Glossary of Legal Terms

List of Abbreviations, Synonyms, and Definitions

When you are charged with an Illinois DUI, a lot of acronyms and legal jargon are thrown around. Jerald Novak & Associates believes that you should be fully informed about your DUI case. It is impossible to be fully informed if your attorney is speaking in jargon. I have provided a list of common DUI terms. If there are other terms that you are not familiar with, stop your attorney, and ask them to explain.

Administrative Hearing - Driver’s License hearing. This affects only your driver’s license and is different from your DUI charge.

Administrative Hearing Officer - The judge for the driver’s license hearing.

Alcohol test - This refers to blood, breath, or urine test

BAT Van - Breath alcohol test van

BlAT - Blood alcohol test

BrAT - Breath alcohol test.

Breath test - This is the large breath test machine that gives you a number result and is not the hand held preliminary breath test.

Cereal Malt Beverage - 3.2 Beer, not liquor store beer

CDL - Commercial driver’s license

DC-27 form - Officer’s certification of failure or refusal of alcohol test. The DC-27 form is also referred to as the "pink sheet" or the "officer’s certification".

DC-28 form - Law enforcement officer’s certification of breath test failure for minor with alcohol test of .02 or greater. The DC-28 form is also referred to as the "pink sheet" or the "officer’s certification".

DL - Driver’s license

DMV - Department of Motor vehicle (Driver Control Division of Illinois Department of Revenue)

DUI - Driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. This is different from the administrative hearing/driver’s license hearing this may be referred to as the court case, traffic case, criminal case, or ticket.

DWI - Same meaning as DUI. Driving while intoxicated

LEO - Law enforcement officer

MVR - Motor vehicle record

PBT - Preliminary breath test - hand held machine used for probable cause purposes only.

"Per se" Law - A type of law which can be violated based upon an alcohol test result unless the alcohol test is properly challenged.

Contact a Lake County and Northern Cook County DUI Lawyer

If you have been charged with Driving Under the Influence or any other criminal offense, please contact Jerald Novak & Associates. I don’t just say I can help with your Illinois DUI defense, I prove it.