Alcohol Abuse versus Intoxication at Secretary of State Hearings

As a license reinstatement attorney in Illinois I have seen several cases lately where the client was asked if they have ever abused alcohol and if they know what the difference between abuse and dependency is. When a client goes to a hearing as a Level 2 – Moderate classification the answer typically should be that they have never abused alcohol. This leads to a question with the client as to the fact that when they received the DUI they obviously abused alcohol as they became intoxicated. The difference is that the Level 2 – Moderate client doesn't have a symptom of abuse due to the fact that they only intermittently drank to intoxication – in essence they abused alcohol on those rare occasions, but they didn't ABUSE alcohol to where it became problematic as would be seen in a Level 2 – Significant client. This topic has been a bit tricky lately when going to administrative hearings with the Secretary of State in Illinois.