DUI DMV Hearing

If you or a loved has been charged with a DUI, DWI, or drunk driving, you should hire Orange County DUI attorney William Weinberg to schedule your DMV hearing within ten days of your arrest for a DUI. Failing to schedule the DMV hearing within ten days of your arrest will cause you to lose your driver's license automatically. To avoid losing your license, you must schedule and win your DMV Hearing. To do so, please contact Mr. Weinberg and have him fight for you at your DMV hearing.

The California DMV hearing is separate from the criminal DUI charges that are filed against you. The DMV does not have the authority to send you to jail, but they do have the authority to suspend your driver's license after you've been arrested for a DUI.

The DMV license suspension is one of the burdensome consequences that a person faces after he or she has been arrested for a DUI. Therefore, to keep your driving privileges, you must schedule and prevail at your DMV hearing.

Recently, California has made some changes to the way it treats license suspensions. After an individual is arrested for a DUI, an officer may confiscate the individual's driver's license and give him a temporary pink license that is valid for 30 days. If an individual does not schedule a DMV hearing within ten days after being arrested for a DUI, the temporary pink license will expire, and the individual's driver's license will be suspended pending the outcome of the case.

Most first time DUI offenders will be able to obtain a restricted driver's license after being charged with a DUI by installing an ignition interlock device for approximately four (4) months. However, the term of the IID depends on the seriousness of your DUI. For example, if you were arrested for a DUI that did not result in any injuries or a crash, the DMV may allow you to obtain a restricted license after you've installed an IID on your vehicle.

An IID (Ignition interlock device) is a breathalyzer device that requires the driver of a vehicle to turn on his vehicle only after he has given the device a breath sample that is free of alcohol. If the device detects that you're attempting to turn your vehicle on with alcohol in your breath, your vehicle will not start. Also, the device may require you to provide a breath sample while you're driving to ensure that you're not driving with alcohol in your system.

The DMV hearing is held by a hearing officer, and the hearing can be conducted either at a physical location or over the phone. At the hearing, an individual has the right to have his or her attorney present, but he must hire the attorney as the DMV does not provide an attorney.

At the DMV hearing, an individual can present evidence, including his own testimony, as well as the testimony of other witnesses. To schedule your DMV hearing, you must contact a DMV Safety branch, this branch of the DMV is different from the DMV that you typically go to apply for a driver's license or renew your vehicle's registration.

Since the DMV administrative hearing can make a significant impact on whether you get to keep your drivers license, you should hire an experienced Orange County DUI attorney to schedule your hearing and attend it with you to guarantee the best possible chance of keeping your driving privileges.

At your DMV hearing, your attorney may challenge whether the officer had probable cause to stop you for driving under the influence and whether there is any evidence to indicate that you were driving with alcohol and/or drugs in your system at the time of the arrest. After you've been given a chance to contest the arrest and whether you were driving under the influence, the hearing officer will either sustain (keep) the suspension or reverse it.

The DMV hearing and your court case are closely related; however, they are different in that a DMV employee conducts the DMV hearing while a judge and jury decide your case. At the DMV hearing, your purpose is to convince the hearing officer that the tests were not conducted correctly or that the officer lacked PC (probable cause) to stop you and collect evidence against you. The more holes you can show in the stop and how the evidence was collected, the more likely it is that you'll win your DMV hearing. On the other hand, you can explore and introduce a lot more evidence because it's more comprehensive than the DMV hearing. Because of this, your attorney can present more evidence to the court, improving your chances of prevailing. That said, if you lose at court, the court may then order its own suspension of your driver's license and order the DMV to place two points on your driving record. The addition of two points on your record significantly increases the cost of automobile insurance.

Being convicted of a DUI has detrimental consequences on one's future; as such, if you've been arrested for drunk driving, you should promptly contact Orange County DUI attorney William Weinberg. Mr. Weinberg will assist you throughout the process, as well as attend your DMV hearing if you request that he do so. You can contact Mr. Weinberg at (949) 474-8008 or by emailing him at bill@williamweinberg.com.