If you're facing a DUI charge in Colorado, you already know the system moves fast and hits hard. What you might not know is that the rules governing your case could change while you're still dealing with it.
As the 2025 legislative session ramps up, several areas of DUI law are on the table for potential modifications. Understanding where lawmakers might go with these changes matters because it could affect your defense strategy, your license, and your freedom.
Express Consent & Refusal Consequences
Colorado's express consent law says that by driving on state roads, you've already agreed to chemical testing if an officer suspects impairment. Refuse that test, and the DMV can revoke your license for a year or longer—completely separate from any criminal charges. This administrative punishment is handled by the Division of Motor Vehicles, not the courts, and it proceeds on its own timeline.
Legislators frequently revisit this area because it sits at the intersection of public safety concerns and individual rights.
Here's what defense attorneys are monitoring:
- Revocation Periods: Current law imposes specific timeframes for license revocations based on refusal. Bills could lengthen or shorten these periods.
- Hearing Procedures: The process for challenging a revocation through a DMV hearing might see procedural changes that affect how quickly you can contest the action.
- Notice Requirements: How and when the DMV must notify you of revocation could be modified, impacting your ability to request a hearing within the seven-day window.
- Restoration Conditions: Requirements for getting your license back after a refusal revocation could become more or less burdensome.
If you refused testing, pay attention to any legislative movement here. Changes to express consent laws can affect pending cases, and your attorney needs to know what procedural protections or challenges apply to your specific situation.
Ignition Interlock Device Requirements
Colorado already has extensive ignition interlock requirements, but this remains one of the most frequently amended areas of DUI law. An IID is essentially a breathalyzer wired into your vehicle's ignition system—you blow clean or the car doesn't start. Currently, even first-time offenders may face IID requirements, and repeat offenders definitely will.
Expect potential changes in these areas:
- Mandatory Installation Periods: The duration you're required to have an IID could increase, particularly for repeat offenses or cases involving high BAC levels.
- Eligibility for Removal: The criteria for early removal of an IID might become stricter or more lenient depending on legislative priorities.
- Monitoring and Reporting: How violations (failed tests, tampering, circumvention attempts) are reported to authorities and what consequences follow could see modification.
- Restricted License Access: The conditions under which you can drive with an IID during a license suspension might change.
IID laws directly impact your ability to drive legally during and after your case. If legislators expand these requirements, more people will face longer periods with devices installed and higher associated costs. Your defense attorney should factor in current IID requirements when negotiating plea agreements or advising on trial strategy.
Drugged Driving Enforcement Mechanics
Marijuana legalization created enforcement challenges that lawmakers continue trying to address. Unlike alcohol, where .08 BAC provides a clear legal threshold; THC testing doesn't correlate as neatly with impairment. This creates both prosecution problems and defense opportunities.
Legislative attention is likely to focus on:
- Testing Protocols: Standardization of blood and urine testing procedures for THC and other substances.
- Officer Training Requirements: Expanded Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) programs and Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE) certification.
- Evidentiary Standards: What test results can be admitted and how they can be challenged in court.
- Time Limits for Testing: How quickly blood must be drawn and tested to be admissible.
Here's what matters for your defense: the science behind drugged driving charges remains contested. Unlike alcohol breathalyzers, drug testing often requires blood draws, which introduces Fourth Amendment concerns about warrants and consent. The presence of THC metabolites doesn't prove impairment at the time of driving—a key defense point that better testing protocols won't necessarily resolve.
If you're facing marijuana DUI charges, your attorney should be scrutinizing every step of the testing process. Chain of custody, calibration records, officer qualifications, and the specific metabolites detected all create potential defense angles.
Sentencing Enhancements & Public Safety Packages
DUI sentencing often gets swept into broader criminal justice legislation. "Public safety" packages frequently include provisions that increase penalties for repeat offenders or cases involving aggravating factors. These bills typically pass with bipartisan support because no legislator wants to appear soft on impaired driving.
Watch for:
- Felony Threshold Changes: Currently, a fourth DUI within a certain timeframe becomes a felony. That threshold could drop to a third offense.
- Mandatory Minimum Sentences: Jail time requirements for various DUI offense levels could increase.
- Enhanced Penalties for Aggravating Factors: Higher BAC levels, accidents involving injury, or minors in the vehicle could trigger longer sentences or mandatory treatment.
- Lookback Periods: How far back prior offenses count toward enhanced sentencing might expand.
Enhanced sentencing provisions directly affect plea negotiations. If mandatory minimums increase, prosecutors have less incentive to offer favorable deals. Your attorney's ability to negotiate depends partly on which sentences the court must impose and which remain discretionary.
What This Means for Your Case
DUI law doesn't change dramatically overnight, but incremental modifications add up. Express consent rules shift, IID requirements expand, drugged driving enforcement evolves, and sentencing gets tougher. Each change creates new legal landscape that affects how cases are defended.
If you're currently facing charges, your defense strategy should account for both existing law and potential changes. Some modifications apply retroactively or to pending cases. Others only affect new arrests. An attorney who stays current on legislative developments can identify opportunities and anticipate prosecution arguments that emerge from new statutory language.
The system assumes you're guilty the moment you're arrested. It revokes your license administratively before any criminal conviction. It imposes IID requirements that cost thousands of dollars. It allows blood draws and chemical tests that invade your bodily integrity. Every piece of DUI legislation tends to expand these powers rather than restrict them.
Your defense requires someone who understands not just what the law is today, but where it's headed tomorrow. Don't navigate this alone, and don't assume the rules that applied to someone else's case last year still apply to yours now.
Protect Your Rights & Your Future
Facing DUI charges means dealing with complex administrative processes, criminal penalties, and potential legislative changes that could affect your case. The decisions you make in the days and weeks after your arrest will shape the outcome. You need an attorney who knows Colorado DUI law inside and out, who tracks legislative developments, and who fights for your rights at every stage.
Many attorneys claim to have experience "handling" serious DUI cases, but few have the specific knowledge, training, and passion that is required for complex charges. As one of Denver's top DUI defense law firms, The Orr Law Firm can provide you with first-class representation and a level of service that is rare in the legal field. Our firm's DUI defense attorneys fight to defend the rights and driving privileges of our clients from the moment they are arrested to the conclusion of each case, before the gavel falls.
Don't wait for things to get worse. Call (303) 747-4247 or contact us online today to discuss your case and start building your defense.