You have a paycheck and a car. You may still qualify for appointed counsel

Plenty of people arrested for drunk driving assume the question is settled the moment they say they have a job. It is not settled, and the assumption costs money, because a defendant who never applies pays a private fee that a judge might have reduced or eliminated. Indigency in county practice is a finding about whether you can retain competent counsel without giving up necessities, not a finding about whether you are poor in some absolute sense. Those are different tests. A careful reader checks which one the local form is actually running.

Gross income is the opening screen, not the verdict

Most county screening starts with household income compared against a multiple of the federal poverty guidelines, which the Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for publishing and updating each year. Courts vary widely in the multiple they use, and many treat it as a presumption rather than a ceiling. Below the line, you are presumed eligible. Above it, you are not disqualified; you are asked to explain. That second path is where employed defendants live, and it is the path most people abandon because the form looks like a refusal.

The comparison worth drawing is between two screening philosophies. One asks what you earn. The other asks what is left after the money that is already committed, and then asks whether that remainder could realistically fund a defense on a charge that may run several months.

What the affidavit actually asks for

The financial affidavit is usually two pages, sworn under penalty of perjury, and it wants more than a pay stub. Expect fields for gross and net pay, frequency of pay, hours if you are hourly, a spouse's income, the number of dependents you actually support, rent or mortgage, utilities, car payment and insurance, child support paid, medical expenses, and outstanding debt including what you owe on credit cards. It asks about cash on hand, bank balances, vehicles with their loan balances, and real property with its mortgage. It often asks what you already paid a bondsman.

That last field matters more than people expect. A careful reader notices that bond money is gone, that it was frequently borrowed from family, and that a judge assessing available resources may treat a nonrefundable bond premium very differently from a savings balance sitting untouched.

The car, and why equity is the real question

A vehicle on the affidavit is not a strike against you. The relevant number is equity, meaning market value minus what is still owed, and for a financed car three years into a sixty-month note the equity is often modest. Beyond that, courts recognize that a vehicle used to get to work is not a liquid asset in any meaningful sense, since selling it to fund a retainer destroys the income that would pay for anything else. The same logic covers tools, a work truck, and a modest home with a mortgage on it.

Here is the honest comparison. Retained counsel converts an uncertain future obligation into a known price paid now, usually before arraignment. Appointed counsel preserves cash but places the choice of attorney with the court, and in many counties attaches a repayment obligation on the back end.

Partial eligibility, contribution orders, and recoupment

Many county systems have a middle setting that private conversation rarely mentions: partial indigency. The court appoints counsel, then orders a contribution, sometimes a flat administrative fee at the front and sometimes a recoupment amount assessed at sentencing based on the actual hours billed. A defendant earning steady wages who qualifies partially may end up paying a few hundred dollars toward representation rather than a full private retainer. What a careful reader checks is whether the order is fixed at appointment or determined later, and whether inability to pay it can be raised again at the end of the case.

What to verify before you sign the form

Read the affidavit's definition of household, because some counties count a roommate's income and most do not. Confirm whether the figure requested is gross or net, since entering the wrong one has denied applications that should have succeeded. Bring documentation: two recent pay stubs, the current lease or mortgage statement, the car loan balance, and the bond receipt. Ask the clerk whether a denial can be reconsidered if circumstances change, because a job lost during a license suspension is exactly the change the process contemplates.

Applying costs an hour and a signature. The finding is made by a judge on the record, it is reviewable, and it is separate from guilt, which means an application that fails tells you the price of the private route with far more precision than a guess ever will.