Can I Win a DMV Administrative Hearing?
Winning the DMV administrative proceeding, especially the administrative per se (APS) hearing, is nuanced and hinges on the case’s facts. You prevail in the proceeding by identifying and pointing out procedural errors, technical violations of Title 17 during testing, or proving the arresting officer lacked probable cause for the stop. Also, you must partner with a competent DUI attorney, who will challenge the admissibility of the evidence obtained or the accuracy of the test results for a fair verdict.
Odds of Obtaining a Favorable Outcome in a DMV Hearing
When arrested for drinking and driving, you will undergo an administrative proceeding that is separate from the ongoing criminal proceeding for the DUI charges. The outcome of the DMV proceeding does not affect the court trial, but this does not mean you should not focus on winning the hearing, as your driving privileges depend on it. The verdict from the hearing hinges on the circumstances surrounding the arrest and the case’s facts. If the law enforcement officers followed the proper procedures during arrest and alcohol testing, and the evidence against you is compelling, you will likely lose the hearing.
However, if the arresting officers made procedural errors, the evidence against you could be deemed inadmissible, improving your chances of retaining your driver’s license. Additionally, retaining the services of a proficient DUI lawyer improves your chances of the hearing’s success. Factors that influence the case’s outcome are:
- Whether the officers had probable cause to pull you over for a traffic violation
- The clarity of the instructions from the officer conducting the drug or alcohol tests
- The results from the breathalyzer test
- Whether you were sufficiently warned of the repercussions for declining chemical or blood testing
Meeting the administrative deadlines for requesting a hearing also affects the case outcome. When you fail to request the proceeding within ten days of receiving the suspension notice, your driving privileges are automatically suspended within 30 days of the arrest. Usually, the police issue you the pink suspension notice immediately after confiscating your physical license, meaning the clock starts ticking after arrest. Therefore, hire an attorney immediately after arrest to ensure you invoke your right to the proceeding within the set timeline.
Besides, requesting a hearing stays the temporary withdrawal of your driving privileges until the DMV decides the matter. Meeting these strict timelines while dealing with the stress of the arrest and arranging for bail can be difficult. An experienced DUI attorney is handy because they handle the paperwork for you.
Additionally, the DMV proceeding can benefit your attorney because they start preparations for the criminal case by interviewing the arresting officer and identifying inconsistencies or weaknesses in the prosecutor’s evidence. The DMV proceeding can help your attorney obtain crucial evidence that could be used in court for a charge reduction or dismissal.
Overview of the DMV Proceeding
The DMV administrative proceeding is an independent proceeding conducted by the Driver’s Safety branch, parallel to the court case, to determine whether the defendant should lose or retain their driver’s license (DL).
After a drunk or drugged driving violation, you will face the APS and criminal DUI charge court proceedings. The result of the administrative proceeding only affects your DL. At the same time, a criminal court can lead to a conviction and penalties, such as jail confinement and monetary court fines.
Another distinction between the two procedures is in the evidentiary standard. In the DMV proceeding, you must demonstrate with a preponderance of the evidence that the arresting officers engaged in a violation, making the arrest or evidence against you unlawful. This is a significantly lower standard than in criminal cases, where the prosecutor must prove the DUI elements beyond a reasonable doubt to obtain a guilty verdict. Therefore, your winning the DMV proceeding is more about showing the state’s procedural errors in the initial stop and investigations than demonstrating your innocence.
A Driver’s Safety Hearing Officer (DSHO) presides over the APS proceeding, not a judge. DSHOs are DMV employees with training to preside over the DMV hearings but they are not judges.However, they facilitate the proceedings by presenting the evidence against you and act as adjudicators by reviewing the facts of the case, including your evidence, to rule on the DL suspension.
The DSHO must accord you procedural rights during the hearing. These include the right to:
- Legal representation
- Study and poke holes in the evidence presented by the DMV against you, including the arrest and police report, and the blood or breath test result.
- Cross-examine witnesses testifying against you
- Subpoena witnesses, including the arresting officer
- Testify
With the adjudicator in the hearing being an employee of DMV, the department that seeks to withdraw your driving privileges, it is crucial to have legal representation, as they could be biased. The APS system is not neutral, unlike the criminal justice system. Therefore, you require an experienced DUI attorney to defend you and protect your rights aggressively.
