DMV/DUI and the 10 Day Rule

DMV/DUI and the 10 Day Rule

It is an offense punishable by law if you are caught driving under the influence (DUI). One of the likely penalties you get is suspension of your license. Fortunately, you can prevent this from happening by making a request at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for your hearing. The catch here however is that you only have 10 days to do so hence ‘the 10 day rule’.

Your date with the DMV will help you protect your rights and your case will be in a much better position. If you don’t take your DUI case seriously, think about the inconvenience of not having to drive your car for a whole year or even worse spending some part of your life in a cell. This is not your typical traffic or parking ticket, DUI is a serious offence.

The 10 Day Rule:

When you are arrested for DUI, you license is seized immediately by the officer in what is referred to as ‘Stop and Snatch’. The California Administrative Per Se Law directs that an officer can seize and suspend your driver once he or she stops you and suspect that you have been driving under influence. The officer is further directed to serve you with a ‘Notice of Suspension’ through the DMV Form DS-3367.

Now you can stop the suspension by calling the DMV and scheduling an Administrative Per Se Hearing within 10 days of the arrest. The specific office that handles the law enforcement agency that arrested you at the Department of Driver safety must be called within 10 days after the arrest and notified of the desire to have a stay of suspension and an APS hearing. From there, a date for the hearing will be set and you will get a longer lasting temporary license. On the day of the hearing, your DUI attorney will argue your case, citing any insufficiencies and errors that could see you get back your license.

Main Hearing Issues:

There are several hearing issues that can be used to help with your case. This is of course after you have already secured a DMV DUI hearing date by making that important call within the 10 day rule window. Among the hearing issues that could help you, a need to drive because of your job, your health or other similar reasons will never be entertained by the DMV as a hearing issue. With a good Fresno DUI attorney, you will be able to make good headway with the following hearing issues:

1.  Lawfulness of the arrest.
   This will examine the lack of sufficient law observations in the report by the police that would have established reasonable doubt or probable cause to detain you.

2.  Lawfulness of the detention.
   This will question the possibilities of lack of sufficient observations to establish reasonable cause to arrest you.

3.  Refusal to take a test.
   This should establish whether you actually refused to take or complete a test or whether you were well cautioned by the officer on the penalties related to a refusal to take a test.

4.  Whether your alcohol level was indeed 0.8% or more.
   The question of evidence and accurate results will be examined properly.

How Do I Comply With the 10 Day Window at the DMV?

The DMV doesn’t like to conduct hearings and therefore has several sneaky ways to avoid granting you one. The 10 day rule is actually one of the most common reasons why people get denied an APS hearing just because the initial contact was not made by the charged person within the 10 day window.

To comply with this window, you simply have to make that contact with the DMV within that limited time of 10 calendar days and secure a DUI DMV hearing. Missing that window is going to give the DMV just what they need, and your driver’s license will automatically fall into a state of suspension at the lapse of 30 days after your arrest.

The bottom line is that once you have been arrested for DUI, you will have to be very careful with the 10 day rule and the DMV. The consequences of not complying can be dire to your case. Get help in meeting the 10 day window and preparing for the APS Hearing to better your chances of getting your license and life back. Fresno Lawmen can help you with your case by ensuring that a DMV appointed Fresno CA walks the fight with you.