The most immediate penalty for DUI, other than the arrest, is having your license automatically suspended for a period of 3 months to 3 years, depending on both the state you live in and the number of prior DUI offenses that appear on your record.In most states, you can requesting a DMV hearing to contest the suspension of your Driver’s License after you got pulled over and subsequently arrested for DUI. This means you either were tested by a breath, blood, or urine analyzer or the officer arrested you upon your failure of the administered field sobriety test. Before deciding to have a DMV hearing, it is important that you get some DMV hearing advice.
Notice of DUI Hearing
You should have been given a notice or a pink piece of paper upon either your arrest or your release from holding.
- This notice is to inform you that you have 30 days to apply for a hearing with the DMV in order to plead your case as to why you should not have your license suspended.
- This hearing has absolutely nothing to do with your criminal hearing for the DUI charge, because the DMV has administrative control over whether or not you keep your license.
- Your DUI charge and your license suspension become totally separate issues until you go before the administrative judge at the DMV hearing.
Arguing to Keep your License
You need to check the administrative law in your state in these cases, because in some states you are allowed to have a lawyer present to argue your case for you, while in other states the only people present at the DMV hearing are you, the administrative judge, and the arresting officer. This hearing is where you argue your case for keeping your license. There aren’t many arguments you can pose to an administrative judge to keep your license from being suspended, but a couple permissible reasons for keeping your license may be:
- You will lose your job if you have your license suspended, due to either your job requiring a class D license or because you will not have any form of transportation to or from your place of work (this will not be a valid argument if you have a CDL because the criminal charge itself will result in you losing your CDL privilege).
- You may be able to negate the license suspension by presenting yourself in a manner that shows the administrative judge that you have, without a doubt, realized that you made a serious mistake and will not allow it to happen again. This argument is helped substantially if you have no prior traffic offenses on your record.
- You may, in some cases, be able to argue that you are also arguing the criminal charge because the charge filed against you by the arresting officer was either in error or unwarranted. You will be directly arguing the validity of the officer’s statement and the charge against you.
Getting Help
In any case, if you should decide to argue your case before an administrative judge in a DMV hearing and you have the opportunity to be represented by an attorney, it is always in your best interest to obtain an attorney immediately.Your lawyer can help increase the chance that you will be able to keep your license after your DUI.
