Negligent Operator Hearing

What is a Negligent Operator Hearing?: Within the world of the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), there is a little known enforcement branch known as the Division of Driver Safety. The Division of Driver Safety is made up of several regional offices known as Driver Safety Offices (DSO). The DSO is the DMV version of a courthouse. This is not one of the local field offices where we go to register our cars. The regional DSO is staffed by DMV employees whose primary function is to review California drivers to determine their fitness to maintain the privilege to drive. Judgments are made by these DMV employees through an Administrative Hearing Process. One of the most common administrative hearings conducted at the DSO is the Negligent Operator Hearing.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles utilizes an elaborate computer data base to monitor the driving history of all drivers. The Negligent Operator Treatment System, also known as “NOTS,” carefully monitors the driving history of all drivers to identify those people who receive too many moving violations, are involved in too many traffic collisions, or are convicted of certain traffic related crimes. Each moving violation, at fault accident, or qualifying criminal conviction will cause a certain number of “points” to be assessed and applied to the person’s driving record. If you receive too many of these points in a short period of time, the NOTS computer will identify you as a Negligent Operator, which immediately places your driver license in jeopardy of suspension.

If the DMV has identified you as a Negligent Operator, you should receive a “Notice of Suspension” in the mail that tells you the DMV intends to suspend your driver license. To prevent the Negligent Operator Suspension from going into effect, you must schedule, prepare and conduct a Negligent Operator Hearing. The Negligent Operator Hearing is a formal, legal proceeding which occurs at the Driver Safety Office closest to your home. To reiterate, this is a formal, legal proceeding that requires knowledge of the DMV process as well as a variety of codes such as the Evidence Code, Vehicle Code, and the California Code of Procedures.

How Do I Schedule a Negligent Operator Hearing?

First of all, this is not something you should attempt on your own. The DMV Administrative Hearing process is a formal proceeding that requires knowledge of the DMV as well as a variety of laws and codes.   Attempting to schedule and then conduct a Negligent Operator Hearing could easily result in the full suspension of your driving privilege.

Most drivers they have been identified as a Negligent Operator when they receive a “Notice of Suspension” in the mail. This letter identifies you as a Negligent Operator and establishes a date when the suspension of your license will go into effect. Finally, the letter advises you that to prevent the suspension of your driver license, you must contact the DSO within a short period of time (Normally 10-14 days) to schedule a Negligent Operator Hearing.

Once you have received and reviewed the Notice of Suspension, your first step should be to contact the DMV Experts at California Drivers Advocates. We are highly trained and have years of experience in dealing with all types of administrative suspensions, including the Negligent Operator. Once you contact us, we will immediately contact the DMV and schedule your Negligent Operator in an appropriate and timely manner. We will ensure the DMV orders a “Stay of Suspension” which will stop the suspension until the outcome of your hearing. This permits you to continue driving until the outcome of the Negligent Operator Hearing.

What is the Outcome of a Negligent Operator Hearing

As stated earlier, the Driver Safety Office conducts a variety of Administrative Hearings to determine the fitness of a person to continue driving. In many of these various hearings, the DMV Hearing Officer is mandated to order specific penalties if the driver does not win the hearing.  In the case of the Negligent Operator Hearing, however, the DMV Hearing Officer is granted a great deal of discretion to assess penalties that best fit the individual driver’s circumstances.

The DMV Hearing Officer has the power to:

• Sustain the suspension. In this instance, the Hearing Officer rules on behalf of the DMV and orders the driving privilege suspended or revoked for specified periods of time. This means no driving.
• Set Aside the suspension. This means the driver has successfully rebutted the DMV’s case and has proven that he or she is not a Negligent Operator. In this instance, the driving privilege is fully reinstated without any penalties or restriction.
• Modify or end the suspension. In this case the Hearing Officer determines that the accused is a Negligent Operator and that the suspension was warranted but, based on a totality of the circumstances, ends the suspension. The Hearing Officer may institute a “period of driving probation” as a condition of reinstating the driver license.
• Reinstate the driver license on a restricted basis. In this case, the Hearing Officer determines that the accused was a Negligent Operator and that the suspension was warranted but, goes on to find the driver has a critical need to drive in a limited capacity. Normally, this form of restriction allows the driver to drive for work and to driver education classes.

With the exception of a complete “Set Aside” of the action, any other penalty ordered by the DMV Hearing Officer will require the driver to purchase and file an SR-22 Form with the DMV.

Call CDA to Win Your Negligent Operator Hearing

The DMV Defense Experts at CDA have been fighting and winning Negligent Operator Hearings at the DMV for many years. When you enter a Negligent Operator Hearing the DMV is in complete control of your driving future. It is amazing how quickly the DMV’s attitude changes when they discover you are protected by a DMV Defense Team with the knowledge and experience to handle a Negligent Operator Hearing correctly.