The 10-Day Rule: Why You Have to Call the DMV After a DUI Arrest

A DUI arrest starts two separate cases, not one. There is the criminal case in court, and there is a completely separate case at the DMV about your driver’s license. The DMV one has a short deadline that almost nobody tells you about, and if you let it pass you lose your only chance to fight the suspension. Most websites get the deadline wrong, which is the part that costs people.

What the officer gave you that night

Look at the paperwork you were handed. If your breath test came back at 0.08 or higher, the officer took your plastic license and gave you a piece of paper instead.

That paper does two jobs at once. It is your temporary license, good for 30 days, and it is the notice that your license is going to be suspended.

You are legal to drive on it for those 30 days. Nothing has happened to your license yet.

The suspension is scheduled to start on the 30th day. What the 10-day rule buys you is a hearing before that day comes.

Read more: the paperwork, and what it is actually called

Under Vehicle Code 13382, when a chemical test shows 0.08 percent or more, the officer serves the notice of the order of suspension on you personally, acting on behalf of the DMV. If you were holding a valid California license, the officer takes it and issues a temporary one in its place.

The form is usually called the Administrative Per Se Suspension Order and Temporary Driver License. “Administrative per se” is the name for this whole DMV process. People shorten it to APS. If you hear a lawyer say “the APS hearing,” this is what they mean.

The suspension itself is ordered under Vehicle Code 13353.2. Vehicle Code 13353.3 sets when it starts, which is 30 days after you are served with the notice.

Three situations where the notice comes later, by mail:

• Blood test. There is no result at the roadside. The vial goes to a lab, results come back weeks later, and then the DMV mails you the notice.
• You were taken to a hospital and never personally served.
• Refusal cases sometimes come by mail too, depending on the agency.

When the notice comes by mail, the 10 days runs from the day you receive it. Not from your arrest, and not from the date printed on the notice. Vehicle Code 13558 measures it from service, and nothing in the section adds days back for mailing time.

So if you are not certain which day it landed in your mailbox, count from the earliest day it could have. Call that morning. Guessing late costs you the hearing. Guessing early costs you nothing.

How to request the hearing

This is a phone call. It is not a court filing, you do not need a form, and you do not need a lawyer to do it.

Call a DMV Driver Safety Office and say you are requesting a hearing. Have three things ready: your full name, your driver’s license number, and your date of birth. They will also confirm your mailing address, which matters because that is where every notice goes from then on.

Say all three parts. They are three separate requests and people commonly make only the first one.

Then write down the date you called, who you spoke to, and what they told you. If anything goes wrong later, that note is your proof you asked in time.

• Request the hearing. This is the deadline item. Do it first.
• Ask for a stay of the suspension until the hearing happens.
• Ask for discovery, meaning a copy of the DMV’s evidence. Free, and you have a right to it.
• Ask whether it will be by phone, video, or in person. Most are remote now.
• Write down who you talked to and when.

The Driver Safety Offices are listed at dmv.ca.gov/dsoffices. As of the DMV’s April 2026 information sheet, every office shares one phone number, (833) 543-7703. Check the current number on the DMV site before you rely on it.

The truth about the stay, which most sites get wrong

You will read everywhere that requesting a hearing automatically freezes your suspension. That is not what the law says, and the difference can matter to you.

Vehicle Code 13558 says that “a request for an administrative hearing does not stay the suspension.” Read that carefully, because it is easy to take the wrong lesson from it.

It does not mean asking for a hearing is pointless. The temporary license the officer handed you stays good until the DMV actually holds your hearing and decides. Requesting the hearing is the thing that keeps you legally driving past day 30. Skip it and the suspension lands on schedule, on time, with nothing in its way.

So where does the freeze come from?

It comes from the next sentence. If you asked in time, the DMV is required to hold your hearing and decide it before the suspension’s effective date. If the DMV cannot do that, then it has to stay the suspension until it decides.

