DMV Hearing

Two Separate Cases, Two Separate Outcomes

This is the part almost nobody understands, and it costs people their licenses.

They run on separate tracks with separate rules. You can win one and lose the other. Charges dismissed in criminal court do not automatically restore your license, because the DMV made its own finding under a lower standard.

Both have to be defended.

What Happens After a DUI Arrest

At the arrest. The officer confiscates your license and issues an Order of Suspension and Temporary License — usually a pink sheet. That document is your license, and it’s typically valid for 30 days.

Days 1–10. This is the window to request the Administrative Per Se hearing. The request must reach the DMV Driver Safety Office within ten days of the arrest date.

Once requested. The suspension is stayed pending the hearing. You keep driving while the case is pending, sometimes for months.

The hearing. Conducted by telephone or in person at a DMV Driver Safety Office. Your attorney can appear on your behalf.

The decision. Either the suspension is set aside — meaning it doesn’t happen at all — or it’s upheld and takes effect.

What Is an APS Hearing?

APS stands for Administrative Per Se — an administrative proceeding, not a court case. It’s held at a DMV Driver Safety Office and presided over by a DMV hearing officer.

Here’s the structural reality worth knowing: the hearing officer is a DMV employee, and in practice that person both presents the department’s case and decides the outcome. There’s no judge, no jury, and no prosecutor in the usual sense.

That sounds discouraging, and it’s a reason people give up on these hearings. It shouldn’t be. The hearing also carries rights that make it genuinely winnable:

• You can subpoena the arresting officer and cross-examine them under oath
• You can request discovery — the police report, the breath machine’s calibration and maintenance records, the officer’s sworn statement
• You can present your own evidence and witnesses
• Your attorney can appear for you, so you may not need to be there at all
• The DMV bears the burden of proof on every issue

A hearing where the officer doesn’t appear, or where the paperwork doesn’t hold up, is a hearing that can be won.

What the DMV Has to Prove

In a standard 0.08% case, the DMV must establish three things by a preponderance of the evidence:

1. Did the officer have reasonable cause to believe you were driving a vehicle in violation of the DUI laws?
2. Were you lawfully arrested?
3. Were you driving with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08% or higher?

Each is a separate point of attack.

Reasonable cause fails where the traffic stop lacked a valid basis — weaving within a lane, an anonymous tip, or a hunch may not be enough.

Lawful arrest fails where procedure broke down, including problems with the admonition or the arrest itself.

The 0.08% finding depends on the chemical test, and chemical tests depend on machines, calibration logs, observation periods, and operator certification — all of which are discoverable and all of which fail with some regularity.

Refusal Cases Are Different

If you’re alleged to have refused a chemical test after a lawful arrest, the hearing addresses additional questions — including whether you were properly told that refusing would result in a suspension, and whether you in fact refused.

Refusal carries a longer suspension than a failed test, and generally no restricted license. These cases are harder and more consequential, and the admonition requirements are strict — which also means they’re frequently not met.

What Winning Looks Like

Set aside. If you prevail, the suspension is set aside entirely. No suspension, no reinstatement fee, no mark on your record from the administrative action.

Restricted license. Where a suspension is upheld, a restricted license may be available in some circumstances — typically allowing you to drive to work, to DUI school, and in the course of employment. Eligibility depends on the circumstances and usually involves an ignition interlock device.

Note: a DUI conviction in criminal court triggers its own separate suspension. Winning the DMV hearing protects you from the administrative suspension, but the criminal case still has to be defended.

→ DUI Defense

Why a Former Prosecutor Matters at a DMV Hearing

DMV hearings turn almost entirely on the paperwork: the officer’s sworn statement, the arrest report, and the chemical test documentation. Those are the same documents that support the criminal case.

Polina Logrue spent her career at the Orange County District Attorney’s Office reviewing exactly those reports and deciding which ones were strong enough to file on. She knows what a complete report looks like and what a thin one looks like, which procedural gaps matter, and where a chemical test result is more fragile than it appears.

She also handles both proceedings together. The discovery obtained for the DMV hearing informs the criminal defense, and the officer’s sworn hearing testimony is locked in — and can be used later if the account changes.

Meet Polina →

Arrested for DUI? Do This Now

1. Find your pink temporary license. It has the arrest date on it, which starts the 10-day clock.
2. Count the days from the arrest date — not from today, not from your court date.
3. Request the hearing immediately, or have an attorney do it. This is the one deadline on your case that cannot be recovered.
4. Keep every document you were given at the arrest and at booking.
5. Write down what happened — why you were stopped, what the officer said, how long you waited before testing, what you’d eaten and when.
6. Don’t assume your criminal attorney handled it. Ask directly. Some handle only the court case.

Call (949) 758-4469 · Free Consultation

Related Matters

• DUI Defense — the criminal case
• Driving on a Suspended License — Vehicle Code § 14601
• Hit and Run — Vehicle Code § 20001
• Drug Crimes — for drug-related DUI arrests
• Expungements — clearing a prior DUI conviction