Do the New Louisiana DWI Law Changes Apply to Your Case?

If you’ve recently been charged with DWI in Louisiana, you may have seen articles online talking about “new DWI laws” or “recent changes to DWI penalties.” A common question people ask is: “Do these new laws apply to my case?”

The answer usually depends on when the alleged offense happened, not when you go to court. Understanding that difference can prevent a lot of confusion.

Why People Are Hearing About “New DWI Laws”

From time to time, the Louisiana Legislature updates DWI statutes. These changes might involve penalties, procedures, or technical legal rules. News articles and legal blogs often summarize these updates, which leads many people to believe the changes might automatically affect their own case.

In reality, most DWI law changes are written to apply going forward, not backward.

What Are the New DWI Laws?

In the past two years, the Louisiana Legislature has been on a rampage amending various DWI laws. Keep in mind, some of these laws may affect your case and some may not. Every case is different. Most of the new DWI law changes took place effective July and August 2024. Click here to see a summary of these changes. Basically, those law changes increase the time required to have the ignition interlock device installed.

In 2025, we believe the Legislature accidentally created a jury trial right for misdemeanor DWI cases. They did this by passing a law that added a $50 fine on top of the $1000 maximum fine for DWI first offense. By doing that, the fine got over the threshold of misdemeanor grade and kicked in the right to jury trial pursuant to Duncan v. Louisiana. Most people in the legal community believe the legislature will fix this mistake in the summer of 2026 when they meet again to do more lawmaking.

The Key Legal Concept: Retroactivity

Whether a new DWI law applies to your situation usually comes down to a legal concept called retroactivity.

In simple terms:

Retroactive law = applies to conduct that happened before the law took effect
Prospective law = applies only to conduct that happens after the law’s effective date

In Louisiana criminal law, statutes are generally applied prospectively unless the Legislature clearly states that a change should apply to earlier conduct.

What Usually Matters Most: The Date of the Arrest

For DWI cases, the most important date is typically the date of the alleged offense — in other words, the date of the arrest.

If a law changed after that date, the case is usually handled under the law that was in effect at the time of the arrest, not the newer version.

Many people assume that if their court date is after a law change, the new rules automatically apply. That is usually not how Louisiana criminal law works.

For instance, if your DWI arrest date was prior to June 8, 2025 (the date the new law went into effect), then you won’t have a right to jury trial. If you arrest occurred after that date, you would have a right to a jury trial.

Do New Penalties Apply to Old Cases?

In most situations, increased penalties do not apply to older cases. Likewise, a reduction in penalties does not automatically change a pending case unless the law specifically says it should.

That means:

A new sentencing structure usually affects future offenses
Pending cases are generally evaluated under the law in place when the incident occurred
Plea negotiations may consider many factors, but are not automatically controlled by later statutory changes

We get a lot of questions from people concerned that the new laws may require them to do jail time. For instance, someone recently asked if they would have to do two days in jail. For some reason, he thought this was a new law. It is not. Louisiana law has always had a two-day mandatory jail sentence for DWI first offense. However, the judge can suspended that jail sentence in certain circumstances such as when you do community service instead. However, if you test .15 % BAC or higher, the judge must order two days in jail.

Are There Exceptions?

Occasionally, a piece of legislation includes language that makes certain provisions retroactive or clarifies how pending cases should be handled. Those situations are the exception rather than the rule and depend on the exact wording of the statute.

Because of that, every situation must be reviewed individually rather than relying on headlines or summaries.

Why Online Articles Often Cause Confusion

Many articles that appear in search results focus on what changed in the law, but do not explain how those changes apply to people whose cases were already in progress. Without that context, it can sound like everyone benefits from or is affected by a new rule — which is usually not accurate.

Louisiana DWI law is driven as much by timing and procedure as by the wording of the statute itself.

The Bottom Line

Most Louisiana DWI law changes apply to conduct that occurs after the new law takes effect. If your arrest happened before that date, your case is typically handled under the law that was in effect at the time of the incident.

That doesn’t mean your case is fixed or that nothing can change — it simply means that headlines about “new DWI laws” do not automatically alter a pending charge. Each case depends on its own facts, timelines, and legal issues, which is why it’s important to review the details of your specific situation rather than relying on general summaries of the law. I can’t express this enough. Every DWI case is not the same.

This article was written by Louisiana DWI attorney Carl Barkemeyer of Barkemeyer Law Firm.