And the DMV usually cannot do it in 30 days. So a stay almost always gets issued. But it gets issued because the DMV ran out of time, not because you asked.

Why care about the distinction? Because it means you should never assume you are legal to drive. Get the stay in writing. If your temporary license is about to expire and nothing has arrived, call and ask. Driving on a suspended license is its own separate charge, and “I thought the hearing froze it” is not a defense.

What the hearing actually is

Set aside what you have seen on television. This is not a trial.

There is no judge and no jury. There is a DMV employee called a hearing officer, and that person runs the hearing and decides it. The same person presents the DMV’s evidence and then rules on it. That is not a mistake in how I described it. That is how these work.

Most are held by phone or by Microsoft Teams video now. They are recorded. They are usually short.

The rules about evidence are looser than in criminal court. The officer’s sworn report can come in and be relied on without the officer showing up.

And the question is narrow. The hearing officer is not deciding whether you are guilty of anything, or whether you are a good person, or whether losing your license would wreck your job. Only a short list of facts is on the table.

If your test was 0.08 or higher, there are three issues

• Did the officer have reasonable cause to believe you had been driving under the influence?
• Were you lawfully arrested?
• Were you driving with 0.08 percent or more alcohol in your blood?

That is the whole list, from Vehicle Code 13557. If the DMV cannot prove all three, it has to set the suspension aside and give your license back.

If you refused the test, there are four

• Reasonable cause to believe you were driving under the influence.
• You were lawfully arrested.
• You refused or failed to complete the test after being asked.
• You were told your license would be suspended or revoked if you refused.

That last one is the one refusal cases turn on. The officer has to have given the warning, and it has to be in the report.

Read more: the standard of proof, your rights at the hearing, and what the hearing officer cannot do

The standard is preponderance of the evidence. Vehicle Code 13557 says the DMV sustains the suspension if it finds the listed facts “by a preponderance of the evidence.” That means more likely than not. It is a much lower bar than the beyond a reasonable doubt standard in your criminal case. This is a big part of why people win in court and still lose at the DMV.

Your rights, from the DMV’s own Fast Facts 26 sheet:

• Be represented by a lawyer, at your own expense.
• Review the DMV’s evidence, and cross examine any witness the DMV puts on.
• Testify yourself.
• Subpoena witnesses and documents. Someone other than you has to serve the subpoena, and you pay the witness fees and mileage.
• Present your own evidence.
• A department review and a court appeal if you lose.

Discovery, and the deadline on it. Ask for the DMV’s evidence at least 10 days before the hearing. Sometimes the DMV sends it automatically. The DMV’s own sheet says it outright: if you do not request a hearing, you give up your right to review the evidence the DMV will use against you.

Continuances. If you cannot make your date, contact the DMV before the hearing and within 10 working days of when you knew you needed to move it. You may have to put the reason in writing. If it is not granted and you do not show up, the DMV holds the hearing without you and decides anyway. Requesting a hearing and then not attending is the worst of both worlds.

What the hearing officer cannot do. The hearing officer can sustain the suspension, set it aside, end it, or modify it. But if the Vehicle Code fixes the length, the hearing officer cannot shorten it. Vehicle Code 13558 says the period “shall not be reduced.” So this is an all or nothing fight over whether the suspension happens, not a negotiation over how long it lasts.

The rules behind all of this, if you want to read them: the Administrative Procedures Act at Government Code sections 11400 through 11528, and Vehicle Code 14100 and the sections after it.

How long the suspension lasts, and how to drive during it

For a first offense with a test at 0.08 or higher, the DMV suspension is four months (Vehicle Code 13353.3).

“First offense” here means no separate DUI or wet reckless conviction, and no earlier DMV suspension for a test result or a refusal, within 10 years of this one.

For a refusal, it is much worse. A first refusal is a one year suspension under Vehicle Code 13353. A second refusal inside 10 years is two years. A third is three years. And there is no restricted license during a refusal suspension. None. That is the single strongest practical argument against refusing the test.

