Driver’s License Reinstatement Procedure

In order to obtain a formal hearing, you must make a written request to the Secretary of State. About 14 days after you make your request, the Secretary of State will mail you a hearing notice, advising you of the time and date of your hearing.

The Secretary of State must give you a hearing date that is no more than 90 days beyond the date of your request. Fortunately, the hearings are usually set approximately 6 weeks out.

A hearing officer is assigned to hear your case and to summarize, in a written report, your testimony and your documents. You will not receive a decision the day of your hearing; it may take as long as 90 days for the report to be prepared and mailed to you, although most decisions arrive within about 4 to 8 weeks from the day of the hearing.

If the decision is a denial, the report explains the reasons for the denial. The report will instruct you to resolve the issues that formed the basis of the denial.

The report becomes part of the record at the next hearing. If, at the next, hearing, you fail to address the issues that were mentioned in the denial order, the Secretary of State will deny you again. You can only have a formal hearing once every 3 months, so every denial sets you that much further back in time.

If a lawyer does not represent you, you can expect the Secretary of State’s attorney to ask you a minimum of 80 to 100 questions, and the hearing officer will also question you. You must be prepared to answer detailed questions about your past, including particular information concerning all your DUI arrests and regarding both your current and past alcohol and drug use.

You will be questioned at length concerning the information contained in the paperwork from your evaluator. Keep in mind that the Secretary of State has heard every story there is to tell.

As a result, the hearing officer and the Secretary of State’s lawyer will view you as just another person trying to take an easy ride through the system. When you come into the hearing with a knowledgeable driver’s license lawyer they see all the time, they realize you are serious about the task at hand.

Not to mention that instead of it being you, who knows nothing about the law or this process, up against an experienced Secretary of State lawyer and hearing officer, you have someone on your side. The odds will no longer be stacked against you.

What Is the Difference Between Formal and Informal Hearings?

There are two types of hearings, informal and formal. If you have only had one DUI arrest, you may have an informal or a formal hearing. If you have had two or more DUI arrests, you are usually required to have a formal hearing.

Informal hearings are held on a first come, first served basis. No previous appointment is necessary. Only the informal hearing officer and you (or you and I if you hire me) are present at the informal hearing. Informal hearings are not recorded, and the decision is explained in a short letter.

If you are denied at an informal hearing, you can have another hearing 30 days after the previous one. However, you have no right to appeal the decision reached at an informal hearing.

In order to have a formal hearing, someone must make a written request to the Secretary of State. In response, the Secretary of State will provide written notice of the date and time of the hearing, usually about 6 weeks after the request was submitted.

Formal hearings are tape-recorded, and the decision comes in the form of a detailed order that is several pages in length. Besides the hearing officer, you and me, a lawyer for the Secretary of State will also be in the hearing room.

You have the right to appeal a formal hearing decision to the circuit court. You are entitled to have a formal hearing once every 3 months.

At times, even though someone is eligible for an informal hearing, I will recommend that he attend a formal hearing. If I make that recommendation, it is usually because the case is complicated in some manner.

For more information on Secretary Of State DMV Hearing Procedure, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (847) 623-2424 today.

There are 3 primary classification levels. Two of the levels have sub-classifications.

Level I applies to someone with only one DUI arrest. If you have two or more total DUI arrests, you cannot be Level I. The only requirement for someone who is classified Level I is completion of a 10-hour Driver Risk Education (DRE) course.

However, even if you only have one DUI arrest, you cannot be Level I if you either refused the breath test or took the breath test and registered between .15 and .19. Your classification in that case must be at least Level II moderate risk.

If you are classified Level II moderate risk, you must complete the DRE course. In addition, you must complete at least 12 hours of early intervention alcohol counseling.

The next classification is Level II significant risk. Anybody, regardless of the number of DUI arrests, who registers .20 or higher on the blood or chemical breath test (Breathalyzer) must be classified at least Level II significant risk.

A second DUI arrest will result in your being classified as Level II significant risk if in the past you were convicted of DUI, or were placed on court supervision for DUI, or were arrested for a DUI that was later reduced to reckless driving, or even if you were acquitted (found not guilty or the charge was dismissed) of DUI but were, as a result of the DUI for which you were acquitted, suspended for failing or refusing the breath or blood test. These rules apply regardless of the age of the first arrest or the time between the arrests.

If you are classified Level II significant risk, you must complete DRE. In addition, you must undergo at least 20 hours of alcohol treatment and, in most cases, complete aftercare.

There are two Level III high-risk classifications. If you have 3 or more symptoms of dependency, you must be classified as Level III alcohol dependent, regardless of the number of DUI arrests.

If you are classified as dependent, you are not required to complete DRE. However, you must complete either inpatient alcohol treatment or 75 hours of intensive outpatient counseling.

You are further required to demonstrate that for at least the last 12 months before the hearing, you have been abstinent from all alcohol and illegal drugs. “Abstinence” means no use whatsoever of alcohol or drugs.

Finally, you must prove that you have established an ongoing support program to assist you in continuing your abstinence. Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is known as a traditional support program because the Secretary of State is familiar with it and the program is widely recognized.

You must document your AA attendance with at least 3 letters from fellow AA members. Sign-in sheets are not a suitable substitute for letters.

The Secretary of State will accept a support program other than AA if it is properly documented and the Secretary of State is satisfied the program is sufficient to help you abstain in the future. Examples of nontraditional support programs are church, family and friends, and AA-type programs that do not include the spiritual or religious focus of AA.

If you intend to rely upon a nontraditional support program, you must be prepared to identify at least 3 individuals who are part of the support program, and you are required to obtain letters from each of them. You must also be able to explain to the Secretary of State how this program and the individuals who are part of it help you refrain from drinking alcohol.

In general what the Secretary of State is looking for as members of a nontraditional support program are individuals who provide you with assistance in dealing with the challenges that life presents to all of us, challenges that in the past you met by resorting to alcohol and/or drugs. While not a strict requirement, the Secretary of State also has a preference for a program in which at least one of the individuals in the group has battled a substance abuse problem in the past.

If church is your support program, it is helpful, although not required, if church doctrine frowns upon the use of alcohol and drugs or requires members to be of high moral character. Furthermore, the Secretary of State is more receptive to a church-based support program if the church has study groups that focus upon substance abuse problems.

Many individuals who are classified as alcohol dependent and who are not attending AA find themselves baffled about what their support program should be. Lacking proper legal advice, these individuals may enter AA halfheartedly.

When they are put under a microscope at the hearing, which they will be, about AA, their lack of commitment to AA becomes apparent to the hearing officer who makes the decision in their case. Those people are denied because they are unable to prove that they have established an effective support program.

The final classification is Level III high-risk nondependent. Anybody who has had 3 or more arrests for DUI within a period of 10 years must be classified at least Level III nondependent. This classification applies only if the high-risk person has fewer than 3 symptoms of dependency as determined by the evaluator and the treatment agency.

