An OWI arrest in Janesville puts two clocks in motion at once. 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 — otherwise the suspension or revocation takes effect on its own 30 days after the notice. The other runs on your case in court. Mays Law Office defends OWI charges — the offense most people search as DUI or DWI; Wisconsin’s statutory charge is OWI — along with drugged-driving allegations, throughout Janesville and Rock County. We work from our Middleton office and appear where Janesville cases are decided, including the Rock County Courthouse downtown. Call 608-305-4518 for a free consultation before you say anything to anyone else about your arrest.

OWI Attorneys in Janesville, 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. Janesville is its own kind of OWI town: Interstate 39/90 runs straight through it, and the Rock County Sheriff’s Office and Wisconsin State Patrol also patrol that corridor alongside city police. Knowing which agency made the stop, and where the charge will land, shapes the defense from day one.

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. We start on those questions at the first call.

When to Call Our Janesville, 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 to request a refusal hearing in writing — let that 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 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 a criminal misdemeanor carrying 5 days to 6 months in jail if the prior was within the last 10 years. A third runs 45 days to a year. 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.
• 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 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, you generally have just 10 days from your notice to request a refusal hearing or 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 Janesville and Rock County Courts

Janesville is a rare exception among Wisconsin cities: it does not run its own municipal court. A standard civil first-offense OWI written by the Janesville police is processed through the Rock County Circuit Court, where the City Attorney’s Office prosecutes it as a non-criminal forfeiture and any contested hearing takes place before a Rock County judge. Forfeitures are paid to the Rock County Clerk of Circuit Court rather than to the city.

Every criminal OWI — a repeat offense, or a first offense involving a minor passenger or injury — is filed in the Rock County Circuit Court at the Rock County Courthouse, 51 S. Main Street in Janesville, and prosecuted by the Rock County District Attorney’s Office. If you are arrested and held, booking runs through the Rock County Jail at 200 East US Highway 14 in Janesville. Because Janesville sits astride Interstate 39/90 — the highest-traffic corridor in the county — an OWI stop may come from city officers, the Rock County Sheriff’s Office, or the Wisconsin State Patrol working that stretch, along with US Highway 14, State Highway 26, and State Highway 11. 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 at no cost — 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.

Janesville 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 Janesville OWI case actually be heard?

That depends on the charge. Because Janesville has no municipal court of its own, a standard civil first offense is handled in the Rock County Circuit Court and prosecuted there by the City Attorney. Any criminal OWI — a repeat offense, or a first offense with a minor passenger or injury — is also filed in the Rock County Circuit Court at 51 S. Main Street in Janesville, but prosecuted by the Rock County District Attorney. If you are booked, that happens at the Rock County Jail on East US Highway 14. So whether your stop came from Janesville police, the Rock County Sheriff, or a State Patrol trooper on I-39/90, the courthouse is the same one downtown.

Can I get an OWI expunged later?

No. Wisconsin’s expungement statute excludes OWI convictions entirely, and the civil first offense stays on your WisDOT driving record permanently — and once you reach a third offense, every prior counts, no matter how old.

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 Janesville 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.