The DWI Stop
Mo. Rev. Stat. § 577.010, § 577.012 and § 577.041 — intoxicated or over the limit, and a year's revocation for refusing a test
Missouri has two offenses. Driving while intoxicated is operating a vehicle in an intoxicated condition. Driving with excessive blood alcohol content is operating a vehicle with eight hundredths of one percent or more by weight of alcohol in the blood, or four hundredths in a commercial vehicle. Either is a class B misdemeanor for a first offense, rising to a class A misdemeanor for a prior offender and to felonies for persistent, aggravated, chronic and habitual offenders.
Driving while intoxicated is a class A misdemeanor for a first offense when someone under seventeen is in the vehicle, and a felony when criminal negligence causes injury, serious injury or death.
Twenty minutes to try to reach a lawyer. A person asked to take a chemical test who asks to speak to an attorney is given twenty minutes to try to contact one. Still refusing after that is a refusal. The officer's request has to give the reasons for it and say that a refusal can be used as evidence, and, for a driver, that the license will be revoked immediately.
Refusal: revoked for one year. On a refusal, the officer serves the notice of revocation and takes the license, and the director of revenue revokes it for one year. The person may petition a circuit or associate circuit court in the county of the stop for a hearing, and may ask that court to stay the revocation until then.
A first offender is not given a suspended imposition of sentence unless placed on probation for at least two years. Where that is not granted, a blood alcohol from fifteen to twenty hundredths of one percent requires at least forty eight hours in jail, and above twenty hundredths at least five days.
Sources for this section (4)
- Mo. Rev. Stat. § 577.010 — Driving while intoxicated
- Mo. Rev. Stat. § 577.012 — Driving with excessive blood alcohol content
- Mo. Rev. Stat. § 577.041 — Refusal to submit to chemical test
- Mo. Rev. Stat. § 302.574 — Temporary permit issued by officer, when
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Missouri attorney.