What are the issues at a DOL Hearing?

The issues are, as stated at http://www.dol.wa.gov/driverslicense/hearingsprepare.html:

During your DUI hearing, our hearing examiner will consider:

  • Whether you were under lawful arrest.
  • Whether an officer had reasonable grounds to believe you had been driving or were in actual physical control of a motor vehicle in this state while:
  • Under the influence of intoxicating liquor or any drug.
  • Having alcohol in your system of 0.02 or more and were under the age of 21.
  • Whether you were advised of your rights and warnings as required by RCW 46.20.308(2).
  • Whether you refused to submit to the test.

or

If the test was administered, whether the test indicated an alcohol concentration of:

  • 0.08 or more if you were age 21 or over.
  • or
  • 0.02 or more if you were under 21.

These hearings are almost always conducted by phone via a conference call. The police officer(s) who arrested you, stopped you and tested you almost never appear by phone to testify unless we subpoena them for the hearing. In most cases that will only make matters worse for you as the hearing officer will hear them validating that they did everything correctly, that your driving was awful, that you looked and smelled drunk, acted high, etc. But in certain cases, it’s smart to subpoena them and subject them to cross-examination over the phone at the hearing. We then have to pay them a very small witness fee, like $20, but the cop(s) should usually not be subpoenaed as it’ll usually hurt the case, as stated.