The North Carolina DWI assessment: what it costs and where to get it in Durham

What the assessment is and who has to get it

The everyday word is 'DUI', but North Carolina charges driving while impaired, DWI, under G.S. 20-138.1, and a DWI conviction carries a substance-use assessment at every level of punishment.

G.S. 122C-142.1 defines it: “To conduct a substance abuse assessment, a facility shall give a client a standardized test approved by the Department to determine chemical dependency and shall conduct a clinical interview with the client.” NCDHHS adds that “All assessments must be conducted face-to-face, either in person or via telehealth (audio and video), by an authorized DWI provider,” that they follow American Society of Addiction Medicine criteria, and that “If you are not given a diagnosis, you will be referred to an education program.”

Four different rules send a Durham defendant to the same assessment. First, sentencing: G.S. 20-179 requires a defendant at every level, from Aggravated Level One down to Level Five, to “obtain a substance abuse assessment and the education or treatment required by G.S. 20-17.6,” and a first offender at Levels Three to Five gets unsupervised probation only after having “obtained any necessary substance abuse assessment and completed any recommended treatment or training program.” Second, restoration: under G.S. 20-17.6, “The Division must receive a certificate of completion for a person who is subject to this section before the Division can restore that person's license.” Third, the pretrial limited driving privilege after the first 10 days of the civil revocation, which G.S. 20-16.5 conditions on having “obtained a substance abuse assessment from a mental health facility” and registering for any recommended program. Fourth, the post-conviction limited driving privilege under G.S. 20-179.3, available only once the person “has obtained and filed with the court a substance abuse assessment.” The sentencing levels page shows where the assessment sits in each level's conditions.

The assessment also appears among the mitigating factors a judge weighs at sentencing: factor (6) is the defendant's “voluntary submission to a mental health facility for assessment after being charged with the impaired driving offense” and, if recommended, voluntary participation in treatment; factor (6a) pairs a completed assessment with 60 days of abstinence proven by continuous alcohol monitoring. A lawyer can tell you whether either fits your case.

What it costs: $100, then ADETS or a treatment tier

The fees are set in statute, not by the provider. G.S. 122C-142.1: “A person who has a substance abuse assessment conducted for the purpose of obtaining a certificate of completion shall pay to the assessing agency a fee of one hundred dollars ($100).” For the Alcohol and Drug Education Traffic School, “A person shall pay to a school a fee of one hundred sixty dollars ($160.00).” For treatment, “A person shall pay to a treatment facility a fee of seventy-five dollars ($75.00),” a minimum; NCDHHS reported an average cost of about $396 for short-term outpatient treatment and $635 for longer-term outpatient in its report for the state fiscal year ended June 30, 2022, a year with 34,362 assessments submitted. Under G.S. 122C-146, area facilities may not deny a service to a person because the person is unable to pay.

In other words, roughly four assessments in five end in a treatment recommendation rather than the 16-hour class. Which tier applies comes out of the assessment itself, under the ASAM criteria NCDHHS requires.

The certificate of completion

Finishing ADETS or the recommended treatment produces the certificate of completion, which NCDHHS's reports call the DMH-508-R and its DWI page calls the e-508 form; NCDHHS reported 40,331 certificates submitted in state fiscal year 2018-19. The state's DWI page tells you to “Complete a Certificate of Completion (e-508 form) to resolve the outstanding DWI offense on your North Carolina record.” The DMV cannot restore a license revoked for DWI until it receives that certificate, and the certificate is separate from the DMV restoration fee of $167.25 that a DWI revocation carries under G.S. 20-7.

If you live out of state, NCDHHS says that after completing an assessment and treatment elsewhere “you must choose a North Carolina DWI services provider to review and approve it,” and that a provider “may not charge a fee to transfer your case to another in-state provider.” The state keeps a live provider lookup at dmhdsohf.ncdhhs.gov/PROVIDERLIST.

Durham providers on the NCDHHS list

The most recent NCDHHS facility list this guide could read is Attachment A of the report for the state fiscal year ended June 30, 2022. It names nine Durham facilities and marks one of them suspended, so confirm any provider's current authorization in the state lookup above before paying. The five below did the most DWI work on that list; addresses and phones are as the list and each provider's own site give them.

El Futuro offers Spanish-language evaluations and treatment groups and had 211 DWI clients in SFY 2022. Genesis lists an after-hours line and a Raleigh office as well. Whichever provider you choose, the fee for the assessment itself is the same $100 by statute, and the certificate it leads to is the document the court, the DMV and a limited-driving-privilege judge all look for.

The next post in this series answers the question people ask once the case is over: can a DWI be expunged in North Carolina?

Fees from G.S. 122C-142.1; hours from the NCDHHS DWI Services rules (10A NCAC 27G .3800); providers from the NCDHHS SFY 2022 report, Attachment A.