Four months of suspension does not mean four months of not driving. There are two ways to get a restricted license, and they are different.

• The interlock route. Put a breath device on your car and you can get a restricted license as soon as the suspension takes effect. No waiting period. The restriction lasts for the rest of the four months. See Vehicle Code 13353.6.
• The old route, no device. Serve 30 days of full suspension first, then get a restricted license for the rest. But it only lets you drive to and from your DUI program and to, from, and during work. Nothing else. See Vehicle Code 13353.7.

Either way you have to enroll in a licensed DUI program, file proof of insurance, and pay the DMV’s fees.

Read more: the interlock rules, insurance, and how the DMV and court suspensions stack

What the interlock route requires, under Vehicle Code 13353.6:

• Proof you enrolled in a DUI program licensed under Health and Safety Code section 11836. The enrollment has to come after this violation. A program you were already in for something else gets you no credit.
• A working, certified ignition interlock device on every vehicle you drive, plus the Verification of Installation form.
• You have to take each car to the installer at least every 60 days so the device can be recalibrated and read. Miss that and you are out of compliance.
• You have to be 21 or older at the time of the offense.
• Proof of financial responsibility, the SR-22 form from your insurer, maintained for three years. This is the part that quietly costs the most.
• All reinstatement and reissue fees paid.

If you drop out of the program or tamper with the device, the restriction ends immediately and the full suspension comes back.

The two suspensions do not add up. If the DMV suspends you for four months and then you are convicted in court, the court conviction triggers its own suspension. Vehicle Code 13353.3 says both are imposed, but they run concurrently, and the total cannot be longer than the longer of the two. So you do not serve them back to back. People lose sleep over this one for no reason.

One dated note. Vehicle Code 13353.6, the interlock route, is scheduled to be repealed on January 1, 2033. That is a long way off. It matters only if you are reading this years from now.

Two cases, two different questions

People assume that if the criminal case goes away, the DMV case goes away with it. Usually it does not work like that.

Vehicle Code 13353.2 says the DMV’s decision “is a civil matter that is independent of the determination of the person’s guilt or innocence” and has “no collateral estoppel effect” on the criminal case. In plain words: the two cases do not bind each other. You can beat one and lose the other, in either direction.

You can be found not guilty in court and still lose your license at the DMV. You can win at the DMV and still be prosecuted.

There is one exception, and hardly anyone uses it.

Read more: losing the hearing, and appealing it

Most people lose these hearings. Saying so is not discouragement, it is so a loss does not feel like something went uniquely wrong in your case. The standard is low, the officer’s report comes in as evidence, and only three facts are at issue.

If you lose, you have two paths, and they are not exclusive.

Department review. You ask the DMV to review its own hearing officer’s decision. It is done on the existing record, and there is a fee.

Court appeal. Under Vehicle Code 13559, you have 30 days from the notice of the decision to file a petition for review in the superior court in the county where you live. Three things to understand about it:

• Filing does not stay the suspension. The statute says so directly. Your license stays suspended while the court considers it.
• The review is on the record of the hearing only. The court will not hear new evidence. Whatever you did not put in at the DMV hearing is gone.
• The court can order the suspension rescinded if the DMV exceeded its authority, got the law wrong, acted arbitrarily, or made a decision the record does not support.

That second point is the real reason to take the DMV hearing seriously even though you will probably lose it. The hearing record is the only record you will ever have.

