DMV HEARINGS

You MUST request a DMV Administrative Per Se (APS) Hearing within ten days of your arrest to protect your rights. Typically, this is done by an attorney. At the same time that an APS Hearing is requested, a Stay of Suspension of your driver’s license will also be demanded. This Stay of Suspension will allow you to continue to drive pending the APS Hearing. Contact a Southern California DUI Defense Lawyer at Lieber Williams & Labin today protect your rights and request an APS  Hearing.  

Because the DMV is so impacted with new cases, APS Hearings typically do not occur within one month of your arrest. In that case, you will be given a new temporary license allowing you to drive beyond the one month that your pink temporary license allows.

You may or may not want to attend your APS Hearing. While your presence is not required, many Clients want to personally be involved with the process. Often, the DMV will seek to bring in documentary evidence only (such as the police report and the DS-367 – the officer’s sworn statement to the DMV), and not subpeona the officer who arrested you. Sometimes, the DMV will have the officer at the hearing to testify and attempt to fix problems with the report submitted. 

Because the DMV relies on this documentary evidence and not live testimony from the officer, attacking the sufficiency and admissibility of the DS-367 is usually the most successful tactic in preventing a suspension.

The APS Hearing process is daunting. The DMV Hearing Officer acts as prosecutor and judge. Because these DMV Hearing Officers are looking to convict you in their role as prosecutors, their decisions as judges can routinely be seen as biased. That is why the only realistic way to prevent a suspension is to hire an experienced DUI attorney.