How to prepare for a DOL hearing following a Seattle DUI arrest

If you have been arrested for a DUI in Seattle or anywhere in Washington State for that matter. Then you face two separate legal actions. One of the legal actions deals with the Washington Department of Licensing. Basically the DOL will attempt to suspend the drivers license of the individual arrested for the DUI. The driver has an option to challenge that suspension via a telephone hearing with a hearing examiner who works for DOL. To learn how to properly prepare for that hearing continue reading.

As noted above if you have been arrested for a DUI then you face a possible suspension of your drivers license. In order to try and prevent that from happening at least through the administrative side of things then you will need to prevail at the hearing held to determine the suspension. Here are some ways to properly prepare for the hearing to give yourself the best possible chance of winning.

First make sure you get all audio/video evidence of the arrest. Including but not limited to any in car dash cam video from the arresting officer, any video of you entering and exiting the police precinct, and the breath testing room area. Often times the police report is written in a manner to justify the police officers arrest. Any video/audio recordings of the incident will show exactly what happened. And this piece of evidence can be submitted to the Department of Licensing for the administrative hearing to refute any claims made by the arresting officer.

Secondly review all the logs and maintenance records of the breath test machine. For example if the arresting officer did not follow the proper protocols following an invalid test, or another kind of error than the logs will show that and this is something that also can be submitted to the Department of Licensing in preparation of the telephone hearing.

Lastly make sure all the proper rules are followed if the arresting officer is served a subpoena to appear at the telephone hearing and provide testimony. Specifically they receive the subpoena 10 days prior to the hearing, and a witness fee is included in the envelope. A declaration of service will need to be written documenting these two items by a legal server or whoever serves the subpoena on the law enforcement agency.

Obviously preparing for an administrative telephone hearing following a DUI arrest in Seattle is a bit more complicated. Check back with our blog to learn some more items that need to be done in order to properly prepare and give yourself the best chance of prevailing.

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About the author: Matthew Leyba is a DUI lawyer in Seattle. He has been repeatedly named a Rising Star in the field of DUI defense by the Seattle Met Magazine, an honor only 2.5% of all Lawyers in Washington State receive. Additionally he is rated as a 10/10 and listed as a Superb DUI Lawyer by Avvo.com, a nationally renown lawyer rating service.