The One Thing You Must Do for the DMV After Your DUI Arrest

Attorney Ally Keegan goes over what your #1 priority should be to protect your driver’s license with the DMV after your DUI arrest.
Office Address:
Law Office of David P. Shapiro
3500 5th Avenue
Suite 304
San Diego, CA 92103
619-295-3555
www.davidpshap...
Hi, my name is Ally Keegan and I'm a criminal defense attorney at the law office of David Shapiro in San Diego, where we help good people regain control of their future when charged with a crime. I want to talk about the one thing you absolutely need to make sure you do with the DMV if you're arrested for a DUI. This is something a lot of people actually tend to mess up and it's understandable. Because if you're under arrest, especially for a DUI, you generally have a lot going on. You're answering an officer's questions, you might be doing field sobriety tests where you're walking a straight line or counting backwards or doing something like that. You're being breathalyzed to determine what your BAC is, and maybe even you had your car impounded by the police. But one thing you really want to be mindful of is that at some point, either at the scene, or maybe if you're released from custody, but at some point your arresting officer is probably going to give you a piece of paper that is very important.
As a general rule of thumb in San Diego, it's going to be a pink sheet of paper, though it could theoretically be white or some other color. But especially if you get a pink sheet of paper read it. Because what you're going to see at the bottom of that is some fine print saying that you are entitled to have a hearing set up with the DMV, not the court or anyone else, but the DMV, and that you have 10 days to set it up. If you want to have it at all you need to call them within 10 days of your arrest. That hearing is to determine whether or not the DMV is going to suspend your license regardless of what the court does. That means even if you're never actually criminally charged with a DUI, the DMV can still go ahead and suspend your license for some period of time, just on their own and independently. The length of the suspension depends on whether you have priors and all of that, and it's very case by case for the length of the suspension.
But if you don't request that hearing, you could potentially forfeit your ability to ever even fight them suspending your license. They're saying hey, you got arrested for a DUI, so by default we're probably going to suspend your license for some period of time. Unless you call them within 10 days and say hey, I understand that, but I want a hearing, and I want to be able to fight this. Then you might lose that ability altogether. What would happen then is the DMV if you forget to do that, the DMV automatically suspends your license and then you do not have an ability to drive while you're trying to figure out everything else. While you're trying to call attorneys, get a handle on where your car might be, what needs to be done, where your property went, and also what's going on with court and court status.
You need to make sure you either, as soon as you're arrested for a DUI, you call a criminal defense attorney and not just anyone, you want it to be a qualified, locally experienced criminal defense firm to help you out that understands this deadline, and will be able to set that up for you. Or if you need more time before reaching out to attorneys, make sure you set it up yourself within 10 days. That way when you call a criminal defense firm like ours, we can handle the hearing for you, but you've at least preserved your right to have one because you reached out within that given timeframe. Because when you are dealing with a DUI arrest and possible charges and a license suspension and everything else, the stakes are very high. Because it's not just whether or not you are able to drive in general, it's whether you can get to work, it's whether you can get your kids to school, whether you can get them to childcare.
Your ability to drive is going to affect your day-to-day life for the foreseeable future, and it matters. If you do nothing else with the DMV as soon as you are arrested for a DUI offense, make sure you either call a criminal defense attorney that knows what they're doing and knows how to handle these types of hearings, or you set up that hearing yourself within 10 days so that you don't lose the ability to down the road. If you have been arrested for a DUI, you're facing criminal charges, or you have questions about the DMV administrative per se hearing, which is what they call it. Go ahead and give us a call our phone number is [phone] and we can talk you through it.

[@vikingstorm32]

In minnesota we have a 7 day permit. Within this 7 days its important to atleast get your license reinstated which costs $680 then an additional $46. Even though your permit lasts only 7 days, I found myself illegally driving for a few days after that until I was able to get an appointment for the ignition interlock system installed in the car. The whole situation sucks because ignition interlock sometimes takes a week or two for a time when they can install it. I wish minnesota would give us atleast a 21 day permit and for the courts to give us more clear directions on the process. This is my second dui and I was still so confused on what to do.

[@jimjamflowjoe]

do you have to wait 6 months after getting your permit for a dui?

[@dahliapothos1434]

Thank you so much! That DMV fine detailed stuff is something I did not know.