Win at the DMV
The Department of Motor Vehicles has a goal: they want to suspend your license. If you suffer a DUI arrest in Marin, Napa or Sonoma County, you need an experienced DUI lawyer to assist you in your DMV and court related matters.
After a DUI arrest, police seize a driver’s license. Police then issue the driver a temporary license, also entitled notice of suspension and order of revocation. This license is only valid for 30 days UNLESS, during the first 10 days following its date of issuance, the DMV is contacted and an administrative per se hearing is requested.
The goal is to keep your driving privileges and avoid a DUI. To do so, after a DUI arrest, you must understand how the DMV works so that you can beat them at their own game.
In the United States, we pride ourselves on judges being fair and impartial. To preserve a judge’s neutrality, there are some simple principles that must be followed. First, a judge cannot take money from one side or the other as a salary or otherwise. Second, a judge cannot advocate or be the spokesperson of one side or the other.
If you were to walk into a courtroom and discover that the judge were an employee the other side and/or the judge was the other side’s attorney or advocate, you understandably would question how the judge could possibly be fair and impartial to you.
Well, unlike any other judicial forum in the United States, those are exactly the problems with a DMV hearing!
The hearing officer at DMV hearings is not neutral because the hearing officer is receiving a salary from the very organization that is out to suspend your license: the DMV! Equally disturbing, the hearing officer is the advocate of the DMV’s position. That is, if you attend a DMV license hearing, you will notice the conspicuous absence of any attorney for the DMV. In any other court setting, there is a judge (independent and impartial) on the bench and each side typically is represented by an attorney. Except at the DMV. The DMV hearings have no DMV attorneys present, yet they have a representative in the room. The hearing officer is their representative and advocate!
So, unlike any other court setting, not only does the hearing officer work for the other side (the DMV) as an employee, but the hearing officer is actively promoting the position of the DMV!
Despite these formidable obstacles, there are ways to keep your driving privileges intact! If you have a DUI arrest in Marin, Napa or Sonoma County, please contact an experienced DUI attorney like Mark Blair to discuss DMV strategies!
The DMV must prove all three of the following issues. All we have to do is to refute one of the three for you to keep your license intact. The three issues are
1. Did the police officer have reasonable cause to believe that you were driving a motor vehicle in violation of Section 23152, 23153 or 23154 of the California Vehicle Code?
2. Were you lawfully detained while on DUI probation or lawfully arrested if 0.08% or more BAC?
3. Were you driving a motor vehicle when you had 0.01% BAC or more by weight of alcohol while on DUI probation; 0.04% BAC or more by weight of alcohol while driving a commercial vehicle or 0.08% or more BAC by weight of alcohol?
Your DUI defense can be successful at the DMV by
1. Challenging the reason or reasons that police initially stopped you
2. Disputing the reason or reasons that police arrested you
3. Exposing the problems associated with breath tests
4. Demonstrating flaws in the blood test procedures
5. Revealing errors in the police report that show the poor quality of police investigatory work
To achieve the best possible outcome with your DMV hearing, please contact DUI attorney like Mark Blair/ Please call Mark at (415) 664-4343 as soon as possible for a free, informative and confidential consultation. Mark has successfully handled thousands of DMV hearings for persons who have had a DUI arrest.