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

I represent clients throughout Lake County and northern Cook County, Illinois including the cities of Grayslake, Waukegan, Buffalo Grove, Deerfield, Libertyville, Mundelein, Gurnee, and Vernon Hills.

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.