An OWI arrest in Menomonie starts two clocks at the same moment, and neither one waits for you. One runs on your license: whether you refused the test or failed it, you generally have just 10 days from your notice to request a hearing or review — and if that window closes, the suspension or revocation takes effect on its own 30 days after the Notice is issued. The other runs on your case in court. Mays Law Office defends OWI charges — the offense most people search as DUI or DWI, though Wisconsin’s statutory charge is OWI — along with drugged-driving allegations, throughout Menomonie and Dunn County. We work from our Middleton office and appear where Menomonie cases are decided, including the Dunn County Judicial Center downtown. Call 608-305-4518 for a free consultation before you say anything to anyone else about your arrest.

OWI Attorneys in Menomonie, WI

Attorney Stephen E. Mays has practiced law in Wisconsin since 1995 and was named a 2025 Wisconsin Super Lawyer in DUI/DWI defense. He belongs to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Wisconsin Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Dane County Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, and the State Bar of Wisconsin. Menomonie is a college town as much as an industrial one, and that shows up in its OWI cases: with a large under-21 student population, some stops turn on Wisconsin’s “absolute sobriety” rule for younger drivers, where the line is not 0.08 but any measurable alcohol at all. Knowing which rule applies, and where the charge will land, shapes the defense from the first day.

An OWI lawyer earns their fee in the specifics — whether the stop was lawful, whether the field sobriety tests actually show what the officer claims, whether the blood draw held up under the Fourth Amendment, and whether every deadline that protects your license was met. Those are the questions a case needs answered from the start.

When to Call Our Menomonie, WI OWI Lawyers

Reach out right away if any of this fits your situation:

• You were handed a “Notice of Intent to Revoke” after refusing a breath or blood test. You have 10 days from that Notice to request a refusal hearing in writing — let the window close and the revocation takes effect automatically 30 days after the Notice, and you forfeit the statutory chance to contest it.
• You took the test and the result was over the limit. That triggers a Notice of Intent to Suspend, and you have 10 days from that Notice to request administrative review — otherwise a 6-month administrative suspension begins 30 days after the Notice.
• You already have an OWI on your record. A second offense is generally a criminal misdemeanor carrying 5 days to 6 months in jail when the prior was within the last 10 years. A third runs 45 days to a year and is a crime as well. A fourth is a Class H felony.
• A child under 16 was riding with you. That one fact turns even a first offense into a criminal misdemeanor — a $350 to $1,100 fine and a mandatory 5 days to 6 months in jail.
• You are under 21. Wisconsin’s absolute-sobriety rule makes driving with any measurable alcohol its own violation for younger drivers, and it can carry license consequences even when your reading is well below 0.08.
• Someone was hurt. Causing injury to another person while intoxicated makes even a first offense a crime, and great bodily harm or death brings separate felony charges.
• You hold a CDL. A single OWI conviction — even in your own car — disqualifies your commercial privileges for a year, and a second lifetime conviction ends them for good.
• You were at 0.15 or above. On a first offense, that reading brings a mandatory one-year ignition interlock order.

What an OWI Conviction Costs in Wisconsin

Wisconsin prosecutes drunk driving as OWI — DUI and DWI are the search terms, not separate charges. (A single stop can also produce a companion PAC count for the alcohol concentration itself; a driver found guilty of both is sentenced on one conviction.) Penalties climb with each prior:

• First offense. Civil forfeiture, not a crime. $150–$300, plus the mandatory $435 surcharge. No jail. License revoked 6–9 months.
• Second offense. Criminal misdemeanor if the prior happened within 10 years. Jail: 5 days to 6 months.
• Third offense. Jail: 45 days to 1 year. From here on, priors count for life — earlier OWIs, refusal revocations, OWI-related injury convictions, and qualifying out-of-state convictions all come back into play.
• Fourth offense. Class H felony. 60 days to 6 years of imprisonment.
• Minor under 16 in the car. Even a first offense becomes a criminal misdemeanor: a $350–$1,100 fine and 5 days–6 months in jail.
• Ignition interlock. Required in three situations only: a test refusal, a first offense with a BAC of 0.15 or higher, or a repeat offense.
• Your license. Revocation accompanies every conviction. An occupational license can cover work, school, and treatment driving — but eligibility is not automatic. It depends on your suspension type, interlock status, the rest of your driving record, and DMV approval.
• Deadlines. Refused the evidentiary test? 10 days from the Notice of Intent to Revoke to request a refusal hearing. Failed it (the station breath or blood test, not the roadside PBT)? 10 days from the Notice of Intent to Suspend to request administrative review.

Miss a deadline and the license consequences run on autopilot.

The fine on the citation is the smallest number in an OWI case. Wisconsin adds a mandatory $435 surcharge to every OWI conviction, and the court-ordered alcohol and drug assessment typically runs $165 to $500 depending on the county. If an interlock is ordered, plan on roughly $50 to $150 for installation and $60 to $100 a month while the order lasts. Getting your license back costs another $200 reinstatement fee, and SR-22 high-risk insurance keeps raising the price for years afterward. Add it together and a typical first offense lands between $4,000 and well over $10,000 all-in. Those are typical ranges, not quotes — your county, your vendor, and your insurer set the real numbers.

How OWI Cases Move Through Menomonie and Dunn County Courts

Menomonie is the Dunn County seat. Criminal OWI cases from Dunn County are heard at the Dunn County Circuit Court in the Judicial Center at 615 Stokke Parkway — right in town; a civil first offense may be handled in municipal or circuit court depending on the citing agency. Whether a first-offense citation begins in municipal court or in circuit court depends on the agency that issued it — a first offense written by some agencies is prosecuted as a non-criminal municipal ordinance violation, while others charge it directly in circuit court. In a municipal proceeding the burden of proof is “clear, satisfactory and convincing” evidence, not the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard that governs a criminal case. There is no single rule that routes every first offense the same way, so one of the first things to pin down is exactly where your citation landed and who is prosecuting it.