Someone classified as Level III high-risk nondependent must complete 75 hours of alcohol classes, the same as someone classified dependent. However, the nondependent person is not required to have a support program (either traditional or nontraditional) and is not required to prove 12 months of abstinence. That person must demonstrate 12 months of non-problematic use of alcohol.

For more information on Classification Levels Of Reinstatement Hearing, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (847) 623-2424 today.

It is highly likely that the first type of driving relief you will receive is a restricted driving permit (RDP). The Secretary of State has the legal authority to issue an RDP to allow you to drive to and from work, as well as drive on the job once you are at your place of employment.

The Secretary of State can also issue an RDP so that you can attend AA meetings and regularly scheduled medical appointments for you and family members. If you are a student, you may request an educational driving permit to drive to school and between classes.

The Secretary of State also has the authority to issue day care permits. These allow household members to take and pick up their children from day care.

You may not request full reinstatement until you have used the permit for 9 months. After having your RDP for 9 months you must have another formal hearing to request your full license.

How Can An Attorney Help Me In A Reinstatement Hearing?

There are definite benefits a lawyer such as myself who concentrates in driver’s license hearings would provide you. For instances, having the minimum required paperwork does not come close to guaranteeing that the Secretary of State will be satisfied, after hearing your testimony, that your evaluation and other paperwork is adequate.

The evaluator, working with me, should play a critical role in making certain that the paperwork is the highest-quality necessary to increase your chances of obtaining driving relief. Unfortunately, just as in all other walks of life, a good evaluator will make the extra effort; an ineffective evaluator will do the minimum necessary to get by.

Of course, sometimes I may not be familiar with any evaluators in your geographic area. Or, the process may be too far along for me to work with one of the evaluators that I know.

Even in these circumstances, I can provide the evaluator with guidance and/or decrease his or her workload. I have found that most evaluators are willing to work with me once they realize that I am willing to do whatever is possible to help you.

Another critical step in the process is the actual hearing. Before the hearing, you and I will meet to prepare your testimony. At the end of our meeting, I will have asked you, and we will have discussed your response to, every question you will be asked at the hearing, or at least every question that is important to your case. However, I cannot control your performance at the hearing.

So, there you have it. I will not promise you victory but I will, however, guarantee that: your paperwork will be prepared and will be in good order; you will be prepared for the questions and answers; you will be present with a lawyer who has an enormous amount of experience dealing with a process completely unfamiliar to you; you will not be on your own when taking on the Secretary of State’s lawyer; the hearing officer who hears your case will be reasonably open-minded; and you will not be strong-armed into postponing your hearing.

Why You Should Not Attend Your First Hearing Alone?

There is a common belief that you will automatically be denied at your first hearing. The theory goes that you hire the lawyer after the first denial. That thinking is faulty.

To start with, while it generally is true that your case will be looked at more closely the first time through, a first hearing denial is far from automatic.

But being represented at a first hearing is important even if you lose. That is because your presentation at the first hearing sets the table for every hearing that follows.

If your paperwork is not up to par, the Secretary of State is, at future hearings, more likely to be suspicious of the competency of your evaluator. Those suspicions may be completely unfounded, but that does not help you.

More important than the Secretary of State’s impression of your evaluator is his impression of you. When you attend these hearings, you provide the Secretary of State with evaluations, treatment documents and possibly letters. The Secretary of State will also have his own documents, including your complete driving record, as well as the arrest reports, tickets and court disposition sheets from all your DUIs.

At the hearing, you will be placed under oath and be required to answer numerous questions from the Secretary of State’s lawyer. You will be questioned about the contents of your, and the Secretary of State’s, documents. They will expect your responses to their questions to be consistent with all that paperwork.

If everything does not match up to his expectations, the hearing officer will, in his decision, essentially brand you a liar. That label will drag you down at every hearing.

First impressions are the most lasting. Therefore, even if you hire me after a denial, you, your evaluator and I will spend a great deal of time and energy explaining the answers you provided at previous hearings.

Your chances of winning are better if I am with you. Do not lose sight of the fact, however, that if you are not successful in our first attempt, the issues that led to the denial will almost certainly be more manageable than if you attend your hearings without me.

This claim may sound self-serving because it encourages you to hire me earlier rather than later. However, my experience has been that the people who have to pay me to attend the most number of hearings are those who hire me to straighten out the mess they made by going it alone at a previous hearing or hearings.

For more information on Restricted Driving Permits (RDP), a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (847) 623-2424 today.

BAIID (Breath Alcohol Interlock Ignition Device) is a machine that is installed in your vehicle. You must blow into a mouthpiece before your vehicle will start. The machine analyzes your breath and records the results.

The Secretary of State analyzes those results to determine if you consumed alcohol before starting your vehicle. In addition, the machine will require you to take tests while you are driving down the road (rolling test) in order to determine if you consumed any alcohol after starting your vehicle.

If you have been arrested more than once for DUI, you will probably be required to have a BAIID. Most people required to have a formal hearing are subject to the BAIID program.

In most cases, the BAIID is required only for individuals who are granted an RDP rather than full reinstatement. However, if you have been convicted of DUI on 2 or more occasions (not simply arrested, but actually convicted and had your license revoked), you are a multiple BAIID offender and must have the BAIID for 12 months even if you are reinstated.

Furthermore, a multiple BAIID offender must have the BAIID on every vehicle that is titled in his name, either solely or with someone else, such as a spouse or child. My advice to multiple BAIID offenders whose name is on more than one title is to remove your name, which is a perfectly legal, legitimate and recognized means of avoiding having to install the device on every vehicle.

There are costs associated with the BAIID, all of which are your responsibility. The Secretary of State collects a BAIID administration fee up front. The BAIID servicing agent (oftentimes a mechanic or filling station) charges to install and remove the machine. The BAIID rules also require you to have the machine read and calibrated by the servicing agent on a periodic basis, something for which the servicing agent will charge you.

There are work vehicle exceptions to the BAIID requirement. If you are required to drive a work vehicle on the job and other employees also drive that vehicle, you will probably only have to install the BAIID on your personal vehicle.

What Is SR-22 High Risk Insurance?

Another requirement is that you obtain SR-22 insurance, also known as high-risk insurance. It is not necessary that you have the insurance in place in order to proceed with a hearing. You must carry the SR-22 insurance for 36 months. You may purchase the insurance at any time, even if you do not own a car or have a license or permit.

What Is The Difference Between Suspensions And Revocations?

Suspensions: The Secretary of State will suspend your license following a DUI arrest if you refused to take a chemical test, or registered .08 or higher after taking the test. The suspension that results from a failure or a refusal is known as a Statutory Summary Suspension (SSS).

The SSS will be in effect for 6, 12 or 36 months as discussed in the next topic (“Length of Chemical Test Suspension”). Provided that there are no other holds on your license, at the end of the suspension time, you are free to drive upon satisfying some minor requirements for the Secretary of State and upon payment of the reinstatement fee.