The DSHO will study the evidence that the DMV has assembled and that you have provided. After the review, they will rule whether 51% or more of the evidence shows there were procedural violations.
Elements the DMV Should Establish
The purpose of the APS proceeding is to show that the decision to suspend your license after the DUI arrest is valid. The DMV proves the validity of the DL suspension by proving that:
- The stopping officer had a reasonable belief that you were driving under the influence
- The arrest was lawful
- The accused was operating the car with a blood alcohol mass of at least .08% or declined chemical or blood testing.
You will win the hearing if your attorney successfully challenges these elements.
The DMV Proceeding Defense Strategies
There are several defense strategies your attorney can utilize to contest the evidence presented by the DMV. They include:
You Were Not Behind the Wheel
You can only be arrested for drunk or drugged driving if you were driving. Driving means you moved the vehicle, even the slightest distance. If you never drove the car, then you did not engage in a violation, and the DMV should restore your DL.
Arguments to prove you were not driving include asserting that someone else was operating the car, falsely accusing you of driving, or that you did not move the vehicle even though you were in the driver’s seat. Instead, you were sleeping or resting with the controlled substance or alcohol in your bloodstream. Any arrest without proof of driving is illegal, and the DMV should dismiss the suspension.
Lack of Probable Cause
You can defend yourself against the DL suspension by challenging how the stop officer made the arrest. Police need reasonable suspicion or probable cause that you are driving under the influence to stop you and subsequently arrest you. So, when there is no probable cause for the traffic stop or arrest, the arrest becomes illegal and should not be a basis for an administrative suspension. Your defense attorney will assert that the officers had no valid reasons for the stop. The police can stop you in traffic when they observe signs of intoxicated driving, like swerving, speeding, unsafe lane switching, and contravention of other traffic laws. If the officer did not observe these behaviors, the traffic stop was illegal, and evidence obtained during investigations is inadmissible in court.
Additionally, your attorney can allege that the stop was due to racial profiling, which is also a contravention of your rights. When procedures are violated during investigations, any evidence obtained is illegal and will be suppressed in the APS and court hearing. Your lawyer should prove that the stopping officer had no valid reason to conduct the stop.
Your Arrest was Unlawful
Many DUI arrests happen at sobriety checkpoints. These checkpoints must meet the law's standards; otherwise, they are deemed unlawful. Any arrest that occurs at a DUI checkpoint that is noncompliant with state statutes is illegal. Again, a competent attorney will question the accuracy and reliability of the field sobriety tests (FSTs), asserting that they were inaccurate because of pre-existing medical conditions, surface conditions, and environmental factors. As such, the stopping officer should not have used your performance in the FSTs as the basis for an arrest.
Questioning the Reliability or Accuracy of the BAC Test Results
When the stopping officer observed your behavior and had valid reasons to suspect you were impaired by drugs or alcohol, you should challenge the reliability of the test results after investigations. Typically, after the stop, the police should explain to the driver that they are obliged to agree to chemical testing, and declining the tests could result in severe consequences. If your officer did not administer an admonition before the tests or gave you misleading advice, you can argue that you declined to take the test because of improper advice.
Title 17 mandates the investigating officers to observe you continuously for fifteen minutes after the stop before administering the relevant tests. This is done so that the driver does not do anything that introduces mouth alcohol, leading to a falsely high result. If the officer did not follow this procedure and document it, you can cite procedural errors that make the results inaccurate and unreliable.
Also, the law requires the breathalyzer and other testing devices to be calibrated every ten days to ensure accuracy. In your defense, your attorney can request the maintenance log of the devices. If they were not adequately maintained, you can assert that the results from the equipment are unreliable and should not be admitted as evidence or inform the arrest decision.
Title 17 also provides guidelines for administering blood tests. Typically, the samples should be drawn by authorized personnel using an alcohol-free sterilizer on the draw site to avoid sample contamination. Also, the sample should be split into two for storage. Again, the blood samples should be stored appropriately and refrigerated. Failure to observe these guidelines creates a technical problem that you can rely on to question the reliability of the results.
