Your License After a First Time College Park DUI

If you are a Maryland licensed driver, and only if you are a Maryland licensed driver, your license will be taken by a police officer following a first-time DUI and you will be issued a series of forms called the DR-15 and 15A, along with the scores of your breath test and several other forms. On the back side of the 15 and 15A forms is the request for Ignition Interlock. That is where you can accept the suspension and penalty on your license, or fight it with the help of a College Park first DUI lawyer. Depending on what your breath score was or if you refused it, there is a standard number of days for which your license will be suspended for a first-time offense or enter an Ignition Interlock program.

MVA Hearings in College Park

If that is not acceptable for you, you can also request a Motor Vehicle Administrative Hearing conducted by the Office of Administrative Hearings. There is a separate date and time for the hearing and it is done in front of an Administrative Judge, with a College Park DUI attorney by your side. The hearings will be less formal. It is an opportunity for you to have your license returned with a restriction on it for 45 days for a first offense with a breath score of .08 to .14. If it is greater than .15 then unfortunately you are not going to be eligible for a restricted license and that is where you can use the Ignition Interlock. If you choose not to, then your license is suspended for 90 days.

Challenging License Supsensions

You absolutely can challenge any suspension of your license if you feel the stop by the officer was not a good stop, the officer’s conduct was not proper in executing a DUI-related stop, or you think it is prejudiced in some manner. At an administrative hearing you can argue that the officer’s responses or conduct were not proper or something was inconsistent with the way a DUI stop should be done, and that your rights were violated in some fashion. Therefore, administratively your license should not be suspended. There are a lot of circumstances which can affect the outcome, which is why it is important to get in touch with a College Park lawyer very quickly.

Applying for a Restricted License

It is possible to apply for a restricted license, and the way to get a restricted license would be at the Motor Vehicle Administrative Hearing. When you contact your attorney, he can explain how to fill out the back of the DR-15A form where there is a section titled hearing request at the top in red. The form also tells you where you send in a check for $150 to request the Administrative Hearing. Again, this is only if you are a Maryland licensed driver. If you are not from Maryland you would not request an MVA hearing, because Maryland cannot rule on your license at this time.

The College Park District and Circuit Courts are part of the Judiciary and the MVA is an Administrative Agency. Your matter before the MVA is what will affect your license; restriction, suspension or interlock. Even if you win your trial for a matter including a refusal to submit to a breath test, you are still bound to be on Ignition Interlock for one year or face a license suspension of 270 days. You are bound to finish out your suspension. If you are on a 45-day restriction, you remain on a 45-day restriction. These administrative penalties are applied consistently across the board because the administrative function of your license is different from the court’s judicial decision.