What exactly happens to your license when you are arrested for a DUI in San Diego?
Upon arrest for a
DUI in San Diego, the police officer is supposed to take your hard-copy driver license and serve you with a Temporary License, which is a pink piece of paper with a lot of fine print on it. If you fail to follow the form's fine print instructions, then your driving privileges could wind up suspended within 30 days of that date. Most of the time, the police officers will also fail to tell you what you need to do.
You must contact the DMV within 10 days of that arrest date, including weekends and holidays. The Temporary License will have a Sacramento telephone number on the top of the page, but if you are in San Diego you will want to contact the San Diego Driver Safety Office at (858) 627-3901.
Upon contacting the DMV, you must schedule a DMV Admin Per Se Hearing, which is an administrative hearing to determine whether or not your driving privileges are ultimately suspended. Upon requesting the hearing, you must also request a copy of your discovery (police report, etc.) and a stay on any suspension (meaning your unrestricted driving privileges are extended until after the hearing, which could be much longer than the 30 days). Because of all the furloughs, etc., they are currently scheduling
DMV Hearings about 45 days out from the date of request. They will schedule the hearing with an assigned DMV Hearing Officer.
The DMV is required to provide you with your discovery prior to the hearing, so that you can prepare a defense for your hearing. In fact, they are required to send it to you at least 20 days prior to the hearing, so you can issue subpoenas for witnesses, records to use for your defense.
When you arrive for your scheduled hearing at the San Diego Driver Safety office, you will go back into an office, where usually the only people present are: the DMV Hearing Officer, you, your attorney and any witnesses that you or the DMV has subpoenaed. If you have retained a private attorney, then it is usually just the attorney and the Hearing Officer alone 90% of the time. These proceedings are recorded and anyone testifying must be sworn in under oath. It is an extremely unfair process, as the Hearing Officer acts as the judge, jury and prosecutor all in one.
The DMV must meet their burden of proof of 3 separate issues: 1) Did the police have reasonable cause to believe you were driving in violation of VC23512? 2) Were you lawfully arrested? 3) Was your BAC at or above .08%?
The DMV Hearing Officer will introduce any exhibits and/or witnesses that they have to establish their case against you. The attorney will make objections to the exhibits and/or witnesses, in an attempt to keep them as coming in as evidence. If the exhibits are kept out as evidence, then the DMV Hearing Officer cannot rely upon them in making their decision.
After the hearing, there are 2 possible results: 1) Set-Aside of Suspension (means you won the hearing) and you may go down to any DMV field office and get your hard-copy license back and 2) Negative Decision (you lost the hearing) and your license will be suspended for a period of time, depending on it being your 1st, 2nd, etc.
If it is your first offense, you must sit out for a period of 30 days without driving and then you can apply for a restricted license and should be automatically granted as long as you have done the following: 1) signed up for a first offender alcohol class, 2) obtained an SR-22 insurance certificate and 3) go in to the DMV with $125 for a re-issue fee. Your license will be restricted for a period of 5 months and allow you to drive back and forth to work and back and forth to your alcohol school.
Keep in mind that this is only what happens on the administrative side and doesn't include consequences for a DUI conviction on the court side, which also triggers a separate suspension. The bottom line is, that you have to win both the DMV Admin Per Se Hearing and get a dismissal or reduction to a reckless driving (if over 21) to have no action taken against your license.
This is a very complicated and confusing area of law. You need an experienced DUI lawyer who routinely does DMV Hearings to stand a chance to save your license. My office offers a free consultation to discuss all the aspects of your case with you. I also conduct all of my own DMV Hearings, unlike some other firms who use non-lawyers to do their hearings. Yes, I am dead serious. Scary huh?