Revocations: For a first DUI conviction, the revocation period runs for a minimum of one year. If there is a second DUI conviction within 20 years of the first conviction, the second revocation will be for a minimum of 5 years. For a third conviction, the revocation is for a minimum of 10 years. If you have four or more DUI convictions, any one of which resulted from an arrest that was made after January 1, 1999, you can never drive again, even for work. Nor will Illinois clear you to obtain a license in another state. Out-of-state convictions are included in determining whether there is a lifetime ban.

The length of the revocation represents the minimum period of time you will be revoked. The end of the 1, 5 or 10 years means nothing more than that you are entitled to request reinstatement of your driver’s license if there is no SSS still in effect.

You should not interpret this right to request reinstatement as meaning you will automatically receive a permit or be reinstated. You must first undergo the hearing process with the Secretary of State that is described earlier in this article.

Therefore, do not act under the mistaken impression that if you are convicted of DUI, you will be revoked for a year and then automatically be able to obtain a license or permit from the Secretary of State. A permit, let alone driver’s license reinstatement after a DUI revocation, is anything but automatic.

Sometimes there is a confusing interplay between an SSS and a DUI revocation. You may be revoked for 12 months. At the same time, you may be suspended for 3 years. The Secretary of State cannot and will not give you a hearing to request a license or RDP until the 3-year suspension has ended.

Only once the suspension ends may you have a hearing with the Secretary of State. At that point, you are entitled to request reinstatement of your driving privileges or an RDP.

If the revocation is for 5 or 10 years and you are suspended for 3 years, you may request a permit from the Secretary of State at the end of the 3 years. However, you cannot request reinstatement while the revocation is still in effect. While the revocation is still in effect, in order to receive an RDP, you must prove “undue hardship”, discussed later in this article.

Length of Chemical Test Suspension: If you refused or failed the breath test offered to you at the jail or police station (the “chemical test”), your license will be suspended. The length of the suspension depends upon whether you took or refused the test and whether you are a “first offender”.

First Offender: For purposes of determining the length of the suspension for the most recent DUI arrest, if you have not been arrested for DUI in the previous 5 years, you are considered a first offender, even if there are other DUIs that are older than 5 years. A first offender who takes and fails the chemical test will be suspended for 6 months. A first offender who refuses to take the chemical test will be suspended for 12 months.

Non-First Offender: If you had a DUI arrest within the previous 5 years, and if for the most recent DUI you failed the chemical test, your license will be suspended for 12 months. During that 12 months, you cannot drive for any reason whatsoever, even for work.

If you had a DUI arrest within the previous 5 years, and if for the most recent DUI you refused the chemical test, your license will be suspended for 3 years. During that 3 years, you cannot drive for any reason whatsoever, even for work.

In determining whether or not you are a first offender, a previous DUI arrest within the previous 5 years that resulted in dismissal of the DUI but entry of a breath test suspension on your record prevents you from being a first offender if you refused the test for the previous DUI. Only if you took the test for the previous DUI following a trial and were found not guilty of the previous DUI would you qualify as a first offender.

Undue Hardship:

You may be required to prove that you have a driving-related hardship. For a work permit (RDP), we must show that your inability to drive has affected your job and/or your income.

Some examples of undue hardship would exist if, because of your inability to drive, you have been:

Absent from, or late arriving to, work on a frequent basis;

Deprived of the chance to earn overtime pay;

Threatened with being fired if you do not obtain an RDP;

Disciplined;

Passed over for a promotion or for a better-paying job; or,

Fired from, or been unable to accept, a job.

If you are a member of a Union, hardship would exist if you missed jobs available through the Hall because you could not drive to the jobs, or turned down so many jobs that the Hall has stopped calling you or calls you only as a last resort.

Another type of hardship exists if an employer has promised to hire you if you obtain a permit. Those are called prospective employers.

It is not enough that someone, whether you or another person, or both, has been inconvenienced because you cannot drive. Nor is it enough that your boss says you not having a license is a hardship on the company, or that you are “worried” about your job.

It is essential that you obtain a letter from your employer (or Union) supporting your claim of hardship. Letters that sing your praises, comment about your reliability, etc. are NOT what the Secretary of State wants.

For more information on Breath Alcohol Ignition Interlock Device, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (847) 623-2424 today.

If your license is suspended or revoked due to a previous DUI, and if you are caught driving, you have a number of problems with which to deal. In the first place, it is difficult to defend such a charge. All the State’s Attorney need prove is that the police officer observed you driving and at that time you were driving, you were suspended or revoked.

Upon being convicted for driving on a suspended or revoked license due to a previous DUI, you are in theory eligible for court supervision once every 10 years. However, most judges are extremely reluctant to grant court supervision for this offense.

You can expect to serve 10 days in jail, with no good time credit, upon being convicted. Sentencing alternatives such as work release or weekends are not available during these 10 days. It is all straight time.

A possible option is 240 hours of community service. The problem with this sentence is that it requires such a time commitment. In any event, many judges are opposed to community service of that length because the majority of individuals do not complete the community service within the time allowed.

In addition to jail, you will face a new suspension or revocation equal in length to the original suspension or revocation. For example, if you were originally suspended for a year, the driving while suspended conviction will result in a suspension for an additional year.

You do not have to be breaking the law in order to be caught driving on a suspended or revoked license. If you are hit from behind in an automobile accident, the police will be called to the scene and you will be arrested for driving while suspended or revoked.

If the police stop you because your license plate light is burned out, you will be ticketed for driving while suspended or revoked and be hauled off to jail. If you happen to encounter a police roadblock, you will be ticketed and jailed. If an officer recognizes you as being revoked, you will be ticketed and arrested.

With modern day communications and computers, it is easy for the police, when they have nothing else to do, to run your license plates. As you can see, in none of these scenarios have you engaged in any bad driving, but you would still find yourself in trouble.

The payoff for being legal is easy to see. The penalties for being caught are too severe for you to risk driving illegally.

Also keep in mind that even if you are only suspended, you are not legally entitled to drive until you pay the reinstatement fee to the Secretary of State. If you are caught driving before you have paid the reinstatement fee, even if your suspension has ended, you will be driving illegally and probably will be ticketed for driving on a suspended license.

What Does Your Fees Structure Look Like?

Because of our experience and our flexible fee schedule, you receive the utmost value for your money. You will also be afforded the respect, dignity and confidentiality you deserve. We are not here to judge you. We are here to help you.

You need a license to enjoy better employment opportunities, to be able to drive yourself around, and to get on with your life. It is an investment in your future, and that of your loved ones. Having a driver’s license is too important for you to take chances.

To find out more about please contact our office directly. Keep in mind that hearings are scheduled several months after a request is submitted. The delay presents an opportunity to budget for the final fee payment due before each hearing.

Please feel free to call and discuss your options in taking the next step.

For more information on Driving On Suspended Or Revoked License, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (847) 623-2424 today.

First, in the state of Illinois, when granted a valid driving permit, or driving privileges of a driver’s license, it is a privilege, not a right. If we look at Illinois law, there is about twenty plus reasons why your license can be suspended, or revoked. The difference between a suspended license and a revoked license is that a suspended license is a specific definite period. During that period, you are not allowed to drive, but at the conclusion of a three, or six, or one-year suspension, you automatically get your license back. You must pay a reinstatement fee. This is in contrast to a revoked license. A revoked license means that your license has been taken away permanently.

