San Diego DUI Law Center

San Diego DUI & DMV Defense Lawyers are justifiably mad about how unfair San Diego DMV hearings are. Complaints from San Diego DUI attorneys are on the rise.

The

San Diego DUI / DMV hearing

is presided over by a Driver Safety Officer (DMV hearing officer) rather than a real judge, an employee of the DMV not trained in law who acts as both prosecutor and judge. As unfair as it is, she or he can legally object to your evidence, rule on her or his own objection, dually engage your San Diego DUI / DMV lawyer, and admit or not admit either party’s evidence.

According to documents, it seems that San Diego DMV Manager Brian Dawson is unhappy that his hearing officers aren’t summarily suspending all people who challenge the California Department of Motor Vehicles evidence in DUI administrative hearings, as he apparently would like to happen. In fact, it looks like there have been just too many “set asides” for his liking.

Instead of setting aside a license suspension action, most of the hearing officers do, in fact, summarily suspend licenses, even when the weight of the evidence is against DMV. According to public documents, Brian Dawson sent a memo out to the hearing officers that the few who actually did issue what San Diego DUI / DMV attorneys call “set asides” were derelict in their duties. That is scary and shocking.

Mr. Dawson apparently sent out a not-so-“confidential” email to his hearing officers telling them he was unhappy with the state of the set asides.

In a second memo to the hearing officers, the DMV Manager apparenty suggested that the Whistleblower statute may apply to anyone who could identify whichever person who originally leaked this hearing officer information to California DUI defense attorneys.

San Diego could save possibly $700,000 to $1.2 million per year if the legislature eliminated the DUI / DMV administrative license suspension hearings. Allow the Superior Courts to handle it in conjunction with the California DUI criminal matters.

San Diego drunk driving lawyers and California DUI attorneys really should be lobbying the California legislature to end this triple-hat function of hearing officers. Promoter either real admininstrative law judges and a neutral tribunal, or just have the License punishment follow the California DUI criminal case. California could save lots of money eliminating this kangaroo court scam.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *