Effective January 1, 2007, new California legislation extends the reporting period for DUI offenses from 7 to 10 years for all public requestors, including insurance companies. Some have stated that it is illegal to change the "prior" period for people who were convicted before Jan. 1 2005.

The CA Department of Motor Vehicles states that even if a DUI was previously taken off of your record (due to the previous time period of 7 years) that it will now appear back on your driving record and will remain there until 10 years from the violation date. So in your case if you received a DUI in March 2002 and it was set to be taken off your record after 7 years it will instead stay on your driving record until March 2012.

Under the new law, any DUI violation under California Vehicle Code sections 23140, 23152, or 23153 will report for 10 years. There are some other non-DUI violations (e.g. 23103.5 “wet” reckless) that will report to courts and law enforcement for 10 years and may count against you for the purpose of determining increased penalties for repeat offenders, but will continue to show on a public driving record for only 7 years

Also based on the new California laws, drivers with a DUI violation occurring within the past 10 years are not entitled to receive a good driver discount.

The CA DMV states that it is not discriminating against individuals with DUI offenses. It is implementing legislation that is intended to discourage DUIs by increasing the time-period that an offense remains on an individual’s driving record.

The new law pertains only to non-commercial drivers. Due to federal requirements established under the Motor Carrier Safety Improvement Act of 1999 (MCSIA), the reporting period for DUI violations is different for commercial drivers.

For example, a conviction for a major violation committed in a commercial vehicle (e.g. DUI) will be retained for a period of 55 years on a CDL record, as will a driver license suspension or any withdrawal action.