You will no longer have the ability to legally drive in the state of Illinois, except with one exception, and that one exception is if you do a hearing in front of the Illinois Secretary of State, or the DMV board. You can try to get back some sort of driving privileges, whether it be a permit for work, education, or medical reasons. When dealing with the secretary of state hearings, you are dealing with people whose licenses have been revoked in the state of Illinois. There are several ways your license can be revoked. The two major reasons why your license would be revoked is multiple DUIs, or reckless homicide, which is usually a DUI followed by a fatality.

The majority of those two major reasons why a hearing is needed, is because of multiple DUIs, not the type that involve reckless homicides, I have handled quite a few of those as well. Those are the two major reasons why you need to appear in front of the secretary of state hearing board. Let us talk about how we go about scheduling a hearing. When your license is revoked, it has been taken away forever. The only way you can get it back is by doing one of these hearings. The question would be how you go about scheduling a hearing. I would send out a written request for a hearing along with a $50 fee, it is sent to the 17 North State Street Location in Downtown, Chicago. To give you an idea of the timeframe, if I send down the paperwork asking for a hearing, it would be roughly two months before they schedule the hearing for my client.

The secretary of state would send my client, who is called the petitioner, and my office a letter. This will tell us when our hearing date is scheduled roughly two months from the date that I sent the original request for the hearing. After the hearings, then it takes roughly two to three months to get the written response back by mail. So, even when clients come into my office and say, “Hey, my license has been taken away, because of DUIs, I’d like to get this fixed as quickly as possible”, I tell them you are roughly looking at a four to five months’ timeframe.

There is no other game in town, no other options. When I send the paperwork, I am asking for a hearing. Essentially, I am asking the secretary of state for some driving privileges, or driving relief. Now, most people fall in the category where they are eligible for one of two different types of driving privileges. They would be eligible for what is called a restricted driving permit, (RDP), which is good for six days a week, twelve hours per day. It is only used for work, education, medical reasons, or eligible for license for reinstatement of their original driving privileges.

The secretary of state on most cases will grant some privileges. They are going to give you the more limited license to restrict driving. You need to prove to them that you are not going to drive drunk, and you are not going to drive when you are not supposed to. Once again, it is for work, education, or medical reasons, and then usually after that one year restricted driving permit expires, you then attend another hearing. You are going to get your full license back, because you passed their probationary period, but that is a general rule. There are exceptions to the rule. Many times, people get back their full licenses right off the bat, but when we do a hearing, we are saying, “Hey, give us two bites of the apple. If you’re not going to give us the full license, at least give us the restricted driving permit, so I can get my guy back on the road in some sort of limited capacity”.

I need to prepare my clients for the state hearing. The best way I can describe one of these hearings is almost like a two-headed monster. There are two distinct parts of a state’s hearing. The first part is that there are certain documents, which the law requires you to bring. If you do not have those documents, they will not let you proceed with the hearing. The second part of the case is that you to have to testify in front of the secretary of state board, as to all the reasons why they should believe that you have changed, in terms of your relationship with drinking versus the person who last picked up several DUIs.

Let us talk about documents. There are various documents, which are going to be needed to do this hearing, such as an evaluation, which is no older than six months. This drug and alcohol evaluation talks about where you are currently concerning your drug or alcohol addictions. Your evaluator will need to say that after receiving treatment, he or she feels that you are in a good position to not re-offend, or abuse alcohol. This would minimize the risk to the people of the state of Illinois if you were given some sort of a license. We are going to need a copy of the original evaluation.

It would have been the evaluation completed prior to any type of treatment. This talks about where you were in terms of your relationship with drugs and or alcohol. Because of that, the original evaluation determines how much treatment you should have received. In Illinois, there are four different levels of treatment, a ten-hour, twenty-hour, thirty-hour, or a seventy-five-hour program. This is considered a high-risk program, and that is for chemically dependent people. You could be chemically dependent if you are a drinker, which is classified as an alcoholic. If you were a drug user, essentially they would be calling you an addict, although they do not use that word much anymore.

Not only do we need the two evaluations, but also we need to show you completed the appropriate treatment recommended from the old evaluation. There is multitude of different treatment documents, which would verify that you completed the recommended treatment from the original evaluation. Then some additional documents needed depending on what classification you are labeled. The higher classification you are, which would be the thirty or seventy-five-hour program, and that is called a level II significant risk program, or level III, which is the high-risk program. Your additional documents are needed above the three documents I have discussed previously.

If you were a level three alcoholic, we need to provide proof you were involved in some sort of support program, and that can be a traditional support program, known as AA. It could be what they call non-traditional support programs, which friends, and family help you remain sober, or abstinent from any type of drugs, or alcohol abuse. We need three letters showing that you are either involved in AA, and if you are going to AA, one of the three letters have to be from your sponsor. If you are doing non-traditional, you need three letters from friends, and family. You are required to give an additional letter showing how this non-traditional support program helps you remain sober. We are then going to need a high risk, or level III individual an additional three letters showing you have a period of sobriety in excess of one year. I know this would have to be from three different people, than the three people who filled out your paperwork for support.

Under some circumstances, if you are only going for a permit, a restrict driving permit, not a full license, the secretary of state can issue a waiver which you only have to be sober for six months, but that is only if you are going for a permit. If you are going for your full license back, you have to have one year of documented sobriety, or abstinent from drugs or alcohol. The last thing needed is a letter of employment, or a letter showing you are going to school, or documentation showing that you are having medical issues, because in a hearing, we are asking for the return of your full license, with some sort of permit, a work, education, or medical permit. We need documentation to backup. If you are requesting that type of permit, you need to show a letter from work; if you are looking for an employment RDP, restricted driving permit, you need a letter from school, the medical facility, or from a doctor, if you are going for an education, or medical permit.

Those are the documents, which are required to do this hearing. The other part of the case is testimony, and you are going to have to testify in front of a secretary of state hearing board. As a result, you are going to be in my office a number of times before we do the l hearing. I have questions and answers that we will go over, which are going to demonstrate to the secretary of state, that you have made “Significant Lifestyle Changes”. This would minimize the possibility of you re-offending. That is essentially taking right out of the secretary of state administrative code that is the law of the secretary of state when dealing with these hearings that is what we need to show. Ultimately, we need to show you have made strides in your life, which would minimize the possibility of you re-offending again. I am a different person today than last year.

I will have questions and answers to go over with you, and we are going to talk about various parts of your life, whether it is personal background information, details of each of your DUI arrests, talk about the treatment that you received, and talk about your drinking or drug use patterns. We will talk about your employment, medical issues, and schooling, and then ultimately, we are going to talk about what has changed for you today versus the person who last offended. There have to be significant changes. It could be something like “Back then I drank, of course I don’t drink now”, “Back then I hung out with certain friends, I don’t see them now”, “Back then I didn’t have the benefit of treatment, now I have the benefit of treatment”, “Back then I wasn’t involved in any support program, now I am”.

