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, DL 600 ENGLISH (REV. 6/2025). The correct answer is Within 10 days of the date of your arrest..