Alcohol and drugs
You have been arrested for DUI and want a DMV administrative hearing. By when must you ask for one?
- Within 10 days of the date of your arrest. Correct answer
- Within 30 days of the date of your arrest.
- Within 14 days of the date of your arrest.
Why
Ten days from the date of the arrest, and it is a request you have to make yourself: the handbook says the right to a hearing is lost if you do not ask in time. Thirty days is the life of the temporary license the officer may give you when they take yours, which is exactly why people assume they have a month to think about it. Fourteen days is real too, but it belongs to the general rule for administrative hearings, where the deadline is 10 days from being served, or 14 from the day the notice went out. The DUI clock is the tighter of the two because it starts at the arrest itself rather than at a notice. A hearing is your chance to be heard before DMV acts, and it is separate from anything that happens in court.
Where this comes from
California Driver's Handbook, June 2025 edition. The correct answer is Within 10 days of the date of your arrest.
The rule behind this one
California alcohol and drug rules for drivers goes through the whole topic, with the page of the California Driver's Handbook behind every rule.
More on alcohol and drugs
- You are 19 and a friend asks you to carry an unopened bottle of wine in your car. When is that legal?
- You are 16 and are convicted of riding a bicycle while under the influence of alcohol. What can happen to your driving privilege?
- Your doctor has prescribed a medicine that makes you drowsy. How does California's DUI law treat it?
- What does the handbook say about how age affects a driver's tolerance to alcohol?