DMV Process

If you are facing a Meriden DUI, you likely know that you are up against a criminal conviction and the Meriden court process. But, did you know that you also face a separate process and potential license suspension? This comes from the DMV. If you face a Meriden DUI, don’t forget about the DMV process and defending yourself against an additional driver’s license suspension. Learn more about how to keep your license on this page.

DMV License Suspension

Once a person is arrested for DUI in Connecticut, the DMV is automatically contacted. An arrest triggers a license suspension through the DMV, whether the person is found guilty of DUI or not. You will be notified of your license suspension by the DMV, as well as your right to contest it at an administrative per se hearing. Requesting an administrative per se hearing is the only way to fight the license suspension imposed by the DMV. If you request this hearing, you may receive a temporary driving permit from the DMV that allows you to continue driving until the matter is decided in your administrative hearing.

The Administrative Hearing

The DMV administrative hearing is completely independent of your court process. You can be found innocent of DUI in criminal court and still have your license suspended by the DMV. Alternatively, the DMV could choose not to suspend your license once you present your evidence at the administrative hearing, but the court may still find you guilty of driving under the influence. This is because the processes and burdens of proof are completely different in these two systems.

There are only four ways to contest a driver’s license suspension issued by the DMV because of a DUI arrest. The first is proving that the police did not have probable cause to pull you over when you were driving. The second is that you were not actually driving the motor vehicle during the incident in question. The third is that you were not actually arrested for DUI. The fourth is that you did not fail or refuse to take a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) test when it was offered to you by the police.

As you can see, it can be very difficult to challenge a DMV license suspension, because you have to prove one of the four elements listed above. Put yourself in the best position to do this by hiring a Meriden DUI lawyer who has defended clients at DMV hearings before. At our law firm, we regularly request DMV hearings and defend our clients at the hearings. There is nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying to save your license through the DMV hearing. While these hearings are difficult to win, they are not impossible, and it is worth a shot. We have been successful on multiple occasions, while many other local lawyers write these hearings off as “too hard to win.”

Help With Your Hearing

We almost always recommend that our clients request DMV hearings, and we help them make these requests so that they do not miss any deadlines. We also go to these hearings to give whatever evidence we can that our client should not have their driver’s license suspended. Not many other local lawyers offer this service, but we think it is imperative to do everything we can to get our clients the outcome that they desire. To learn more, contact us.