“Under California’s mandatory Administrative Per Se laws, any driver who is thought to have been driving a motor vehicle with a Blood/Alcohol Concentration of .08% or greater is “presumed” to be under the influence and the immediate suspension of that person’s driver license is mandated”
A DMV Admin Per Se (APS) hearing is a lesser known aspect of the DUI process. The DMV can assume any driver arrested for DUI (with a blood alcohol content of 0.08% of higher) is guilty. This presumption of guilt allows the DMV to take punitive actions on the driver after they receive a DUI. A good DUI attorney can help minimize these punitive consequences.
A DMV Admin Per Se is an administrative hearing heard and decided by a DMV hearing officer. The DMV automatically suspends your driver’s license after getting a DUI. Rather than allowing the automatic suspension, you can request a hearing. This hearing allows you, or your attorney, to review discovery, question witnesses under penalty of perjury, and fight the suspension of your driver’s license.
To set up your DMV APS hearing, you, or your attorney, need to contact the DMV within 10 days after your DUI arrest. Although, you can request a DMV APS hearing after the 10-day period, it is extremely rare to be granted a DMV APS hearing after the 10-day period. You must submit a written request with a legitimate reason as to why you could not contact the DMV within the 10-day period. Request the hearing within 10 days after being arrested for a DUI!
You can contact the DMV via telephone by calling the appropriate DMV driver safety office.
As mentioned above, there are punitive consequences that the DMV will impose on you after getting a DUI, including a driver’s license suspension. The length of your suspension is dependent on multiple factors including if this is a 1st DUI, if you agreed to a chemical test, etc. After your suspension period is up, the DMV will require you to pay a reissuance fee and get SR-22 insurance. SR-22 insurance is “your insurer’s guarantee that you have at least minimum coverage insurance.”
The DMV APS hearing serves two purposes in your DUI process. First, it keeps the DMV from imposing the driver’s license suspension. This can be achieved by a successful argument at the DVM APS hearing. The second, and more importantly it allows your attorney, to cross examine witnesses and the arresting police officers on the record before trial. These witnesses are questioned, and cross examined under penalty of perjury. This means your attorney can get the audio from the hearing transcribed and introduced at your criminal hearings. A good DUI attorney can use the information and statements provided by the witnesses to impeach the witnesses during your criminal hearings. This can provide your attorney a good basis to get your charges either reduced or dropped.
Although, the DMV allows anyone (including yourself) to act as your representative and argue at your DMV APS hearing, a DMV APS hearing is exceptionally difficult to win, and an experienced DUI attorney will have the best shot at winning.
Immediately after receiving a DUI, you should call the appropriate DMV driver safety office to request a DMV APS hearing, discovery in your case, and a stay of the driver’s license suspension until the outcome of the hearing. Hiring an attorney in your area who is experienced with DUIs to be your advocate will help you get the best possible outcome for your situation.