Here is an interesting article from Time that implies that the immediate confiscation of a person’s driver license upon arrest for a dwi may reduce dwi’s. The article is titled Revoking licenses deters drunk drivers. The author of the study states that says “that the reason revoking a drunk driver’s license right away works better than waiting until after a conviction, which can take up to a year in some states, is simple timing: if you do something wrong, you should suffer the consequences immediately. It’s a basic behavior-curbing tenet called negative reinforcement that works on rats in the lab, and on humans just as well. “The speed with which the punishment is applied is very important, and in our society we’ve had a long-standing focus on the severity of the punishment,” says Wagenaar. “The punishment does not have to be draconian to have an effect in shaping the behavior that we want to deter, in this case drunk driving. A driving-license suspension for a couple of months is a modest penalty, but when it’s applied immediately it’s effective.”

Several points need to be made regarding this study. First, in Texas we have both an administrative hearing as well as a criminal case when somebody is arrested for a dwi. See our previous post regarding the Texas ALR hearings. One of the main problems with the study is the fact that most of the “administrative” hearings simply do not provide much protection for a citizen who has been wrongly accused of dwi. The Texas statutes do allow for witnesses to be brought to the hearing and we can even subpoena arresting officer. However, the burden is so low on the Department of Public Safety that the deck starts stacked against the citizen accused. However, I will say that in Texas we are allowed to cross examine the arresting officer as well as any breath test operator and the breath test supervisor in the case. This can provide very valuable information for the criminal trial. Other states are not no lucky. A good friend of mine, Glen Neeley, practices in Utah and they are not even allowed to cross the arresting officer. Judge, jury and executioner, what a great country this is becoming.

There are many reasons to request an Administrative License Revocation Hearing also known as an ALR hearing.  One reason to request the hearing is to try to save your drivers license.  Understand that it is very easy to take a license.   Another reason to request the hearing is to see what type of witness the officer/trooper in the case is going to make when he or she testifies in court.  This is the opportunity to find out how well trained the officer/trooper is in the area of DWI.  Finally, you request the hearing to tie down the officer’s/trooper’s testimony.  This hearing is under oath and you can obtain a copy of the transcript.  Just last week, we were able to use the ALR transcript to impeach the officer’s testimony in a suppression hearing.  Overall, the ALR is a very important tool when it comes to DWI defense and should be requested in each and every case if possible.  REMEMBER you only have 15 days from the date of arrest to request the hearing.