Posted by duijim in on January 23, 2024
Loganville offers many activities and attractions for visitors, ranging from playing Frisbee in Meridian Park to Corn Dawgs corn maze – but a DUI arrest may have long-term repercussions that alter life plans forever.
After being arrested for DUI, CDL holders only have a short window of opportunity to request an administrative license suspension hearing and protect their right to drive. This hearing is essential to protecting their driving privileges.
1. Notice of Suspension
Suspended licenses can be one of the harshest penalties a driver can suffer, impacting jobs and daily activities as well as dramatically diminishing quality of life. If you have been charged with driving on a suspended or revoked license, it is crucial that you seek advice from an experienced attorney quickly in order to protect your rights and reach an amicable resolution.
As soon as possible after being arrested, request an administrative license suspension hearing with Loganville’s legal system within 30 days. An experienced Loganville attorney will review your case, identify potential defenses and outline all specific requirements applicable to you and provide clarity regarding specific requirements that apply specifically.
At your hearing, your attorney can employ various strategies to cast doubt on the State’s evidence. For instance, they could cross-examine an arresting officer to reveal inconsistencies in his or her testimony, in order to discredit and undermine witnesses and thus weaken prosecution’s case against you.
Another strategy can be requesting an independent blood test at your hearing. This may help demonstrate that you were not over the legal limit at the time of arrest, and can show that your breathalyzer result was inaccurate.
An arresting officer could have mishandled your driver’s license or administered the field sobriety test improperly, potentially leading to dismissal or reduction to lesser charges such as reckless driving.
When found guilty of DWI, your license will be suspended as part of the criminal penalty. The length of this suspension depends on a variety of factors – for instance whether this is your first offense – with most suspensions lasting 90 to 120 days and limited permits being available so that you may drive to and from work/school and medical emergencies.
As a CDL holder, the consequences of being charged with DUI can be even more serious. A successful challenge to the Administrative License Suspension may help avoid immediate license suspension; however, that will not prevent DDS from suspending your CDL privileges at a later time.
2. Request for Hearing
Submitting an ALS hearing request within 30 days can save a driver’s license; failing which, the Georgia Department of Driver Services will automatically suspend it without giving any chance for appeals hearings to be conducted against its suspension. An ALS hearing provides drivers with their only chance to contest its suspension.
Loganville DUI attorneys can assist drivers who find themselves in this predicament. A Loganville DUI Lawyer will explain their options, such as installing and maintaining an ignition interlock device – although this option can be costly as it requires installation and monitoring of an alcohol monitoring system in one’s vehicle, making it less appealing to CDL holders whose jobs involve driving commercial vehicles.
At a hearing, those being sued will present their side of the story and each party may present any evidence they brought with them; sometimes this evidence will remain with the judge; other times it may be returned back to them.
The person being sued may file objections to any rulings or requests by the judge, and then wait for their ruling and decision. If a defendant wins their license will be reinstated; otherwise it will remain suspended until either attending a DUI Risk Reduction Program or paying reinstatement fees are fulfilled.
Consequences of a DUI conviction in Loganville can be severe for CDL holders. To understand their implications in relation to Loganville DUI cases, it’s crucial to understand implied consent laws and how they apply in terms of DUI defense in Loganville. A skilled DUI lawyer will help guide through legal complexities while building a solid defense. Furthermore, they can evaluate arrest circumstances, examine law enforcement procedures, and identify legal defenses to strengthen an appeal against your DUI charge. For a free case evaluation with one today; their years of experience will provide valuable advice as you move forward in your defense strategy based on years of experience alone!
3. Hearing Date
Misunderstandings about DUI arrest processes often arise among those unfamiliar with both criminal and administrative proceedings that accompany an arrest for DUI. Following their arrest, many feel hopeless and defeated due to believing their license has automatically been suspended without being able to fight against an administrative license suspension – this couldn’t be further from the truth, however; there are various strategies available for fighting an administrative license suspension.
First step to effective DUI defense is requesting an Administrative Law Suspension hearing within 30 days of arrest (as indicated on the back of DDS Form 1205). An experienced DUI attorney knows how to mitigate this result.
At an ALS hearing, we will depose and question the arresting officer without presence of a prosecutor present. This allows us to scrutinize their testimony at trial in order to create a strong argument against suspension for DUI; additionally we can cross-examine him/her regarding administration of field sobriety tests or breath testing issues.
Based on the facts of your case, we may be able to get your ALS hearing dismissed if we can demonstrate there was an error with administering either field sobriety test or breath test administration. If that fails, we could possibly negotiate a dismissal of DUI charges, nolle prosequi (decision by prosecutor not to prosecute), or plea bargain for reckless driving or other traffic offenses as alternatives to DUI prosecution. If we win at an ALS hearing hearing any suspension of driver’s license would also be lifted.
Clean records are especially vital to commercial drivers who must hold a Commercial Drivers License (CDL) to operate. A DUI conviction could tarnish this record and create serious difficulties when trying to secure employment or advance in their careers.
4. Hearing Results
CDL holders who have been charged with DUI should use an ALS hearing as an opportunity to challenge the evidence presented against them. Your Loganville DUI lawyer will use various strategies to cast doubt on DPS’s case against you, such as challenging probable cause to stop you or showing that field sobriety tests were inaccurate or incomplete; or contesting admissibility of other evidence submitted at hearings.
In most ALS hearings, your license suspension will either be lifted or revoked as a result of either not showing up to an ALS hearing, or through your attorney negotiating an agreement with the arresting officer to withdraw it in exchange for a guilty plea in your criminal case. Your attorney should only consider withdrawing an ALS as a last resort after carefully considering all available evidence in your case.
In the above case, the Court determined that Bremer did not adequately meet two tests to support his assertion that Loganville City violated FLSA by failing to pay its firefighters overtime pay. The first involved analyzing whether Bremer’s methodology for determining that Loganville firefighters were due overtime pay and straight time pay was reliable; and second involved carefully considering if his opinion that City had acted recklessly with disregard to FLSA was reasonable – with Bremer using unsupported premises in reaching his conclusion and creating his opinion in a non-credible fashion to reach his conclusion.