We are going to go over this in a very detailed manner, so at the hearing in Chicago, you have your oral testimony down pat. The way I prepare is the same way I am going to conduct the hearing, because ultimately when we go to the hearing, I will present the evidence in front of the board. I am the one who runs the show the same way that I prepared you in my office. When I say, “Run the show”, that is, I am the one who asks you questions, so there will not be any shocking questions. After that, then the prosecuting attorney will have his turn to ask you questions.

After the prosecuting attorney is done, the hearing officer, we call them judges, but they call them hearing officers, will also ask you questions. Ultimately, what they are trying to find out is number one, were you truthful, credible, and whether you really made significant strides in your life. This would put them at ease if they make any recommendations. What happens is that after we are done with the hearing, and submitting all the documents and the testimony is taken, the case will be over.

The secretary of state hearing officer will then put together his or her recommendations along with your testimony. Everything you testify to is on tape, along with the documents, or treatment documents that we submitted at the hearing. All of that stuff is going to be sent to Springfield, Illinois. Then somebody will look at all of this, and make a decision of whether or not to go along with the hearing officer’s recommendations, which means issue a permit, or do not give out a permit. Maybe issue a full license, or for that matter, just reject an outright, no driving privileges demand. The office in Springfield ultimately makes the decisions, and then three months after the hearing, we will receive the results, by mail.

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The answer is yes, every attorney should be successful. Realistically, the answer is no, but in reality, the answer is yes. For this reason, it is a very complex area of the law. Technically speaking, you are not obligated to have an attorney, you can go to the hearing without having an attorney, and the success rate is minuscule. There might people whom I have known who have been successful on their own. The answer is yes. However, the percentage is small, because the area of the law is relatively complex. That behooves you to have a qualified attorney, who has years of experience in front of the secretary of state. In my particular situation, I have been practicing this kind of law for about twenty-four years, and I have literally done thousands of hearings to get people back some sort of a driving privilege permit.

It is also important to keep in mind that if you are not successful, you have delayed the possibility of getting a license for five months as we talked before. The reality is even longer than that, because if I send down the paperwork today, we do the hearing, it takes five months from the time of the hearing. If you are not happy with the results, you are looking at an additional five months. Before the possibility of getting some sort of privileges, it may be ten months. The question you have to say to yourself is, is time on my side? For some folks, the license is not terribly important to them if you live in an urban environment, or downtown Chicago. Having a license is not nearly as important as if you live in a suburb where you have to drive to work, school, or the bank.

Some jobs are contingent on having a license. Some folks, if they do not have driving privileges, they are going to lose their jobs. Many people, come into my office, and say, “Bill, I need to get something yesterday”, and I tell them, “You’re looking at roughly 5 months”, that is the closet to yesterday I can do. They say fine, they let their employer know, and their employer says to them, “Listen, we’d understand the situation you’re in, you’re a good employee, and we want to maintain your employment with us. However, we will give you this timeframe, we’ll figure out what to do to cover for you because you can’t drive from point A to point B but that’s all we’re going to give you is this 5 months”.

Hopefully you’re successful, because if you are not, then we are going to have to make some decisions with regards to a long-term status with your job”.

What Steps Can Be Taken If Someone Loses The Appeal?

Generally, there are two options if we lose the appeal. Therefore, you get a letter in the mail saying you have been denied for any driving relief, and then the law says you are eligible to apply immediately. I mean technically, the law says you are eligible to apply after ninety days. You will not get the written result of that original hearing for ninety days, and then even if you send down the paperwork, it could be another sixty. The earliest you could realistically have another hearing would be anywhere from sixty to one-hundred and fifty days. You can do an infinite number of hearings as long as they are not separated by any less than ninety days.

You could do another hearing immediately, or you could appeal the decision if you feel that the facts in the case, as you testified to, are different than what comes back in the letter denying you. Once again in two to three months after the date of your hearing, or if you feel that the law was misapplied or incorrectly applied to the facts that you presented at the hearing, you have a right to appeal the case. That would be to the Cook county court system in Chicago, because the hearings that I conduct take place, once again, in downtown Chicago in the loop area on State Street. That is an option that you have. It is an option that very, very few people use, because of the enormous cost that goes along with appealing a case, and getting an appellate attorney who has to prepare an appellate brief.

He then has to file the papers in the appellate court, because of how long it takes. Then in addition to that, there is no certainty that you are going to be successful. All the hearings I have done, and some of the people who have been denied, I have only known one person who was contemplating appealing the decision, and whether he did I do not remember whether or not he would have went that route. However, those are the two options. Do another hearing, or appeal the decision.

Additional Information About DMV Secretary Of State Hearings

Everything is in preparation. I cannot emphasize it enough. I am a firm believer that the vast majority of these cases are won and lost before you even show up for the hearing. That is why it is critical that you have an attorney who is highly qualified in these types of cases. I am referred a lot of these cases by criminal defense attorneys who handle the DUI cases. For whatever reason, that person pled guilty or was found guilty after trial, they received the conviction for the DUI, which revoked their license. As those people are highly competent, and respected in terms of criminal law, they have no expertise in terms of dealing with the secretary of state, in a completely separate type of proceeding, and try to get somebody’s driving privileges restored.

You need an attorney who is highly qualified dealing with the secretary of state because he or she is going to make sure, that we talked about before, that number one, your documents are in order. If your documents are not in order, I, as the attorney have the ability to reach out to the treatment provider, the person who is putting together those documents, and talk about some issues I see in the documents. If the treatment provider agrees, some of the information can be modified, or clarified. Ultimately, the treatment provider is the expert in terms of drug and alcohol treatment. I have known so many of the treatment providers in this area, and because I have done so many of these hearings, I have a good rapport, and relationship with them.

I can ask them certain questions, I can make suggestions, and if they agree with me, they can incorporate that into their documentation, but there has to be that relationship, there has to be that experience. That is what you pay an attorney to do. In terms of not only the preparation, or making sure the documents are in order, but also the old testimony, the other part of the case. The answers must be consistent with the documentation we submit.

It does nobody any good for the documents to say A, B, and C, and then you testify to D, C, or D, E, and F. There has to be consistent testimony when compared to the documentation that we provide, and that is where preparation comes into play, because ultimately what comes down to this, is that everything you say is in the documentation. The documentation must contain truthful information. As long as that truthful information is reasonable in the eyes of the secretary of state, and your testimony is consistent with that, then we have done what we need to do to put you in the best position to be successful.

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The general rule for Secretary of State hearings is that everything is done on a case-by-case basis. Your attorney will not know how to inform you until they take your driver’s license number and they run it through a Secretary of State computer, they actually talk to a hearing officer, or they talk to you and have you provide them a certified copy of your driving record. You are eligible to have a hearing, whether it is an informal or a formal hearing, which takes place in downtown Chicago prior to the date of eligibility. However, you are only eligible if you are successful to get a permit to drive. It’s called a Restricted Driving Permit, an RDP. It is good for up to 6 days a week, 12 hours a day, generally for work, education, or medical reasons only.

