A DUI, DWI, or OWI charge forces you to immediately protect your driving privileges.  In most cases, the arresting police officer will serve you with a Notice of Proposed Suspension.  This starts a five-day countdown until your driving privileges in DC are revoked. Within this limited timeframe, you must formally request a DC Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) hearing in order to preserve your driving privileges. For out of state residents, 10 days are allotted to submit the hearing request. Once you have submitted a request for a hearing, your driving privileges will be in a pending suspension status until the conclusion of the hearing. Even after a successful criminal trial, you could lose your driving privileges at the DMV for an extensive period of time because it is a seperate hearing. It is critical to act quickly and develop a strategy to protect your driving privileges.

At the DMV hearing a skillful DUI attorney may probe and question government witness testimony, the validity of sobriety tests, and other evidence in order to protect your interests. Due to the administrative nature of the DMV hearings, many of the constitutional protections afforded at a criminal trial are absent. An experienced DC DUI attorney will work to protect your driving privileges and to prevent more significant and lasting consequences.