Rabun County DUI Lawyer

Attorney Bill Hardman

If you have been arrested for a DUI in Clayton, Georgia or Rabun County

If you are charged with a DUI in Rabun County, you should to speak with an experienced Georgia DUI attorney to make sure that you do not miss any important deadlines for challenging the suspension of your driver's license or deadlines in your criminal case. Your case may begin in the Rabun County Probate Court. Rabun County Probate Court is located in the main Rabun County Courthouse in downtown Clayton, GA.

Rabun County Map

Police Agencies in Rabun County:
Rabun County has multiple police agencies that all patrol and make DUI and other arrests. The Rabun County Sheriff's Office, Dillard Police, Mountain City Police, Clayton City Police, Sky Valley Police and the Georgia State Patrol all operate within Rabun County. 

Submit a question about your Clayton, GA DUI Case

30-Day Letter

The first deadline in many DUI cases is to send a 30-day letter. You only have 30 days from the date of your arrest to request this hearing in the Office of State Administrative hearings. Even though your permit last for 45 days, you must send in this request for a hearing or apply for an Ignition Interlock Device Limited Permit within 30 days or you will potentially be subject to a 1 year suspension of your license with no limited driving permit available. This hearing only pertains to the administrative suspension of your driver's license. You will also have your criminal case in either Clayton Municipal Court or Rabun County Superior Court. This hearing will usually be scheduled about 30-45 days after you request the hearing through the 30-day letter. 

Arraignment

Your first hearing in your criminal case is usually your arraignment. At your arraignment you have the right to have your charges read aloud to you in court or you may waive a reading of the charges and enter your plea of guilty or not guilty. An experienced Georgia DUI lawyer should request all of the evidence the State has against you in your case through the discovery process. Only after all of the evidence in your case (incident reports, DUI field sobriety video, witness statements, etc.) will you be able to make an informed decision about how to proceed in your criminal case. One of the most difficult things for an experienced DUI lawyer to witness is watching unrepresented DUI defendants simply plead guilty in court without ever hiring an attorney or having their case reviewed by someone who knows what challenges can be made in a DUI case. 

Motions and Trials

The next phases of your DUI case will be either motion hearings or a trial. A typical motion hearing in a DUI case may be a motion to suppress illegally obtained evidence. There may be evidence in your case that an officer has in his/her reports that is inadmissible at trial because it was not properly obtained. It is important to keep illegal evidence out of your criminal case so that a judge or a jury does not consider this evidence when determining your guilt or innocence. Trial is the final step. You can either have a bench trial in front of a judge or a jury in front of 6 people in your DUI case. 

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Rabun County Probate Court
​25 Courthouse Square, Suite 215
Clayton, GA 30525
https://rabuncounty.ga.gov/probatecourt

The Rabun County Courthouse is located at:
25 Courthouse Square 
Clayton, GA 30525