Your license
The hearing that decides whether you drive
After a DUI stop, the license case starts on its own clock, separate from court. Ask for a hearing in time and you have a say in it.
The notice you were handed at the stop is easy to lose and hard to read. Somewhere on it is a deadline to ask for a hearing about your license, and it's short: days, not months, counted from the stop. If nobody asks, the suspension usually begins without a hearing at all.
Asking is my first job on a DUI. At the hearing I can question the officer, see the evidence early, and argue for your license. Even when it doesn't keep the license, it often shows me what the court case will look like.
Step by step
From the notice to a decision
- 01
Step 1: Find the notice
Send me a photo of everything you were handed at the stop, front and back.
- 02
Step 2: Ask for the hearing
I file the request before the deadline and confirm it was received.
- 03
Step 3: Get the evidence
Reports, test records and video, which the hearing lets us see early.
- 04
Step 4: The hearing
Usually by phone or video. You may not need to speak at all.
- 05
Step 5: Work permit or interlock
If the license is suspended, whether you can still drive to work.
- 06
Step 6: The court case
What the hearing showed shapes what we do next in court.
Hearing questions
About the license hearing
Is the hearing the same as court?
No. It's an administrative hearing about your license only, run by a hearing officer, not a judge. It can't convict you of anything, and the court case can't settle it.
I missed the deadline. Is it too late?
Call anyway. Sometimes there's still a way to ask for a permit, to shorten the suspension, or to drive with an interlock. Some of those have deadlines of their own.
Do I have to testify?
Usually not. Most of the hearing is the officer's report and my questions. If you'd help your own case by speaking, we'll decide that together beforehand.