The administrative hearing would basically be held in the executive hearing office, and even though it is generally referred to as the Motor Vehicle Division, it is technically part of the Arizona Department of Transportation.
The person would have 15 days to request either a summary review or an administrative hearing. The executive hearing office would have to receive the request within 15 days, and it would not be a matter of it being sent out within 15 days, it means they would have to receive it within 15 days.
This would usually require it to be placed in the mail with sufficient time, or else it would have to be hand delivered, faxed in or sent in through an online system to ensure it was received in a timely manner. The online system would be the best idea, because that way there would at least be a record of it.
Something goes wrong at the Motor Vehicle Division office every now and again, so they might claim they never received the request or maybe they did not process it in time or there was some other problem. With a fax or an email, there would at least be a record we could show to prove it was timely requested and that the problem was on their end.
The Attorney Could Still Help After The Time Limit Has Passed
No, probably not as far as the Motor Vehicle Division is concerned, although something might possibly be done in the rare situation where the officer suspected the person was driving under the influence, so they took away their physical driver’s license if they had an in state driver’s license, or they returned the person’s out of state license.
They would also hand the person the admin per say implied consent affidavit, which would act as a temporary driver’s license. This would state that the person was allowed to continue driving with this piece of paper in the state of Arizona only for 15 days, and then their license would be suspended either for the 90 days or for the 1 year with the possibility of getting a restricted license.
Even if the person reviewed that document, followed exactly what it said and stopped driving 15 days after the date they were served, the time they stopped driving would not count unless the officer turned in their copy of the admin per say implied consent affidavit to the Motor Vehicle Division.
Every now and again potential clients approach me because on its face it appeared it was too late to request a hearing, whereas after a little bit more investigation and talking to my contacts at the Motor Vehicle Division, they may tell me the officer did not turn in any paperwork.
It would be possible to request a hearing because the officer had not turned in the paperwork, but it would also be a good idea for the client to know whether or not the officer turned in the paperwork.
The person would be doing exactly what they were supposed to do and exactly what the paperwork said they were supposed to do, but they would not be getting credit for not driving. Sometimes people go in to get their restricted license after about a month, but the Motor Vehicle Division would not know anything about why they were not driving and they would not know anything about a restricted license because as far as the Motor Vehicle Division was concerned, the person had a perfectly valid driver’s license the entire time.
The person would later end up having to deal with the license suspension without getting credit for what they did before.
It Is Critical To Have An Experienced Attorney From Day One
The person should hire an experienced attorney as soon as possible because it would be crucial to talk with an attorney within a day or so after being arrested. Certain rights and privileges would be lost over time, and the issues concerning the Motor Vehicle Division are not something a public defender could assist the person with.
It would also not be advisable for the person to try to handle it themselves because it would be very likely they would not know how to handle it and they would not know how to prevent SR-22 high risk insurance.
You Can Actually Win These Administrative Hearings
People can absolutely win the administrative hearing, and around 50% of implied consent hearings are actually won, although it would just be a matter how to handle it. Sometimes nothing could be done, although probably about half the time these implied consent hearings can be won where the officer was attempting to suspend a person’s license for a year. An experienced attorney would be able to challenge that, and about half the time they could win it.
The admin per say would really depend on what test results come back. It would actually be very rare for there to even be a hearing for the admin per say because of the way things would need to be handled. When we do fight an admin per say hearing, we fight and win because of the concern about the potential for SR-22 high risk insurance.
It would not always be a matter of winning, and unfortunately a lot of lawyers who take on DUI cases do not realize the consequences of their actions, either that or they simply do not care. They would only care about trying to show the client they were doing something and that they were winning.
I often talk to people after they get fed up with their lawyer and realize their current lawyer did not really know what they were doing. They would tell me their lawyer won the hearing, which was great, so their license did not get suspended.
I would then tell them that their previous lawyer only made matters worse because now they would be stuck with the SR-22 high risk insurance, because either the previous lawyer did not realize what they were doing, or they only cared about winning so they could tell their client they had a win, whereas in reality that would only hurt the client later on.
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