Reinstating Your Driver’s License

If your license has been suspended as the result of a driving under the influence (DUI) or operating a vehicle while impaired (OVI) conviction, you would do well to consult an Ohio driver’s license reinstatement lawyer.  Your driver’s license may be suspended as a result of an administrative license suspension, or as the result of a judge’s order.

If, as part of your DUI conviction, the judge in your case suspended your license.  You may usually request limited driving privileges during the suspension. Limited driving privileges are usually given for work, educational, vocational or medical reasons.  However, a DUI administrative license suspension requires a certain amount of “hard time”  – or non-negotiable – license suspension. In the first offense, it is usually a matter of 15 days hard time license suspension. This chart shows a range of these hard time suspensions by offense.

	First Offense	Second Offense	Third Offense
Hard Time Suspension	15 days	30 days	6 months

 

Judges do have the latitude to allow a stay of the administrative license suspension, which puts the suspension on hold until a later date. The administrative license suspension is independent of the DUI charge itself, which usually carries a longer, mandatory license suspension.

If your driver’s license suspension was a result of refusing to submit to a blood alcohol content test, your driving privileges cannot be restored until 30 days from the date of arrest.  Also, there’s no reprieve from this suspension, and in many instances, judges will not grant privileges before the case ends. 

Once the suspension time is up, you will be required to pay a $475 reinstatement fee to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles in order to get your license and driving privileges reinstated. According to the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, you may not have to pay the entire fee up front:

The Ohio BMV offers a driver license reinstatement fee installment plan to those individuals who have met all their reinstatement requirements except for paying reinstatement fees. The plan will allow individuals owing $150 or more in reinstatement fees to become valid or eligible to retest for a driver license by paying only $50.00 or more every 30 days for as long as it takes to pay their reinstatement fees.

Do You Need an Ohio DUI License Suspension Attorney?

If you have had your license suspended as result of a DUI conviction, a DUI attorney can help you get that license reinstated. Get the representation of a skilled attorney who can give you the help you need. The Maher Law Firm can help make sure that your rights are protected. Founding attorney, Colin Maher is a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) certified practitioner for field sobriety testing, which is the same training police officers take. This training helps him evaluate and challenge the evidence collection involved in the DUI arrest process. This in-depth knowledge and experience working with DUI cases can be put to work for you. Call The Maher Law Firm today for a free consultation at 614-205-2208 or contact us online.