What If Someone Misses The Deadline For The MVA Hearing?
If you request the hearing within ten days, the MVA is obligated to have your license still activated and in the good standing license. They typically do this by sending you letters saying that this letter serves as your license until the date of your hearing. If you make a request within thirty days, then they will not send you that letter, and you could be subjected to a suspension starting on the forty-sixth day if you are not able to get a hearing scheduled within that time. If you do not make any request within the thirty days, you are subjected to the suspension within forty-five days for first one, ninety days for a subsequent one, and more suspensions if there are more DUIs, typically this is how that works.
How Can Someone Contact The MVA To Request A Hearing?
If you retain our services, we can contact the MVA for you and request a hearing. That is part of our responsibility. Not all attorneys will make that request for you. It is a good idea to have the attorney make the request. Typically, the DMV will call the attorney to schedule an appropriate hearing date rather than send out a specific hearing date that you may or may not be able to attend.
What Happens At The DMV Hearing?
At all DMV hearings, you have to appear. It is a very limited type of hearing. They will question did the officer have reasonable grounds to make you take a test, and did you blow above the test? This is for your first DMV hearing, because you actually can have two DMV hearings after a DUI. The first hearing is did you blow above the 0.07% or 0.08%? If you did, you are subject to sanctions by the state. When you go to these hearings, even if you are guilty, and you blew a high amount of anything up to 0.15%, you can request to modify that restricted license at the hearing. That means you can get a work, or school restricted the license, or an alcohol-restricted license if you have any doctor’s visits to attend.
At a DMV hearing, the chances are that you are not going to lose your right to drive completely, but most likely, you will end up with a modified license that allows you to go to work, school, see your alcohol counselor, or any doctor’s appointments. There is also a second hearing depending on what happens in court. The second hearing is a point conference. A DWI carries a point system, a DUI carries twelve points, and both of those are enough to trigger the DMV to pull you in for a point conference hearing. This is where they have the right to suspend your license again. Therefore, you are actually looking at two potential different hearings with the DMV in our state.
If you are able to get probation before judgment or a not a guilty finding in your court trial, then you do not have to worry about the points or the second hearing, but many people do end up having two hearings in front of the DMV.
Can The DMV Hearing Be Won? Is It Worth Fighting For?
I have won several cases at the DMV, they do have to follow certain procedures, and they do have to have certain information in the police report. The DMV hearings are generally from police supported documents. You have the right to cross-examine those documents and challenge those documents. It is known that these documents can contain mistakes or errors, and prove fatal to any DMV case. I have had several DMV cases where no action was taken on a driver’s license. We also have had many cases we there was no restrictive license issued. Therefore, there are many benefits to going to the DMV hearings.
The only exception is for people who have blown at 0.15% or above. When you get to a 0.15% or above, you are looking at a situation where the only way that you are going to be able to drive, is to agree to have an Intoxilyzer put in your car. This prevents you from starting your vehicle if you are shown to have alcohol on your breath or in your system. As of now, there are cases when someone has a 0.15% and the device was faulty, or there are allegations in the documents that state the device was faulty. Those can be challenged, and if the administrator-hearing judge agrees with your argument, then no action would be taken, even if someone is clearly drinking and blowing over the limit.
The police officers have certain procedures that they must follow, and certain paperwork that they have to do. The MVA follows these documents on everything. Those documents have to be correct. If they are not correct, then people get to keep their license.
For more information on Deadline For MVA Hearing, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking talk Arnold F. Phillips by calling today.