Upon being cited for DUI, you face penalties in two separate legal forums. One forum is the criminal court where you face criminal penalties for DUI. The other forum is Department of Licensing (DOL) for Washington State which determines what restrictions will be placed on your driving privileges due to DUI (i.e., whether your license will be suspended or revoked). In the present article, I will only provide some basic information on the steps to obtaining a DOL hearing.

Upon being charged with DUI, you will receive a form which allows you to request a DOL hearing to challenge the prospective restrictions to your driving privileges. If you don’t receive the DOL hearing request form or lose it, you can always go to http://www.dol.wa.gov/driverslicense/hearingsrequest.html and request a hearing online or print out the form and mail it to DOL. Remember, you must request a DOL hearing within 20 days following the arrest (this time limit applies only if you took a breath test, but does not apply to blood tests). If a request is not timely made then you will waive your right to a DOL hearing. The request for a hearing must be accompanied with a check or money order for $375. If you are indigent and desire to request that the fee be waived, you should fill out a separate form which can be accessed at http://www.dol.wa.gov/forms/525010.pdf. If you have an attorney, make sure that you fill out the section where you provide information on your attorney so that he or she obtains notice of your hearing date and time along with a copy of the police report which documents the arresting officer’s version of the facts which led to your DUI arrest. Upon submission of your hearing request form, you should receive notice of a hearing after a few weeks.

Why should you request a DOL hearing? There is approximately only a 20% chance of prevailing at a DOL hearing. For this reason, some feel that a DOL hearing is a waste of time and money. Others are simply not aware of the significance of a DOL hearing so they avoid or ignore it. If you don’t request a hearing then you will still be able to drive for 60 more days after which DOL will either suspend or revoke your license. However, by requesting a hearing, DOL will delay suspension or revocation of your license until the hearing officer issues a decision in your case. And for many, restrictions on driving privileges is just as important, if not more so, then the criminal penalties imposed for DUI.

If you are facing DUI charges, feel free to call DUI Law Firm to make an appointment with the firm’s attorney, M. Varn Chandola. If you are unable to come to our offices in Seattle and Bellevue, then our attorney will attempt to meet you at a location of your convenience as long as you live within King, Pierce and Snohomish counties and as far away as Olympia. To learn more about DUI Law Firm please visit www.duilawfirmwa.com or call at (206) 356-5152.