An OWI arrest in De Pere starts two separate timelines the same night. One is the case against you in court. The other is the fight to keep your license, and it moves faster than most people expect: if you refused the test, the 10-day window to demand a refusal hearing runs from the Notice of Intent to Revoke; if you failed it, the 10-day window to request administrative review runs from the Notice of Intent to Suspend. Let those windows close and the suspension takes effect on its own — 30 days after the Notice of Intent to Suspend is issued. Mays Law Office defends OWI charges — the offense most people search as DUI or DWI, though Wisconsin’s statutory name is OWI — along with drugged-driving allegations. Mays Law Office represents clients across Wisconsin from our office in Middleton — including De Pere and Brown County. Call 608-305-4518 for a free consultation before you talk to anyone else about your arrest.

OWI Attorneys in De Pere, WI

Attorney Stephen E. Mays has practiced law in Wisconsin since 1995. 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. De Pere sits along the Fox River just south of Green Bay, and its cases move through the Brown County court system at the county seat. An OWI stop can come from any agency working these roads — city police, sheriff’s deputies, or the Wisconsin State Patrol. Knowing which agency made the stop, and where the charge will be filed, shapes the defense from the first day.

An OWI lawyer earns the fee in the details — whether the stop was lawful, whether the field sobriety tests show what the officer says they show, whether the blood draw survives Fourth Amendment scrutiny, and whether every deadline protecting your license was actually met. Those are the questions a case needs answered from the start, and we begin on them at the first call.

When to Call Our De Pere, WI OWI Lawyers

Reach out right away if any of this describes 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 — miss it and you forfeit the statutory chance to contest the revocation.
• You took the test and blew 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 takes effect 30 days after the Notice of Intent to Suspend is issued.
• You already have an OWI on your record. A second offense is generally a criminal misdemeanor when the prior falls inside the statutory 10-year counting window, carrying 5 days to 6 months in jail. A third runs 45 days to a year. A fourth is a Class H felony.
• A child under 16 was riding with you. That single 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.
• 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. One OWI conviction — even in your personal vehicle — disqualifies your commercial privileges for a year, and a second lifetime conviction ends them permanently.
• 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 writes its drunk-driving law under a single name — operating while intoxicated, or OWI. People search for DUI and DWI lawyers, but those are everyday labels for the same charge. What the charge costs you depends first on your history — and then on aggravating facts like a high BAC, a refusal, or a passenger under 16. A standard first offense is not a crime at all: it is a civil forfeiture of $150 to $300 plus a mandatory $435 surcharge, with no jail — but your license is revoked for six to nine months. A second offense becomes a criminal misdemeanor when the prior falls within the past ten years, carrying five days to six months in jail. At the third offense, the counting changes: every qualifying prior in your lifetime counts — including OWI convictions, implied-consent refusal revocations, OWI-related injury convictions, and comparable out-of-state offenses — and jail runs from 45 days up to a year. A fourth offense is a Class H felony punishable by 60 days to six years of imprisonment. Certain facts short-circuit that ladder entirely — a passenger under 16 turns even a first offense into a criminal misdemeanor with a $350-to-$1,100 fine and a mandatory five days to six months behind bars. An ignition interlock is required after a test refusal, a first offense at 0.15 or above, or any repeat offense. An occupational license may keep you driving to work, but eligibility is never automatic — it depends on the type of suspension, any interlock requirement, the rest of your record, and DMV approval. And whichever way your case starts, the license clocks run on their own notices: 10 days from the Notice of Intent to Revoke for a refusal hearing, and 10 days from the Notice of Intent to Suspend for administrative review.

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 De Pere and Brown County Courts

Which courtroom hears your case depends on how the charge is written, not on where you live. A civil first-offense OWI may be handled in municipal court or in circuit court, depending on the citing agency and the ordinance the officer charged under — there is no single default. When a first offense is contested in municipal court, the standard the city must meet is proof by “clear, satisfactory and convincing evidence” under Wis. Stat. § 800.08(3), which is a different standard than a criminal case carries. A first offense that lands in circuit court, and every criminal OWI, is handled at the Brown County Circuit Court.

Brown County’s courthouse sits at 100 S. Jefferson Street in Green Bay, the county seat, and the county runs eight circuit-court branches. De Pere is roughly five miles south of Green Bay along the Fox River, so a De Pere criminal OWI — a repeat offense, or a first offense involving a minor passenger or an injury — is filed in the Brown County Circuit Court in Green Bay and prosecuted by the county District Attorney’s office. An OWI stop can come from any agency working these roads — city police, sheriff’s deputies, or the Wisconsin State Patrol. 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

An OWI prosecution is a chain of moving parts, and each part can fail. The first is the stop itself: an officer needs reasonable suspicion to pull you over and probable cause to arrest, and when either is missing, a court can suppress the evidence gathered afterward. The second is the roadside testing. The three standardized field sobriety tests were validated on narrow research populations, and age, weight, injuries, medical conditions, footwear, and the weather can all generate “clues” in a perfectly sober driver. The third is the chemical evidence. A breath number at or near the legal limit — 0.08 for most drivers, though stricter limits apply behind the wheel of a commercial vehicle (0.04), for drivers under 21 (absolute sobriety), and for drivers under an interlock order or with three or more priors (0.02) — is a measurement, not a verdict — the reliability of chemical testing is one of the recognized fronts for challenging an OWI, and once you submit to the agency’s primary test, Wisconsin law lets you request the agency’s alternative test free of charge — or arrange a test of your own choosing at your own expense. Blood draws raise a separate constitutional question: taking blood is a Fourth Amendment search, and in State v. Prado (2021) the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the implied-consent provision that presumed consent from an incapacitated driver. Not every warrantless draw gets suppressed — the State can point to exceptions like exigent circumstances — but a draw taken without a warrant and without valid consent deserves scrutiny in every case. Finally, the State must prove “operation” — the physical manipulation or activation of a vehicle’s controls necessary to put it in motion. That element is fact-specific, and facts can be contested. Which of these doors is open in your case depends on the reports, the video, and the timeline — call 608-305-4518 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.

De Pere 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.

Why is my De Pere OWI case being heard in Green Bay?

Because Green Bay is the county seat. De Pere is in Brown County, about five miles south of Green Bay, and the Brown County Circuit Court — where criminal OWI charges and any first offense that lands in circuit court are handled — sits at 100 S. Jefferson Street in Green Bay, with eight branches. A civil first offense, by contrast, may be handled in municipal court or in circuit court depending on the citing agency and the ordinance charged, so not every De Pere case goes to the same courtroom. It is normal to be arrested in De Pere and answer the charge downtown in Green Bay; the drive does not change how the case is defended.

Can I still drive to work?

Often, yes — but it is not automatic. An occupational license permits up to 12 hours of driving per day and 60 hours per week for work, school, medical appointments, treatment, and essential household duties — never recreation. Eligibility depends on the type of suspension or revocation, any interlock requirement, other suspensions on your record, and DMV approval — and the timing rules differ by situation, so we confirm your exact eligibility window before filing. The application runs through WisDOT paperwork, an SR-22 filing from your insurer, and proof of interlock installation where ordered — we can help prepare and review the application and supporting filings.

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. The clocks run on separate notices: 10 days from the Notice of Intent to Revoke to request a refusal hearing, and 10 days from the Notice of Intent to Suspend to request administrative review, with the suspension otherwise taking effect 30 days after the Notice of Intent to Suspend 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 De Pere 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, LLC — 6405 Century Ave STE 103, Middleton, WI 53562.