I have personally handled hundreds of DMV drivers license suspension hearings for my clients.
If you are arrested for DUI, your drivers license is automatically suspended for at least four months (with a one month “stay”). Immediate action is required to save your drivers license.
A hearing at the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is necessary to get your drivers license back. Please note that this hearing is completely separate from the criminal court proceedings in your DUI case. Driving on a suspended license is a criminal offense with minimum jail sentences, so obviously every effort should be made to regain your driving privilege.
Important note: It is imperative that you have your attorney request a DMV hearing within ten (10) calendar days, or else you will have waived your only chance to get your drivers license back. A new temporary drivers license will be issued pending the result of your DMV hearing.
At your DMV license suspension hearing, the Hearing Officer will hear evidence presented by your criminal defense attorney, and he or she will then decide whether your drivers license suspension that took place at the time of your arrest will be sustained or set aside.
There are three separate areas that the DMV Hearing Officer will examine at a suspension hearing in your DUI case:
- Was there probable cause for the initial stop?
- Were you lawfully arrested? and
- Were you driving with .08% or more of blood alcohol?
The good news is, if you prevail in even one of the above questions at your hearing, then your drivers license will be returned and the original suspension permanantly set aside. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by arranging for a DMV hearing and, with the help of competent legal counsel, offer a defense on any or all of these questions.
In addition to the many DMV hearings that I have handled, I have prepared numerous Writs of Mandamus to attack unfair DMV decisions in which the client’s drivers license suspension was wrongfully sustained by the DMV. Such a Writ (which is an application to the Superior Court to have an adverse DMV decision in your case reversed) is your only recourse to having the suspension sustained. I have assisted other lawyers in this complicated and arcane area of the law.
Preparing and offering a defense in a DMV hearing is a complex and legally sophisticated matter, and you will need a good criminal defense lawyer to accomplish this. I will bring my many years of experience in defending clients at the DMV to bear on your case.
In addition to DUI cases, I have personally handled many DMV hearings in these specific areas of Drivers License suspension:
- Medical reasons (e.g.: epilepsy, dementia, alleged loss of skills, etc.
- Failure to pay child support,
- Collision without insurance,
- Too many tickets (points), and
- Failure to appear in court / failure to pay fine
If you’re faced with a Drivers License suspension for any reason, contact me immediately so that we may discuss the specific facts of your case as the relate to how to regain your Drivers License. I am San Francisco defense attorney Michael Ross,and I may be reached at: (415) 345-1335.
