DMV Hearing

Administrative Per Se Hearing

An Administrative Per Se hearing (A.P.S.) must be requested within 10 calendar days of the date of your San Diego DUI arrest or the date your were served with the “suspension” (the pink piece of paper). You can check the date by looking at the pink paper.

The date for your actual hearing will be about 30 – 45 days after the date you requested it and can be held “in person” or over the phone. If you want an in person hearing you must specifically request it otherwise the D.M.V. will schedule the hearing telephonically.

The hearing itself is fairly informal but is audio-taped for the purpose of providing a record for appeal should you decide to do so – in addition a copy of the audiotape may be purchased from the D.M.V. after the hearing.

At the hearing the DMV Hearing Officer will ask those present (either physically or over the phone) to identify themselves for the record and will then identify all of the documents that the D.M.V. intends to rely on.

Unless the DMV Hearing Officer has previously noticed a problem with the evidence, the DMV will typically not have any live witness testimony and will rely on the documents.

Then you or your San Diego DUI lawyer will then be given an opportunity to object to the admissibility of any of the documents. If the D.M.V. have secured the attendance of any witnesses, the Hearing Officer will then call those witnesses to testify and then you or your San Diego DUI Lawyer will be given an opportunity to cross-examine those witnesses.

Following the close of the D.M.V.’s evidence, your San Diego DUI Lawyer will be given an opportunity to call witnesses in your defense.

Finally, after all evidence has been heard, your San Diego DUI Lawyer will be given the right to make a closing argument and motion for a “set-aside” (withdrawal) of the suspension. However, typically the Hearing Officer will decline to make a decision at the time of the Hearing and you will be informed via a written decision mailed to you within a couple of weeks. (Your driving privileges will be extended pending the Hearing Officer’s decision.)

For more information see: California DMV – hearing after a DUI arrest

The San Diego Driver Safety Office of the DMV

After having been arrested for a DUI in San Diego you can’t deal with the normal D.M.V. that you would typically go to if you needed your car registered for example.

There are currently 12 D.M.V. Driver Safety Offices located throughout the state for those drivers requesting Administrative Hearings (this is what needs to be requested after a San Diego DUI arrest) or scheduled for departmental re-examinations.

City of Commerce
El Segundo
Fresno
Irvine
Oakland
Oxnard
Sacramento
San Bernardino
San Diego
San Francisco
San Jose
Van Nuys

The San Diego office is located at 9174 Sky Park Court, Suite 200, 92123-2666 and can be reached by Phone at or Fax at (858) 627-3925.

If you call within 10 days to request a hearing don’t be surprised if the operator asks you some questions and then tells you that you don’t need a hearing. Insist on a hearing – regardless of what they say – or better yet contact our San Diego DUI lawyers and have us set the hearing.