There are some childcare exceptions, where you can get a permit for childcare or family education, but most people are applying prior to the date of eligibility for work, education, or medical reasons. Once again, the RDP is all you are eligible for, if you do a hearing and if you are successful prior to the date of eligibility. After that date, you are eligible to get your full license back if you are successful after doing one of these types of hearings.

What Do You Say To People Who Want To Get Their Driver’s License Reinstated After A Single Hearing?

The chance of getting your driver’s license reinstated after a single hearing depends on your background. There is a substantial difference between somebody who has one DUI resulting in their license being revoked, versus somebody who has four or five DUIs. There is a big difference between somebody who has no aggravation in their DUIs, meaning there is no accident where a victim has been hurt or killed, or the individual was not taking punches at cops, or was not absolutely out of control during the DUI. It varies depending on what the client’s background is, and the severity of the individual DUIs, and for that matter what they’ve been classified as. When you have a DUI prior to going and doing a Secretary of State hearing, you have to be evaluated to see what type of drug or alcohol issue you have, and then you have to do the appropriate schooling.

In Illinois, it’s going to be a 10 to 30-hour school, and in rare cases up to 75-hour school, depending on what your background is in DUI schooling. There are various criteria they use when deciding what the appropriate classification is, and what the appropriate amount of counseling you have to do is. There is no one size fits all type of situation. What I tell people is that if you are coming into my office and your license is revoked, which means your license has been taken away forever, you are never going to get a permit with one exception. The one exception is if you do a hearing in front of the Secretary of State. Depending on what your background is, it could be an informal hearing, which is a local hearing in front of the hearing officer here in Waukegan, or you have to do a formal hearing in downtown Chicago.

The only way that you are ever going to get a license or an RDP is by doing one of these hearings, and being successful. You cannot out-wait a revoked license charge. A revoked license charge is a lifetime ban, unless you take the active step to get it back. That’s the difference between a revoked license and a suspended license. Suspended is for a specific period of time. The general rule is that you can just sit and wait for that suspension to be up, and then you pay a reinstatement fee. At that point, you automatically get your license back, and you are not obligated to do one of these hearings.

If it’s after the date of eligibility, you are eligible to get your full license back. If you don’t get your full license, then a secondary license would be that permit. The only guarantee an attorney can give you is you are 100% guaranteed never to get a license unless you are at one these hearings, and you are successful after doing this hearing. I will fully make sure that not only the documents that are required to do the type of hearing that they are obligated to do will be in order, but also their testimony will be ready to go.

Based on that, their chances are good to at least get some sort of restricted driving permit right after we do a first hearing. I tell people that there is nothing hard and fast here, but if you are successful after doing the first hearing and you get a permit, and during the period of the permit you comply with all the obligations that you are required to do, whether it be having a breathe machine in the vehicle, not getting pulled over for any traffic violations, or not being involved in any accidents, then generally speaking as much as they need me to get their foot in the door, after that permit is ready to expire and they have to do a second hearing to try and get their full license back, most of the time they do not need me.

They need me to get their foot in the door, and after that it comes down to how they are going to perform based on the parameters of that permit. If they do well, then they don’t usually need me at the second hearing to get their full license back

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If you get pulled over for a DUI at a time when your license is already suspended from an earlier case, and from a criminal point of view, going to the courthouse, that makes it all the more aggravated in some situations. Depending on if your license is suspended or revoked for earlier DUIs, this current charge can be turned into a felony offense. It’s a much more severe type of offense. From the Secretary of State’s point of view, your license is no good as a result of whatever previous charge you have. During that period of time, if your license is no good—revoked, suspended, or cancelled—and you pick up a DUI, there a couple of things that could happen.

First of all, the Secretary of State will look at this and they will say that you are driving drunk, and this is the number of different times you’ve driven drunk previously. Taking that into consideration, with the fact that they took away your license earlier and you continue to drive, let alone they took your license and you get a new DUI, then you have complete disregard for the laws here in the state of Illinois. Certainly, in doing a hearing that would be a burden that we have to overcome, essentially establishing that our thought process today, the way that we would conduct our business today is completely different from the guy in the past, who not only continued to drive when he didn’t have a valid license and went along picking up new DUIs when his license was no good because of earlier reasons.

How Does Someone Prove That They Are Not a Risk To Public Safety At These Hearings?

You have to prove, by clear and convincing evidence, that your lifestyle changes that you have had in relationship to your use of drugs and or alcohol have changed substantially enough that you would pose a much reduced risk to the people of Illinois, if you were granted some sort of driving privileges. The state does not have to prove anything—we have to prove it when we do a hearing that we’ve made significant lifestyle changes in regards to drugs and/or alcohol. The ways that you do that is through the type of treatment that you’ve had, based on the documents that your treatment provider has put together that shows you have been an attentive individual at counseling, that you’ve been highly motivated to get better, and that he or she believes that their prognosis is null of you re-offending.

The first thing that you have to do is you have to provide them with your treatment documents. The second thing that you have to show depends on if you are a Level Three individual. Under Illinois law, a Level Three individual is considered a high risk individual. They are required to do a 75-hour program. They are considered to be either drug-dependent people, or alcohol-dependent people. If, in fact, you are classified as such and you do a hearing, you are required to have at least a one-year period of sobriety under your belt, and you need documents to verify that you have been sober for at least one year. There is an exception in the law that says you can reduce it down to 6 months, depending on certain criteria, but the general rule is 1 year of sobriety. You also have to be involved in a support program, whether it is a traditional support program such as AA, or whether it is a non-traditional support program in which your friends and family help you maintain your sobriety.

If you are a Level Three and you are required to have a support program around you, that’s another way that we try to establish that you’ve changed your ways, because to establish a good strong support network around you would help you maintain your sobriety and help you maintain your abstinence. The last way that you would try to establish it at your hearing is based on your testimony, based on your demeanor, based on the position that you take in terms of recognizing your past indiscretions and your past illegal conduct, which resulted in you being at this hearing today. You have to show that you recognize that it was yourself, then but look at what I have done to try and better my life. Look at what I have done to put myself into a position, that although there are no guarantees that this person is not going to drink or use drugs again, and there are no guarantees that you won’t drive drunk in the future, but that look at what I have done over the time in terms of my period of sobriety now, for argument’s sake is a period of 5 years. I report to AA, I go to 3 meetings a week, and I have a sponsor who writes me a letter who says that I am highly motivated whenever I go. He’s observed that I have not used drugs or drink alcohol for the last 5 years, but also show that through your testimony. You try to essentially show and illustrate what’s different about you today. I don’t hang out with the same friends I used to, I don’t go to the same locations that I used to, I have the benefit of my treatment, I have the benefit of my support program, I’m going to be with my support program forever, I’m never going to graduate from AA, I’m never going to graduate from needing support because this is a lifelong commitment to maintain sobriety or maintain abstinence.

Generally speaking, the way you prove it in a hearing is not only through documents, but also through your testimony. If at the conclusion of the hearing, your documents are good, your testimony is good, which means that they believe you and you show a working knowledge of AA and working knowledge of what you learned at treatment, then you are in a good position to be successful at the conclusion of the hearing.

