Sacramento Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

A person charged with a DUI in California faces two parallel reviews of his case. One path takes him through the court system in the county where the alleged crime occurred. The district attorney's office looks over the facts of the case and any criminal history of the defendant and determines whether to file criminal charges. If charges are filed, the matter is dealt with in the local superior court, with a defense attorney representing the defendant, the prosecutor trying for a conviction, a jury determining guilt or innocence if a trial is necessary, and a judge overseeing the entire process.

The other path for a DUI, less well known to the public, takes the defendant through the Department of Motor Vehicles and what's called an administrative per se hearing. The purpose of the admin per se hearing is strictly to determine whether DMV will suspend the defendant's driver's license. It does not determine whether a person is guilty of a crime and has no bearing on a person's criminal record. The DMV hearing is completely separate from what occurs in the court process described above. In fact, a jury could find a defendant not guilty of a DUI and DMV could still suspend the driver's license.

This is what happens leading up to the hearing:

• All people arrested for DUI in California automatically have their driver's licenses taken by the police/sheriff/CHP and receive a temporary driving permit good for 30 days.
• The default action after that is that DMV will automatically suspend defendants' driver's licenses, with the length of the suspension depending on whether the defendant has had previous DUI violations and whether he submitted to a blood alcohol test.
• To avoid this automatic license suspension, DUI defendants must submit a request to DMV for an admin per se hearing within 10 calendar days of the arrest.
• Once the hearing has been requested, DMV issues another temporary license that's good until the outcome of the hearing.

The hearing is overseen not by a judge but by a DMV Hearing Officer. There is no jury and no prosecuting attorney. The Hearing Officer reviews the evidence, listens to the arguments presented by the defendant's attorney, and decides whether to suspend the license. The standard used by the Hearing Officer is different than that used in court. Where court trials use the demanding standard of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, DMV hearings use preponderance of evidence. This means that all that is needed to suspend the driver's license is for the Hearing Officer to believe that more evidence of guilt exists than does evidence of innocence. Moreover, different rules of evidence apply to the DMV hearing compared to a court trial. For example, hearsay statements - when one person describes statements made by another person - are prohibited in court trials but are admissible in DMV hearings.

Because of this complicated process and the less stringent evidence standards, an experienced and knowledgeable defense attorney is critical to presenting the best possible case for preserving a defendant's driver's license. If you have questions about the DMV hearing process or other issues related to California DUI law, call the Law Office of Nancy King.