If you were arrested for OWI in Portage, the deadlines that preserve your license challenge start running from your notice — not once your court date arrives. Whether you refused the evidentiary test or took it and failed, you may have only 10 days from your notice to request the hearing or review that can keep your license, and if you let that window close the license consequence takes effect on its own. Mays Law Office defends OWI charges — what most people call DUI or DWI — in Wisconsin the charge is OWI — along with drugged-driving allegations, for drivers throughout Portage and Columbia County. We handle these cases statewide from our office in Middleton. Call 608-305-4518 for a free consultation before you say anything else about your case.

OWI Attorneys in Portage, 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. Portage sits at the center of Columbia County’s justice system — the county circuit court (400 DeWitt Street) and the county jail (403 Jackson Street) are both here — which means every criminal OWI case in Columbia County is decided in this city (civil first offenses stay in whichever municipal court issued the citation). Understanding how the local court process actually runs is a real part of the defense.

An OWI attorney earns their fee in the details. Was the traffic stop lawful? Do the field sobriety results mean what the officer wrote down? Did the breath or blood test follow the rules? Were the deadlines that protect your license met? We start asking those questions at the first phone call, not weeks later.

When to Call Our Portage, WI OWI Lawyers

Call us right away if any of the following describes your situation:

• You were handed a “Notice of Intent to Revoke” after declining a breath or blood test. You have 10 days from that notice to request a refusal hearing. Let the window pass and the revocation takes effect on its own 30 days after the notice.
• You took the test and failed. A prohibited alcohol concentration triggers a Notice of Intent to Suspend. You have 10 days to request administrative review, or a 6-month administrative suspension begins when your 30-day temporary license expires.
• You have a prior OWI. A second offense is a criminal misdemeanor — 5 days to 6 months in jail — if your prior falls within the last 10 years. A third carries 45 days to a year. A fourth is a Class H felony.
• A child under 16 was in the vehicle. 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 injured. Causing injury while intoxicated criminalizes an otherwise-civil first offense, and great bodily harm or death brings separate felony charges.
• You hold a CDL. A first OWI conviction — even in your personal vehicle — disqualifies your commercial privileges for a year. A second lifetime conviction is a lifetime disqualification.
• You blew 0.15 or higher. On a first offense, that reading triggers a mandatory ignition interlock order.

OWI Penalties 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 to request a refusal hearing. Failed it (the station breath or blood test, not the roadside PBT)? 10 days to request administrative review.

Miss a deadline and the license consequences run on autopilot.

What an OWI Actually Costs

The citation shows one number. The real bill has several:

• $435 — mandatory OWI surcharge on every conviction.
• $165–$500 — the required alcohol and drug assessment (varies by county).
• $50–$150 to install, $60–$100 per month — ignition interlock, if one is ordered.
• $200 — license reinstatement fee.
• Years of SR-22 high-risk insurance premiums stacked on top.

A typical first offense totals $4,000 to over $10,000 all-in. Every figure above is a typical range — your county, your vendor, and your insurer set the actual numbers, so treat these as planning estimates rather than a quote. Weigh the cost of a defense against that full total before deciding to simply pay and plead through. A free consultation costs nothing: 608-305-4518.

How OWI Cases Move Through Portage and Columbia County Courts

Where your case lands depends on the charge. A standard civil first offense issued by the Portage Police Department is handled by the City of Portage Joint Municipal Court at 115 W. Pleasant Street — the shared court that serves Portage and the Village of Endeavor. In municipal court, a first offense is prosecuted as a civil ordinance matter, decided under the “clear, satisfactory and convincing” evidence standard rather than the criminal “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard.

Every criminal OWI — repeat offenses charged as crimes, plus any first offense involving a minor passenger or injury — goes to the Columbia County Circuit Court at 400 DeWitt Street in Portage, just blocks from the municipal court. Because Portage is the Columbia County seat, both the courthouse and the county jail sit here: after an arrest, drivers are typically transported to the Columbia County Jail and Huber Center at 403 Jackson Street for booking, then either released on bond or held for an initial appearance at the circuit court nearby.

Portage draws heavy OWI enforcement because of its geography. The city sits at the confluence of the I-39, I-90, and I-94 interstate corridor and State Highway 16, patrolled by the Portage Police Department, the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, and the Wisconsin State Patrol. Those arteries draw high-visibility saturation patrols and roadside impaired-driving enforcement, and interstate stops are a regular source of the region’s OWI cases. Whether your case belongs in municipal court or circuit court, and what leverage the facts give you, is exactly the kind of judgment call our Wisconsin OWI defense practice exists to make.

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.

No single defense fits every arrest. The right one comes out of your reports, your video, and your facts — 608-305-4518 starts that review.

Portage 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.

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.

I have a CDL. What does an OWI do to my commercial license?

A first OWI conviction disqualifies your commercial driving privileges for 1 year — even if you were driving your personal vehicle at the time — and for 3 years if you were hauling placarded hazardous materials. A second lifetime OWI conviction means lifetime CDL disqualification. Commercial drivers also operate under a stricter 0.04 limit in a commercial vehicle, and any detectable alcohol triggers an immediate 24-hour out-of-service order.

I wasn’t impaired — can they still charge me for drugs in my system?

Yes. Wisconsin’s restricted-controlled-substance law is zero-tolerance: operating with a detectable amount of a restricted controlled substance such as cocaine, methamphetamine, or Delta-9-THC in your blood supports a charge regardless of whether you showed any actual impairment — the one narrow statutory exception is Delta-9-THC below one nanogram per milliliter of blood. And because Wisconsin does not recognize recreational or medical marijuana, a prescription or legal purchase in another state is not a defense.

My arrest happened on the interstate near Portage — where will my case be heard?

It depends on the charge, not on which highway you were stopped on. A civil first offense issued by Portage police goes to the City of Portage Joint Municipal Court on W. Pleasant Street. A criminal OWI — a repeat offense, or a first offense involving a minor passenger or injury — goes to the Columbia County Circuit Court on DeWitt Street, since Portage is the county seat and criminal traffic charges from around the county are filed there. Because Columbia County’s courthouse, sheriff’s office, and jail are all concentrated in Portage, cases from a wide surrounding area funnel into these same buildings, and knowing how they run is part of preparing your defense.

Get a Free Consultation

Se Habla Español — Call 608-305-4518

Whether this is a civil first offense or a felony repeat charge, the first days after a Portage OWI arrest 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.