Originally Posted by
Justfor1 
Wicked, I qualify for this forum also because of a family member who is out of control at the moment for drugs. Yes, I'm also a recovering person. When I received my first DUI in 1999 I was given supervision. It's not considered a conviction & my car insurance did not go up at all. I go to AA so you can imagine the amount of drunk drivers I know. My friend has 6 DUI convictions, 10 Driving While Revoked & has spent about 2 years all together in prison for his crimes. I have my license back after 3 DUI's and I have a 10year old car & my mandatory minimum state insurance is very cheap. Every state is different but the penalties are not as severe as people think. Of course, they should be. To the OP, I doubt his first DUI will cost 15,000. I spent less than that for all 3 of my DUI's. I hope if your husband doesn't hit AA, you still attend Al-anon.
Yes, I am attending Al Anon. We live in AZ, think of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and we have the strictest DUI laws in the country. DUI offenders do go to jail here and get work release during the day. My therapist's friend got a DUI 4 years ago and it cost her $25,000 total by the time it was all finished. She did 45 days in jail.
So, I do believe it can cost up to $15,000. Heck, it's already cost us $5000 between lawyer retainer fees, impound fees, and the fact that the towing company messed up our wheels on our car and we had to get new tires and new wheels which cost us about $1000. And, we haven't even paid the court fees and jail fees which could run about $4000. Throw in random testing, the ignition interlock device(now required by ALL DUI offenders in the state of AZ) and the lease cost on that every month, etc. I have a feeling that it can be quite costly.