By Tony Gordon
Daily Herald Legal Affairs Writer

Being charged with and convicted of driving under the influence can be a terribly expensive proposition, a financial hole that can take years to climb out of.   A major expense for every driver charged, win or lose, is the cost of legal defense, except for indigent defendants who are afforded a public defender at taxpayer cost.

Attorneys and judges agree it is foolhardy for someone to defend himself or herself against a DUI charge.  Lawyers do not quote exact fees to anyone other than prospective clients, but a group of attorneys who practice DUI defense law in Lake, Cook, McHenry and DuPage counties agreed to provide the Daily Herald with a general range of the expense of representation.

The circumstances of a case - such as the evidence against a person, his or her prior record and whether or not the case goes to trial - contribute to the cost of defending a DUI charge.

In general, a first-time offender can expect to enter the market for around $1,500 to $2,500. Fees begin to creep up toward $10,000 if a person has been involved in a crash in which someone has been injured, police have results of a blood-alcohol test and the person has prior DUI convictions.

In those types of cases, the number of hours an attorney must devote to court appearances and preparation can increase dramatically when compared with a first-time offense case.

"For a first-timer with a fairly simple case, $1,500 is about right," said one attorney. "If there is evidence against him and the only chance to win is to go to trial, it could take $7,500 for a bench trial, and $10,000 is not out of the question if we have to pick a jury."

Assuming a person is convicted, fines and a variety of court costs will be assessed. All set by state law, the fines increase based on a person's record, and some of the court costs increase based on the fine.

First and second-time offenders are convicted of misdemeanor crimes and are subject to fines up to $2,500. On third or subsequent charges, prosecutors have the option of charging aggravated DUI, a felony with fines up to $25,000 and a penalty of one to three years in prison or probation.

Standard court costs on each DUI conviction include $5 for court administration, $5 for court document storage, $15 for court security, $50 for the circuit clerk's office and $30 for the county in which the conviction takes place.

The police agency that arrested a person assesses a $100 fee, and a convicted drunken driver placed on probation must pay a $25 monthly probation service fee.

All persons convicted of drunken driving must undergo an alcohol abuse evaluation and a level of counseling related to the results of that evaluation.

The Northern Illinois Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse is the second-largest provider of court-ordered alcohol counseling in the state, serving Lake, McHenry and northern Cook counties.

George O'Connor, the agency's court liaison, said the evaluation costs $100. A person found to be at no risk of being an alcoholic must complete a 10-hour risk reduction course at a cost of $75.

Those found to have a moderate risk of an alcohol problem are sent through a 22-hour course of classroom training and group counseling at a cost of $488, O'Connor said, while those seen as having a significant risk must take a 30-hour course for $700.

The people having the highest risk of becoming an alcoholic must complete 75 hours of counseling at a cost of $1,700, he said.

By far the longest-term expense attached to a DUI conviction is in the cost of auto insurance, which is mandatory for all drivers in the state.

Dan Kummer, manager of personal auto insurance for the National Independent Insurers Association in Des Plaines, said a DUI conviction has significant impact on a driver's insurance rates, and several convictions make a bad situation worse.

Kummer said in many cases a person holding a policy with one of the premium insurers - the largest companies that can offer the lowest rates to people with good driving records - will be dropped for being convicted of DUI. Such a move forces people to seek insurance with one of what is known as "nonstandard companies," Kummer said. Those are companies that provide insurance to drivers with less-sparkling records.

A second or third DUI conviction within a five- to seven-year period can send a person shopping in what is known as the residual market, Kummer said. Those are last-resort insurers with the highest premiums.

It can take three to five years of driving with no violations to restore a person's suitability for the premium market, he said.

Because of the several variables involved in calculating auto insurance rates - such as the type of car driven, where a person lives and a driver's record other than DUI convictions - no precise formula exists for calculation of insurance rate impact.

But Ana Compain-Romero, spokeswoman for premium insurer State Farm Insurance based in downstate Bloomington, said a person dropped from a top-line company to a nonstandard can see as much as an 80 percent increase in the yearly insurance cost.

"Each case is different, and depending on the circumstances every State Farm customer convicted of DUI will not be dropped," Compain-Romero said.

"But falling from a premium insurer to a nonstandard can be as much as an 80 percent increase, and to go from there to a residual can be another 80 to 100 percent over that."