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There are four classifications of an individual who has his or her license revoked because of a DUI type case. There is a Level 1, which is a 10-hour program and is generally for a first time offender who blows into the machine, and blows below a 0.15 on the night of arrest. The person is not considered a dependent individual, they are not considered a problem drinker. In fact, the 10-hour class is an education class. It’s not considered treatment. The classifications above that are all considered treatment type classes. The next level is a Level 2 moderate, which is a 20-hour program. The 20-hour program Level 2 moderate is for a first time DUI person who blows in the machine and blows above a 0.15, or a person who refuses to blow into the machine.

Then we have the two most severe, which is a Level 2 significant risk, which is a 30-hour program. Last there is a Level 3 classification, which is a 75-hour program. Generally speaking, those are for individuals with two or more DUIs. It will automatically start at having you on a Level 2 significant 30-hour program. You can be a Level 3 even if you have one DUI, if when you go on in and do the evaluation, and they ask you about how alcohol has impacted you in your life, in terms of what is your drinking or drug use pattern, and you have a severe drug use or drinking pattern. I drink a pint of alcohol every day and I do drugs on the weekend, you can have one DUI and they can put you at the highest classification, a 75-hour alcoholic or dependent individual that is on drugs and alcohol.

The general rule is if you have two or more DUIs, then you start off at a Level 2 significant and 30-hour program, or you are a Level 3 individual with a 75-hour program. Everything is dependent on what your drinking pattern has been like, and what symptoms you have of drug and alcohol abuse and dependency. You can’t say that because the guy has two DUIs he is automatically going to be a Level 2 significant risk, because he could be a Level 3, a 75-hour program, if he goes in there and he is truthful at the evaluation, and he describes a very increased amount of drug and/or alcohol use.

What Are The Common Reasons That A Secretary Of State Would Deny Someone Driving Relief?

The two most common reasons that a Secretary of State would deny someone driving relief are inconsistency of testimony and unreasonable nature of a person’s testimony. A less common reason would be that they thought that the documents themselves were lacking. The first major reason is an inconsistency between the testimony and the documents that are submitted. When we do a Secretary of State hearing, we are required to submit certain documents, and then my client is going to testify. If, in fact, my client testifies to something different than what is submitted in the documents, then the Secretary of State’s point of view is that you testified to A, B, and C but in regards to that same question when posed by your evaluator, you said D, E, and F . We have a complete discrepancy here between what you said to us and what you said to the treatment provider. In any event, that raises a huge question mark, and that is probably the number one reason for denial.

The second thing comes down to reasonableness. You can go on in there and you can testify as to what happened on the night of the DUI, and you can be exactly accurate, meaning what you are saying to them is the exact same thing as in the documents. We don’t have an inconsistency, but what you are saying is unreasonable. For example, you blow into the machine and you blow 3 times the legal limit, but you are testifying that on the night this happened, prior to you blowing 3 times the legal limit, I drank half a beer or I drank one Bud-Lite. From the Secretary of State’s point of view, you are telling us that you drank half a beer and you told the same thing to your treatment providers. What you are telling us is consistent with the documents you provided, but it’s so incredibly unreasonable. It doesn’t make any sense, because nobody can drink half a beer and blow 3 times the legal limit. What you are saying is not reasonable. We don’t care that you said it to your treatment provider, it’s unreasonable and therefore based on that, a huge question mark pops up and you can get denied.

The third thing is that the documents themselves are lacking. Your treatment provider who puts together these documents is just not thorough enough. I, as an attorney, handling a case, cannot put together or manufacture the documents. That’s not my expertise, that’s not what I am being hired for. My area of expertise is getting all this stuff together, putting it together and preparing my client to provide the best presentation at the hearing as possible. I try to engage with the treatment providers, the people who are putting it together.

I try to discuss certain things and see whether or not they feel after my conversations that it is appropriate to put certain phrases, certain wording in the documents, but I cannot produce those documents for them. There are certain treatment facilities in this area of Northern Illinois that are highly competent at putting together Secretary of State documentation, and then there are other places that are not. A lot of times, even though I’ve been engaged with my client’s case for months, I’ve reached out to the treatment providers for months to try and get me these documents as soon as possible. This is a precaution, just in case there are inherent issues with the documents, we can hopefully prepare them in a proper fashion. Hopefully, they won’t give my clients any of this paperwork literally until a day or 2 or 3 prior to the hearing, which leaves absolutely no time to try and modify or get the treatment provider to modify, in a legitimate fashion, some of their documents. Then we are forced to go down and do a hearing with less than perfect documentation.

That is another problem that we might run into down the road, but without a doubt the number one and number two reasons are because of the inconsistency between the testimony and the documentation, and the reasonableness as to what they drank on the night of the DUI, or what their drinking pattern was, or what they learned at their treatment. This really comes into play when somebody goes down not being represented by an attorney. You need an attorney who is highly specialized in Secretary of State matters. If you are just a layperson and you are going down to these hearings, the vast majority of times, you are blown out of the water because you don’t have any concept of how to properly prepare yourself, or what the documents should look like.

You are just taking the documents from your treatment provider, and you are going down there completely unprepared because you have no idea the questions that they are going to pose to you down in Chicago. Many times I have people coming into my office who were not represented by an attorney. They represented themselves, they come back to my office trying to do a second hearing but this time they want me to represent them, and we try to clean up some of the problems that occurred on the first hearing; problems that never would have happened if they were properly prepared.

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There are 2 types of hearings—there are formal hearings in Chicago, and then there are informal hearings. The general rule is if you have one DUI resulting in your license being revoked, you do an informal or local hearing in front of the Secretary of State. If you have two or more DUIs, you have to do a formal hearing in downtown Chicago. For informal hearings, as soon as you are ready to go into the hearing, you can walk into the local hearing office, and you can do the hearing. What that means is that your documents are in order, and you are ready to answer the questions that the hearing officer is going to pose to you. It takes roughly two or three months for them to get you the written results back in the mail.

A formal hearing is different. You have to send down a written request for a hearing, along with a $50 fee. If I mailed it down today, we would not have the hearing for roughly two months, and then it takes two or three months after that to get the response in the mail. If you are looking at a formal hearing in Chicago, you are potentially looking at five months.

Will I Get My Full License Back Or Will I Have To Drive On A Hardship License First?

Generally speaking, even if you are eligible to get your full license back, when we are doing the hearing after the date of eligibility, the vast majority of times the Secretary of State prefers to give you a hardship permit first. It’s a 12-month permit. You prove to them that you are not a screw up. You are going to have to follow the rules and regulations of having debate in your vehicle, and the rules and regulations of the highways here in Illinois. Then, from my perspective, you are in a very good position to get your full license back, because an RDP is essentially a probationary license.

You prove to the Secretary of State that you can play the game properly, that you followed the rules and the regulations, and when you do the second hearing you are in a very good position to get your full license back. The law states it this way because if the hearing takes place after the date of eligibility, then you are eligible to get your full license back. However, the Secretary of State would prefer to give you a limited probationary license permit, an RDP. Then you walk the walk, and you are in a very good position to get your full license back usually a year after that.

