Out­come: Dis­missal of Admin­is­tra­tive License Suspension

Date: Jan­u­ary 9, 2009

Court: Office of State Admin­is­tra­tive Hearings

Actual Court Judg­ment: Actual Court Judgment-Businessmans license sus­pen­sion dismissed

Descrip­tion

Joey is a Savan­nah busi­ness­man. When Joey was pulled over and arrested for DUI, the police offi­cer said he had refused to take the breath test. In Geor­gia, such a refusal results in an admin­is­tra­tive license sus­pen­sion (ALS) of dri­ving priv­i­leges for a year. Joey knew his license was gone if he didn’t do some­thing about it in 1o days. While many DUI defen­dants watched help­lessly as their licenses were auto­mat­i­cally sus­pended, Joey was pleased to enjoy full dri­ving priv­i­leges while wait­ing for his case to go for­ward. After talk­ing to Joey, I imme­di­ately pre­pared the nec­es­sary fil­ings to with­draw any pend­ing license sus­pen­sion. I know that ALS hear­ings are prime early oppor­tu­ni­ties to lay the ground­work for my clients’ DUI defenses. I use the Admin­is­tra­tive License Sus­pen­sion Hear­ing to win at trial. While wait­ing for the ALS hear­ing, I pre­pared to do just that. When the offi­cer didn’t show up at court, I requested the court to dis­miss the license sus­pen­sion. The Judge said “Yes,” and Joey’s license remained valid.