One of the first questions almost every client asks is, "How am I going to drive?" New York offers two paths to keep driving after a DWI: a short-term hardship privilege early in the case, and a conditional license tied to the Impaired Driver Program. Neither is automatic, and getting them right matters as much as the criminal case itself for many people.
The hardship privilege
When your license is suspended at arraignment (which happens promptly on a BAC of .08 or higher), you can ask the court for a hardship privilege for the first part of the case. It is narrow, driving only to and from work, school, or necessary medical care, and you must show the suspension causes extreme hardship with no reasonable alternative. It is a stopgap until the conditional license is available.
The Impaired Driver Program (IDP)
The Impaired Driver Program, long known as the Drinking Driver Program (DDP), is a New York State program of seven weekly classroom sessions, two to three hours each, totaling 16 hours, designed to deter future VTL §1192 violations. Where an evaluation indicates a substance-use issue, treatment may also be required. Completing the IDP is the gateway to the conditional license for most drivers. You generally can attend the program only once in a multi-year window, so timing and eligibility matter.
What a conditional license lets you do
A conditional license is more generous than the hardship privilege but still limited. It allows driving:
- To and from your place of employment.
- During work hours, if your job requires driving.
- To and from a class or activity that is an authorized part of your alcohol- or drug-rehabilitation program.
- To and from a class or course at an accredited school, college, university, or a state institution of vocational or technical training.
- To and from court-ordered probation activities.
- To and from a DMV office for business relating to your license or the program.
- For a single three-consecutive-hour window each day, chosen by the program, on a day you are not working.
- To and from necessary medical treatment for you or a household member (with a physician's written statement).
- To and from a place, including a school, where your children are cared for, when that is necessary to keep your job or your enrollment.
How a conditional license can be revoked
The conditional license is a privilege with strings attached. The DMV can revoke it for:
- Failing to attend or satisfactorily participate in the IDP, or failing to meet the program's requirements.
- A conviction for any alcohol- or drug-related traffic offense, misdemeanor, or felony.
- Failing to make a good-faith effort to accept rehabilitation, as determined at a DMV hearing.
- A conviction for speeding, a speed contest or racing, reckless driving, or following too closely, or any moving violation (other than certain minor ones) during the conditional-license period.
- A conviction showing you drove in violation of the conditional license's restrictions.
- A conviction requiring mandatory suspension or revocation.
- A DMV hearing finding you operated a vehicle in violation of the conditional license.
- Any additional information that would make you ineligible.
Out-of-state drivers
Drivers licensed in another state cannot receive a New York conditional license in the ordinary way, because the DMV does not hold their license. New York addresses this with a conditional privilege to drive in this State, which works much like a conditional license without requiring a New York license. See out-of-state drivers.