- April 7, 2018 |
- Category: DUI and Courtroom Process
Many Ohio residents drive to other states for many reasons, including road trips, business trips and family vacations. In addition, Ohio has five adjacent states-Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Some Ohio residents live on the border of those states and travel back and forth from state to state on a regular basis. Since all fifty states have laws that prohibit drinking and driving, it’s not uncommon for licensed Ohio drivers to get convicted of a DUI in other states. When that happens, the driver will face standard penalties for the DUI offense in the other state, including possible jail time, fines, treatment, and other miscellaneous penalties. However, maybe the most complex component of the sentence for an out of state DUI conviction is a suspension of the individual’s Ohio driver license.
Since other states don’t have the authority to suspend an Ohio driver’s license, the other state would formally inform the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) that the Ohio driver was convicted of DUI in the other state. At that point, the Ohio BMV would commence proceedings against the individual’s Ohio driver’s license. Ohio law says the Ohio BMV shall impose a license suspension on anyone convicted of DUI in another state. Ohio Revised Code dictates that the suspension shall be six months long. (Interestingly, if that same driver were convicted of DUI in an Ohio court, the minimum suspension would be one year up to a maximum of three years.) Before suspending the driver’s license, the Ohio BMV sends written notification to the driver stating that his license will be suspended beginning 21 days after the day the notice was issued. These details are codified in Ohio Revised Code 4510.17.
Fortunately, the law allows the Ohio driver to appeal the suspension. Within 21 days of receiving the notice, the Ohio driver must file a formal appeal of the license suspension. Unfortunately, filing the appeal does not stop, or stay, the suspension. That means the driver must comply with the suspension while the appeal is pending. The Ohio BMV will then provide the driver with a hearing in the subsequent forty days. The Ohio driver has a number of options at the hearing as he can try to reduce the length of the suspension or even ask to terminate the suspension entirely. Another option is for the Ohio driver to seek driving privileges for work, school and other daily activities.
The Ohio driver seeking to challenge the suspension is limited in what he can argue. The scope of the hearing is supposed to be limited to whether the person was actually convicted of DUI in the other state or whether the DUI law in the other state is not substantially similar to the Ohio DUI law. There may also be circumstances in which the Ohio driver can try to get the suspension shortened. An excellent strategy may be to file the appeal with the goal of getting driving privileges. Driving privileges can be very broad in this scenario since a legislative change went into effect in 2017. The law now allows driving privileges for “any purpose the court determines to be appropriate.” Thus, the courts now have much more leeway in granting driving privileges than they use to.
The statutory framework and procedure in this article only apply when the Ohio driver is convicted of a DUI in a state that is a member of the Driver License Compact between states. In Ohio, this is codified in Ohio Revised Code section 4510.61. The member states of the Driver License Compact include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Washington D.C., West Virginia and Wyoming. There are only five states that are not members of the Driver License Compact, including Michigan, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Wisconsin.
If you are an Ohio resident and want to appeal a license suspension from an out of state DUI, it might be helpful to contact an Ohio DUI lawyer. Most experienced DUI lawyers have the knowledge and experience to navigate this type of situation.
There are over a million laws in the United States and thousands in the state of Ohio alone. I am a top Ohio DUI lawyer who focuses his entire practice on just one. Because of my considerable experience and concentrated practice, I understand the Ohio DUI/OVI laws better than most attorneys in the state. I am passionate about Ohio DUI/OVI defense and I get results. If you have an Ohio DUI case and want a top Ohio DUI/OVI lawyer to represent you, please give me a call.