Your Blood Alcohol Levels Were Within the Designated Limit
Your attorney can claim that your BAC was within the legal limit and that you should not lose your driving privileges.
You Did Not Decline Chemical Testing
Declining to take a chemical test results in automatic license withdrawal or suspension. Typically, when the police are investigating a possible drinking and driving offense, they will ask you if you consent to undergo chemical testing. Refusing to take the test can be lawful under certain circumstances and in others it attracts driving privileges withdrawal by the DMV.
Typically, when police stop you on suspicion of drunk driving, they conduct investigations entailing FSTs, which test your body coordination, balance, and capacity to understand instructions. You can lawfully decline to take these tests.
Besides, they administer preliminary alcohol sensor tests using the breathalyzer device. These devices are often stored at police stations and weather, temperatures and poor maintenance can affect the accuracy of their outcomes. Unless you are on probation for a previous drinking and driving violation or 21 or younger, you can lawfully decline the PAS tests.
However, once the police obtain reasonable cause for arrest and you are read your rights, undergoing chemical tests like the blood and breath tests is mandatory. A breath test can be done at the station, while a blood test requires a laboratory or hospital to ensure the sample is drawn according to Title 17 provisions.
When you refuse to undergo chemical testing, the DMV can withdraw your DL for up to twelve months. Fortunately, the DMV APS hearing gives you the chance to contest the suspension. Your defense attorney can cross-examine the arresting officer in the proceeding about your refusal to take the tests.
In the cross-examination, your attorney can ask about the tests the officer misinterpreted you declined taking. The attorney can assert that you declined the FSTs, which you can lawfully refuse, and not the chemical tests, as the arresting officer alleges. Besides, the defense lawyer can argue that you lacked a sufficient breath sample for the breathalyzer test but the officer misconstrued the insufficient breath as refusing to take a chemical test. With these arguments, you can compel theDMV officer to drop the automatic suspension, as you did not decline to provide samples for chemical testing.
Putting up a solid defense, particularly when the grounds for suspension are refusal to take the tests, is encouraged because, unlike other DMV suspensions that are eligible for a restricted license, you do not qualify for a restricted DL throughout the suspension period. This makes your life extremely difficult because you have to rely on public transport or loved ones to move around, making life very challenging.
License Suspension Duration
The suspension will take effect immediately after the hearing if the DSHO decides to suspend your license. The suspension duration varies based on the charge type. The suspension period for a first DUI offense ranges from six to ten months. A second offense carries an administrative suspension of at most 24 months, while a third offense attracts up to 36 months of withdrawal of driving privileges. A fourth or subsequent DUI violation results in a DL suspension of at most 48 months.
The suspension period can be extended depending on the case’s facts. If your DUI caused injuries or you declined to submit a sample for chemical testing, you will face an extended DL suspension period.
License suspension can have serious adverse effects on your life. You will be forced to rely on public transport or a loved one to drive you to essential places, which can be inconvenient and burdensome to others. Fortunately, you can apply for an ignition interlock device to help you drive freely after the suspension or obtain a restricted DL to drive to restricted areas like court, school, hospital, or work.
The Role of an Experienced DUI Attorney in Winning the Hearing
You need an experienced attorney to present complex technical defenses for a favorable verdict in the DMV proceeding. The legal representative will study the evidence assembled by DMV to find instances of Title 17 violations or technical issues. Additionally, they will interview the stopping officer and coordinate expert testimony to poke holes in the reliability of the FST results.
Even after the case ends, the attorney will use the evidence obtained in the APS proceeding to strengthen your defenses in the criminal case, increasing the chances of a favorable verdict.
Find a Competent DUI Attorney Near Me
Your capacity to win a DMV proceeding hinges on identifying and using the procedural requirement provided under Title 17 and not arguing that you are innocent. You can use the mechanical failures by the state during the traffic stop, evidence gathering, arrest, and evidence storage to contest a license suspension. However, you need a legal representative with extensive knowledge of DUI laws to put up a successful fight.
At Koenig Law Office, we have reliable DUI attorneys who will meticulously prepare your defense strategies for a fair verdict. Call us at 661-793-722 to schedule a meeting in Bakersfield.