Driving Privileges

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We know that not being able to drive can have serious consequences on your life and we will work to ensure you miss no, or as little as possible, time from driving.

If you are arrested for a DWI, the effect of such an arrest in relation to your driving privileges depends on whether you:

1. Had a blood alcohol content of .08 or greater, or
2. Refused to submit to a blood alcohol contest test.

If you tested with a blood alcohol content of less than .08%, the Missouri Department of Revenue will take no action against your license. (But, you can still be charged with a DWI, criminally).

You MUST take action within 15 days of being arrested in order to continue driving

If you had a blood alcohol content of .08% or greater, the officer who arrested you should have taken your license. The officer should have given you a permit to drive for 15 days. You MUST request an administrative hearing if you wish to drive beyond this 15 day period (otherwise your suspension from driving will begin on the 16^th day following your arrest). If you request an administrative hearing, this will be conducted before a hearing officer from the Missouri Department of Revenue at some point in the future (beyond the initial 15 day permit to drive), but your suspension will be "stayed," meaning you can continue to drive until the hearing officer makes a decision (or you withdraw your request for a hearing).

If you refused to submit to a blood alcohol content test, the officer who arrested you should have given you a permit to drive for 15 days. But, you MUST, within 30 days of your arrest, file a Petition for Review (PFR) in the Circuit Court of the County where the arrest occurred. If you do not file such a Petition within 15 days, however, you cannot continue to legally drive. If you file a PFR within 15 days, your driving suspension will be "stayed" (you can continue to drive) until your case is decided.

Administrative Hearing

Administrative hearings are not often successful for most attorneys. Not because they are not winnable. They are lost many times solely because many St Louis DWI attorney's handling such hearings often times do not go to the hearing to fight for their client....

At The Law Offices of Mark Dean, we will not charge you an exorbitant amount to appear at such a hearing. It is vital to subpoena the police officer to testify. The police officer's report is often laden with errors, or the field sobriety test procedures used to arrest were not properly followed. Additionally, there may have been numerous problems with the blood alcohol machine or testing procedures. These problems can only be brought to the attention of a hearing officer via live, in person, and aggressive cross examination of the officer.

Following our review of the police report, we can assess your chances of winning at an administrative hearing. In any event, it is vital to request this hearing within 15 days of your arrest to ensure you can keep driving while you determine whether to go through with a hearing or not.

Petition for Review

If a Petition for Review is timely filed (normally in a case involving a refusal to submit to a blood alcohol content test), and it is your first DWI, we can often, depending on various factors, keep you driving without any interruption without even having to go through a hearing. If not, Mark Dean is skilled at pointing out inconsistencies in an officer's police report, demonstrating that the field sobriety tests are invalid, or showing the breathalyzer procedures or results are questionable.

Whatever your situation may be, only an experienced DWI/traffic law attorney, such as Mark Dean, can keep you driving, or get you driving with as limited an interruption as possible. We know that not being able to drive can have serious consequences on your life and we will fully assess your situation and likelihood of success at a free initial consultation. Call our office as soon as possible after a DWI arrest as the time on your clock to save your driving privileges begins to run at the time of the arrest.

Please contact The Law Offices of Mark Dean for a free phone consultation (followed by a free 15 minute in person office consultation) at 314-872-2120 or 1-800-431-3212.