What we see in real cases

• The 10 days is the thing people blow, and it is the one part that is completely free. A phone call. No form, no filing fee, no lawyer required. People miss it because they are waiting to figure out what to do, or waiting to afford a lawyer, and the deadline does not wait for either.
• Blood cases are where the confusion does real damage. Someone gets arrested in March, hears nothing, assumes the license is already gone, and then a notice shows up in May. The 10 days starts then. If you read somewhere that it runs from the arrest, you would give up a hearing you still have.
• The hearing is worth requesting even when you will probably lose it, and the reason is the discovery. You get the DMV’s evidence for free and you get the officer’s sworn report months before you would otherwise see it. Seeing what the state has is never a disadvantage. You do not know what is in the file until you read it, and what is in it may help you.
• Small things in that file are what turn DUI cases. In these cases you never know what is going to be the piece of evidence that gets you a wet reckless, or better yet a not guilty. It is usually something minor that nobody could have guessed at from the outside.
• This is part of why a private lawyer makes a case take longer. They actually request discovery and read it. It looks slow from the outside. It is thoroughness, not delay.
• Refusing the test is the decision people regret most. One year with no restricted license at all, versus four months with an interlock and a restricted license from day one. Whatever refusing was meant to accomplish, the license consequence is not close.
• The DA reads a DUI as a sign of a drinking problem, even when it was a one time mistake. Fair or not, that is the room you are walking into. The people who get the best outcomes treat it as a wake up call whether or not it felt like one. Going to AA or another program, and bringing proof, changes how you are seen in both cases. If any part of you thinks this was not a one time thing, read this.
• Silence is normal. Weeks with nothing in the mail from the DMV or the court does not mean the case is gone. Backlogs are heavy right now. The whole process commonly runs six months to a year.
• Do not drive on an assumption. Get the stay in writing, and know the date your temporary license ends. A suspended license charge on top of a DUI is an avoidable problem.

Always get the discovery. The officer is a separate decision.

Two things here that come from doing these, and they are not the same question.

Getting the discovery early is always a benefit. There is no version of this where seeing it hurts you. It lets you see what the state has against you. And you do not know what is in there until you read it. Something in that file may help you at the hearing. Something in it may help you in the criminal case. That is the point of looking.

The usual advice tells you to weigh whether the hearing is “worth it” when you are likely to lose. That misses the point. Even a hearing you lose got you the file.

Subpoenaing the officer is a different call, and it comes down to resources. You have the right to do it. It costs money, because you pay the witness fees and the mileage, and if you have a lawyer you are paying them to prepare and take the examination.

If your client has the resources, it should be done. If money is tight, the discovery is the part you do not skip and the subpoena is the part that has to compete with everything else in the case.

It can be worth paying for anyway. In DUI cases you never know what is going to turn out to be the piece of evidence that gets you a wet reckless, or better yet a not guilty. It is frequently something small, and something nobody would have predicted from the outside. You find those by looking.

One thing that does not vary: the DMV itself

Courthouses differ a lot county to county. How fast they move, how they handle a walk in, who will talk to you on the phone.

The DMV is not like that. Driver Safety Offices are pretty much the same wherever yours is. The process, the deadline, the issues at the hearing, and how the offices operate do not change county to county. So unlike most of what we write about, you do not need to know local practice here. The 10-day rule works the same everywhere in California.

Do I need a lawyer for the DMV hearing?

You can request the hearing yourself. Do that part today regardless.

Whether to hire someone for the hearing itself is a fair question, and the answer is not always yes.

The issues are narrow, the standard is low, and most of these are lost. A lawyer is not going to change a clear 0.12 breath test into a win. If your case is straightforward and money is tight, the more useful place to spend it is usually the criminal case, where the outcome affects your record.

Where a lawyer earns it: refusal cases, where the advisement is a real fight and a year of driving is at stake. Cases with a blood draw or a machine problem. Cases where the traffic stop itself looks weak. Second offenses, where the suspension is much longer.

And if you can afford to have the officer subpoenaed and examined under oath, that is worth paying for. It is not the first thing to spend money on, but if the resources are there it should be done. See the section above on why.

One more thing either way. The public defender handles your criminal case. They do not represent you at the DMV. That is a private lawyer or you.

If you want the whole picture of what a first DUI looks like from arrest through sentencing, start with our guide to a first California DUI, or walk through it step by step with our first DUI walkthrough.

Last reviewed: August 2026

This is general information, not legal advice. Talk to a California attorney about your situation.