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DMV Victory at a Lapse of Consciousness Hearing at the Orange DSO

Case History: California Drivers Advocates was engaged to defend a client whose driver license had been summarily suspended by the California Department of Motor Vehicles.  The DMV took an immediate suspension action against the client’s driving privilege after receiving a Law Enforcement Referral from an Irvine Police Officer who had investigated our client’s traffic accident.

Our client is a highly educated, highly trained electrical engineer who had been working on a very demanding and stressful project at work.  After ending a work day in June 2016, she was driving home when she was involved in a non-injury, solo vehicle traffic accident.  Driving on a very familiar roadway, she became distracted by allowing herself to concentrate more on work than on driving.  While she was deep in thought, her car drifted off of the roadway and before she could react, she collided with a tree.

In his referral, the Irvine PD Officer speculated that she had either fallen asleep or passed out at the wheel.  This was complete conjecture on the part of the officer, but the DMV took it as evidence of some underlying Physical or Mental disorder and immediately suspended the driver license.

DMV’s Position: The California DMV’s position was crystal clear. Because the information provided by the investigating police officer suggested our client had either fallen asleep or passed out while driving, the DMV determined that it was too dangerous to allow her to continue driving.  By jumping to conclusions without any supporting evidence, the DMV essentially found our client guilty and challenged her to prove them wrong.

Our Defense: When our client retained us, we immediately went to work to schedule her “Lapse of Consciousness” hearing by contacting the Driver Safety Office in the City of Orange.

As always, our defense began with a detailed interview of the client to determine her medical history and the details of what had occurred.  We then prepared a plan to collect affirmative evidence to demonstrate that our client’s accident was just that…… an accident.

At our direction, our client scheduled appointments with her primary care physician and then got referrals to additional physicians to rule out all possibilities of any Physical or Mental disorder that could have caused her to lose consciousness while driving.  Our client also attended an “on-line” driving school to demonstrate that she was gaining additional insight into safe driving during her period of suspension.

At the hearing, the hearing officer accepted all of our affirmative evidence without objection and considered the testimony of our client.  Because we had worked so hard to prepare her, she testified with great credibility which made our position clear.  We demonstrated that our client’s traffic accident was caused by a moment of inattention, not some mysterious medical ailment.  We argued that she never lost consciousness and that her driving privilege should be restored.  When we had completed the direct examination of our client, the hearing officer had no questions and scheduled our client for a “behind the wheel” driving test.

One week later, our client aced the test and her driving privilege was reinstated that same day.

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Call CDA Today.  Let us put you on the road to victory! The DMV Defense Experts at California Drivers Advocates include former police officers, DMV Hearing Officers, Investigators and Scientists.  Our training, our experience and our reputation provide any driver the best opportunity to win their Administrative Hearing.

It is common for the DMV to take a suspension action against a driver with little or no evidence to support it.  The DMV will often act first and ask questions later.  If your driver license has been suspended for any reason, including speculation without facts, call us immediately.  We can help.

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