A criminal OWI — a repeat offense, or a first offense involving a minor passenger or injury — is filed in the Dunn County Circuit Court at the Judicial Center and prosecuted by the county’s District Attorney’s Office. Because Menomonie draws a large under-21 population, some cases also involve the absolute-sobriety rule for younger drivers, which follows its own track and can carry license consequences even where a standard adult OWI would not apply. Which agency stopped you can affect the reports, the video, and how the case is built, which is one of the first things our Wisconsin OWI defense practice sorts out.

The criminal track follows a set path. The arresting agency forwards its file to the District Attorney, who issues a criminal complaint; you make an initial appearance; contested issues get litigated at motion hearings; and if a pretrial conference produces no resolution, the case goes to trial, where the State must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

How We Defend OWI Charges

Prosecutors must build an OWI case in layers. Defending one means testing every layer:

• The stop. Reasonable suspicion is required to stop you. Probable cause is required to arrest you. A defect in either may support a motion to suppress the resulting evidence.
• Field sobriety tests. The three standardized tests are error-prone. The validation research excluded people 65 and older and those 50 or more pounds overweight. Arthritis, inner-ear problems, leg injuries, cold, wind, wet pavement, footwear — each can produce false “clues.”
• The breath number. For most drivers 0.08 is the line — drivers behind the wheel of a commercial vehicle, under-21 drivers, drivers under an interlock order, and anyone with three or more priors face stricter limits — and close readings invite challenge. Chemical-test reliability is a core defense front, and after you take the agency’s primary test you can request its alternative test free of charge, or arrange your own testing at your own expense.
• The blood draw. Drawing blood is a Fourth Amendment search. In State v. Prado (2021), the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the presumption that an incapacitated driver consents. Exceptions like exigent circumstances can still justify a draw, but a warrantless draw without valid consent faces serious scrutiny.
• The operation element. The State must prove you operated the vehicle — physically manipulated or activated the controls needed to put it in motion. Parked-car and sleeping-driver cases often turn on this element.
• The license track. Refusal hearings and administrative reviews run parallel to the main case. Both carry 10-day request windows that run from the Notice.

No single defense fits every arrest. The right one comes out of your reports, your video, and your facts — call 608-305-4518 to start that review before those details go cold.

We also handle the license side of the case — refusal hearings and occupational license applications. An occupational license is not automatic; eligibility depends on the type of suspension, any interlock requirement, other suspensions on your record, and DMV approval, so the paperwork is worth getting right the first time.

Menomonie OWI Questions We Hear Most

Will I go to jail for a first-offense OWI in Wisconsin?

For a standard first offense, no. Wisconsin is the only state that treats a first OWI as a non-criminal civil forfeiture — a fine and license revocation, but no jail. That changes fast if a child under 16 was in the car — a criminal misdemeanor with a mandatory 5 days to 6 months in jail — or if anyone else was injured, which also criminalizes the charge.

Where will my Menomonie OWI case actually be heard?

Menomonie is the Dunn County seat. Criminal OWI cases from Dunn County are heard at the Dunn County Circuit Court in the Judicial Center at 615 Stokke Parkway — right in town. A civil first offense may be handled in municipal or circuit court depending on the citing agency, so it may be prosecuted as a non-criminal municipal ordinance violation or filed directly in the Dunn County Circuit Court. Any criminal OWI — a repeat offense, or a first offense with a minor passenger or injury — is filed in the Dunn County Circuit Court and prosecuted by the county’s District Attorney. Nailing down which court and which prosecutor your case landed in front of is one of the first steps.

I’m under 21. How is my OWI different?

Wisconsin holds drivers under 21 to an “absolute sobriety” standard: it is a violation to drive with any measurable alcohol at all, not just at 0.08. That under-21 rule is separate from an adult OWI and can carry license consequences even when the reading is well below the adult limit — but it is not counted as a prior OWI against you later under Wisconsin’s offense-counting statute. If your reading was at or above 0.08, though, you face standard adult OWI exposure on top of everything else. Which rule applies to your stop changes what is at stake, so it is worth sorting out early.

Is a lawyer really worth it for a civil first offense?

The first offense is where the record starts. It cannot be expunged, it raises your insurance for years, it disqualifies commercial driving privileges for a year if you hold a CDL, and it sets the counting clock — a second OWI within 10 years is a crime, and it counts forever once you reach a third. Challenging a weak stop or an unreliable test is often the cheapest insurance you will ever buy.

Is refusing the test better than failing it?

They are two different problems, not a loophole and a trap. Refusal is a stand-alone violation: a first refusal brings a 1-year license revocation, a mandatory alcohol assessment, and a mandatory 1-year ignition interlock — and the refusal itself can be used as evidence against you in the OWI case. Failing the evidentiary chemical test — the breath, blood, or urine test after arrest, not the roadside preliminary breath test — instead triggers a 6-month administrative suspension. Either way, the clock is the same: 10 days to request a refusal hearing or administrative review, or the license consequence takes effect on its own 30 days after the Notice is issued. Which situation you are in changes the strategy — it does not change the urgency.

Get a Free Consultation

Se Habla Español — Call 608-305-4518

Whether this is a civil first offense or a felony repeat charge, the days right after a Menomonie OWI arrest are the ones that matter most. Call 608-305-4518 or contact Mays Law Office online for a free consultation. Mays Law Office represents clients across Wisconsin from our office in Middleton — including Menomonie and Dunn County. Mays Law Office, LLC — 6405 Century Ave STE 103, Middleton, WI 53562.