What Can Someone Expect To Happen At The Secretary Of State Hearing?

The first thing that happens once we walk in through the door at the Secretary of State hearing is you will see four people in the room. They will be client and myself, a hearing officer, and a prosecuting attorney, both employed by the Secretary of State. We sit down at a big table, each person on a different side of the table, and the first thing that happens is that we have a prosecuting attorney and also a judge looking at the driver’s background, a copy of his driving records, and their documents that they received from the arresting police agency. At that time, the hearing begins. They swear my client in, the prosecuting attorney introduces him to evidence documents that they have, such as a copy of my client’s driving records. There is a certain part of a police report called a sworn document report.

It’s a one part report, which very briefly details what happened on the night of the DUI—that my client blew into the breath machine or submitted to a chemical test or not. They could also introduce into evidence the fact that they did a nationwide check on them to other DMV facilities throughout the country, and that he has no DUIs from a foreign state. Then after they are done introducing their evidence, I introduce my documents, which would be current evaluations, cold evaluations, proof of treatment, if they are involved in support programs, support letters, and abstinence letters, depending on the classification. If we are going for work permit, I also show documentation of employment, such as a letter from work. If you are self-employed, I show proof of that. Those are some of the documents that I would submit into evidence. Then I start the hearing.

The client has already been sworn in, and I go over five areas of a person’s life when trying to establish that my client is a different person today than when they last had a DUI. We go through personal background information, to try and paint a picture of who the client really is, to show that he’s not just a guy that works and who has had a couple of DUIs, but there is a lot more to him. He’s married, he’s ill, or he has children, served in the US military, and has no prior criminal background. The first area I talk about is personal background information, and we then talk about the DUIs in detail. From there I talk about the treatment that he received during the most recent DUI arrest. From there we talk about what his drinking or drug use pattern has been currently, and what it was in the past.

Usually the next area I talk about is employment, and I try to break down how he works and currently gets to work and gets late to work. Then at the completion of my presentation, I try to get from him what lifestyle changes he has made, why should the Secretary of State believe he is worthy of getting a license today. After I’m done asking questions, the prosecuting attorney will ask his questions. After he or she is done, the judge or the hearing officer will ask them questions. After that, generally it’s at the completion of the case, my client at the end is afforded the opportunity to make a statement if he or she wants to. The way that they phrase it as is there anything you would like to tell us that you haven’t already said to us? Generally my clients do not, nor do I want them to make any statement as a general rule, and then the hearing is over. From this point, we wait for three months to get the written result back in the mail.

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There are a lot of attorneys that have expertise in this area, so I’m can’t tell you that I’m the only one you can hire to get a positive outcome, because that’s clearly not the case. What I would say is that I’ve been doing this now since 1988, and I used to be a state’s attorney for many years. I prosecuted many misdemeanor and felony DUIs. I prosecuted in a criminal courthouse and I was, through my prosecution, involved in people receiving convictions of DUIs. As a result of that conviction, their license was then revoked for the same DUI. Now, for the past 24 years, I defend the same cases I used to prosecute. I not only defend the criminal case in court, and I try to avoid a conviction for DUI so I can avoid my clients having to do Secretary of State hearings.

I then take my representation a step further when I represent them in criminal court. If we don’t get the results we are looking for, and their license is revoked, I can then easily transition from defending an individual in the criminal court to representing them in front of a Secretary of State hearing committee or board to try and get back their license. I can see if I am handling somebody’s criminal defense matter, and that if the case is not going in the right direction, I most certainly can get them signed up for an evaluation or a treatment that will not only will satisfy the criminal court, in terms of the penalty that the judge in the criminal court is going to levy on them, but I use the same documentation that we use to try and get them a license back in front of the Secretary of State.

Essentially I am able to handle a case from the beginning, when the person walks into my office because he was arrested last night for DUI, all of the way to the end of the case, which is where if their license was revoked, in some situations, we are able to get them back. Many people who handle Secretary of State matters do not have the background that I have, nor are a lot of people in a position to essentially represent the client from the beginning of the process all the way to the end.

Is It True That You Always Get Denied At Your First Hearing?

You do not always get denied at your first hearing. The majority of times, we can get somebody a work permit or a restricted driving permit at the very least. The chances of you being successful at going down by yourself, and not being represented by an attorney with expertise with Secretary of State matters, are incredibly low. This is because you don’t know anything about the process, you have no expertise. You are going down there not knowing if your documents are in order, not knowing how to testify, not knowing what questions are going to be posed to you, not knowing how to prepare. If you were to have a hearing without an attorney, you will most likely be denied. However, if you go down with a highly competent attorney who specializes in Secretary of State matters, the chances of you getting at least some sort of driving privileges are extremely good.

Is It True That I’m Not Allowed To Have An Attorney At The Hearing?

You are absolutely allowed to have an attorney at the hearing. You are not obligated to have an attorney, and they don’t provide an attorney for you, but you are allowed to bring an attorney in to a Secretary of State hearing.

Isn’t It A Waste Of Time To Hire An Attorney For Such A Hearing?

For those who say hiring an attorney is a waste for these hearings, I would ask them how important is your driver’s license? If your driver’s license is not important to you, then I think an argument can be made that it’s not important to hire an attorney, because it’s just not that important to you to be able to legally drive. Most people who come into my office, in fact everybody who comes into my office, takes the divergent point of view that I need my license, whether its three months since my license was taken away, or 10 years. It’s not how long since my license was taken away. I need a license. I am living this penalty of not having a license every single day. I can’t take my daughter to a softball game, I can’t drive to work, I can’t go to church, I cannot go to the store to get milk, I cannot take my wife out to dinner.

If your license is revoked, the penalty of not having a license affects you every single day, except for people who live in the city, who have the supermarket across the street, and two blocks down is the movie theater and your workout facilities. If it’s four blocks away, you can take public transportation and you don’t need a license, but if you live in the suburbs and your license has been taken away, it’s essential that you have a driver’s license. It fundamentally changes the way you live on a day-to-day basis if you are going to follow the law. If you are not going to follow the law, and drive whether you have a license or not then, I guess it’s not terribly important, but you can’t complain if you get pulled over.

The general rule in Illinois is if you’ve got a license revoked for DUI, the first time you get pulled over, it’s a misdemeanor. The second time you are pulled over, and your license is revoked, the DUI turns into a felony. They need to have a heart to heart with themselves on how important their license is. Everybody that comes into my office has gotten to the point that they understand that a license is vitally important. Nobody wants to come into my office to spend big money, nobody wants to come into my office and spend any money. I understand that, and I feel the same way when I take my vehicle to the mechanic. If I could fix it, I would save that cost, but I don’t have the expertise. By the time people come into my office, they have dealt with the ramifications of not having a license, and they are highly motivated to do everything they can to try and rectify the situation.

For more information on Handling Driver’s License Reinstatement, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (847) 623-2424 today.