like a misspelled name).
The sections that are most important are the “Offense(s)” section and the “Your Court Appearance, Date, Time, and Location” section. The offenses section will list the crimes the officer is recommending to the prosecutor. These are merely recommendations; the prosecutor makes the final call on what misdemeanor or felony charges will be filed with the court.
The Court Appearance section is crucial. Unlike traffic tickets, where a personal appearance is not required if you call and pay the ticket, criminal citations are a “Must Appear” citation. Failing to appear on that date may result in a warrant for your arrest, a new misdemeanor charge of Failure to Appear on a Criminal Citation, and disqualifying you from the DUII diversion program. If you live far from the courthouse, an attorney may be able to request a remote appearance or an appearance through counsel for that date.
Finally, the last half of the citation (the backside) is not applicable to a DUII citation. The citation may include the following information:
“A COMPLAINT WILL BE FILED AGAINST YOU IN THE COURT SHOWN ON THE FRONT OF THIS CITATION. READ CAREFULLY”
It will have four options, but none of them apply to a DUII citation. That is why this section states:
CRIME. YOU MUST APPEAR at the court on the day and time written on the front.
Some citations will have a section “for DMV Only.” Those sections do not apply to a DUII charge. For traffic tickets, that section can be used by the court as the “judgment” and forwarded to the DMV if the person is convicted.
IMPORTANT: Some officers will issue one citation for criminal charges and a separate citation for traffic violations. For example, if an officer stopped you for speeding and then arrested you for DUII, the officer may issue a DUII citation and a separate citation for Violation of the Basic Speed Rule. If the officer sees an open container of alcohol or you refuse a breath test, those are other violation-level offenses that can be filed with the court. Always check each citation for your court date, as they can be for different courts and different dates.
If you have a citation for refusing a breath test that is separate from your DUII citation, we highly recommend making an appearance on that citation to avoid a default judgment or a guilty finding.
If you submitted to or refused a breath test, you likely received a document entitled “Oregon Department of State Police Forensic Services Division Breath Test Report.” Oregon uses the Intoxilyzer 8000 and does not use roadside Portable Breath Test (PBT) devices. This breath test report includes the test date, the instrument (always a CMI Intoxilyzer – Alcohol Analyzer Model 8000 in Oregon), and the device’s location and serial number.
Oregon law requires that the device accept two breath samples from the person (after a 15-minute waiting period). The Intoxilyzer 8000 goes through the following testing process:
The “Test Result” will always be the lower of the two samples from the driver, not an average of the two. If you refused the test, the “test result” section will show “refused.”
If the officer asked you to take a breath test and you either refused or provided a breath sample, the officer would also have given you a carbon copy (yellow) of the Oregon Implied Consent Combined Report (ICCR).
The top of the ICCR should have your contact information and the date and time of arrest. There is a standard notice that you were arrested for DUII and asked to submit to a test under the Motorist Implied Consent Law. That section is standard and less important than the other sections.
The first section is BREATH TEST FAILURE. If you took a breath test and the result was 0.08% or higher, that is a failure. That box then describes the license suspension period (a first-offense suspension is 90 days; a second offense within 5 years results in a 1-year suspension). It also includes information for Commercial Motor Vehicles, which don’t apply until you have a CDL and were driving a Commercial Motor Vehicle at the time of the DUII.
The second section is TEST REFUSAL. If you refused a breath, blood, or urine test, the license suspension period is significantly longer. A first offense is for 1 year, a second offense within 5 years is for 3 years, and refusals of a breath test and a urine test are consecutive to each other (so, a first refusal of both a breath and a urine test results in a license suspension for 2 years).
There is a section with a box for whether the person submitted to a breath test and had a result under .08%. The officer’s signature goes after that section. The section after the officer’s signature is the fine print everyone misses.
Also on the front of the ICCR is the Hearing Requests section. This section confirms to you that (A) you can request a hearing to contest the license suspension if you failed or refused a test; (B) the request must be submitted to the DMV within 10 days of the arrest; and (C) You can submit the hearing request on the DMV’s website. You can do this through the DMV2U licensee portal: https://dmv2u.oregon.gov/eServices/_/
If your vehicle was towed after a DUII arrest, you should receive a tow form. Read that carefully to recover your vehicle from impound. Expect the tow bill to be over $200.00. If any property was seized during the DUII arrest, the law enforcement officer will give you a property receipt. Property kept as evidence will remain with law enforcement until the case ends, while other property (wallet, keys, phone, etc.) is kept in safekeeping until your release. Do not lose these documents because you need them to recover your property.
If the officer gets a warrant for a breath sample or a blood draw, you will receive a copy of the search warrant. It is usually one or two pages long and indicates which judge reviewed the officer’s affidavit before granting the warrant. The warrant itself will not include a narrative of the incident, but we will receive a search warrant affidavit during discovery to see what the officer wrote to obtain the warrant.
DUII cases in Salem come with a myriad of paperwork that can be difficult to understand. We have written separately about DUII diversion eligibility, hardship permits, and DMV hearings on our website. Let us know if you would like our help with your DUII case.
–Updated April 2, 2026 by Marcus A. Gunn
1. Question: Should I request a DMV hearing, even if I think I’m guilty?
A: Always Yes. Requesting the hearing has no harm to your case and preserves your right to challenge the license suspension. Losing the hearing does not increase the suspension period and has no effect on the criminal case.
2. Should I request an in-person hearing or a telephone hearing?
A: In-person. Telephone hearings allow the officer to call in, whereas an in-person hearing requires them to come to a hearing office. While our office has seen law enforcement fail to appear at both in-person and telephone hearings (thereby defeating the suspension), we strongly recommend in-person hearings in most cases.
3. Do I need to go to court for a DUI, or can I just pay a fine?
A: Yes, you need to “appear” in court for a DUI. Unlike traffic tickets, which allow you to appear by paying the fine or scheduling a payment plan, DUI cases require more than that. An appearance is usually your physical presence at court with (or without) an attorney. However, misdemeanor cases do allow defendants to “appear through counsel,” meaning the attorney goes to court but the client does not. It is also normal for defendants who live far away from the court to request phone or video appearances.
4. I received two citations after my DUI arrest. Why did I get two, and what does that mean?
A: It is common for officers to place misdemeanor (or felony) offenses on one citation and traffic offenses on a different citation. In Marion County, officers regularly cite DUII arrestees to the Circuit Court for criminal charges and the Justice Court for traffic citations. For example, if you had an open beer can in the car and are arrested for DUII, a Marion County Sheriff could give you a citation for DUII to the Marion County Circuit Court, and Violation of Open Container law (B Violation) to the Marion County Justice Court. Always check both citations, as they may be from two different courts and have two different appearance dates.
5. What is the difference between a maximum fine and a presumptive fine?
A. A presumptive fine is the “normal fine” for traffic tickets, while the maximum fine is the top that a court can order. On traffic citations, the ticket will list a presumptive fine. Violation of Open Container law is a Class B Violation, and has a presumptive fine of $265.00. Careless Driving is a Class B Violation for most circumstances, but a Class A Violation if the person’s driving resulted in a collision. Most Class A Violations have a presumptive fine of $440.00. However, a violation for Breath Test Refusal is a Class A Violation with an increased presumptive fine of $650.00.
Misdemeanors carry maximum fines, and the court has discretion to impose a fine within the minimum ($100) and the maximum ($6,250 or $10,000, depending on the DUII charge) for a charge.
📞 (503) 362-4866
📍 Serving Salem and all of Oregon