A person who receives notice of suspension or disqualification
may request a hearing as provided.
(1) A hearing request must either be delivered in writing,
including by facsimile transmission, email, or through the designated
ALR hearing request form on the department's website, or be transmitted
by telephone, to the department at its headquarters in Austin at
the address or phone number contained in the notice of suspension
or disqualification. Hearing requests delivered to any other department
address or telephone number will not be honored.
(2) A hearing request must contain sufficient information
to enable the department to identify the defendant and to schedule
the hearing, which information shall include the following: the defendant's
full legal name, date of birth, driver's license number, the date
of arrest, the county of arrest, the name of the law enforcement
agency which made the arrest, email address and bar number of defendant's
counsel if represented, whether the defendant allegedly failed or
refused the specimen test or was not requested to submit a specimen,
and such additional nonprivileged information as may be requested
by the department.
(3) A hearing request must be timely. In order to be
considered timely, a hearing request containing all of the information
set forth in paragraph (2) of this section must be received by the
department at its headquarters in Austin at the address or phone
number contained in the notice of suspension or disqualification
not later than 5:00 p.m. on the 15th day after:
(A) the date notice of suspension or disqualification
was served by a peace officer; or
(B) the date notice is presumed to have been received,
according to the records of the department.
(4) A hearing request which fails to include one or
more of the items of information required by paragraph (2) of this
section, or one containing incorrect information, will not be deemed
to be timely filed. Nothing in this section is intended to prevent
a person making a hearing request from supplementing or correcting
information contained in a hearing request, provided that such supplementation
or correction is received by the department before the deadline for
filing a hearing request as set out in paragraph (3) of this section.
(5) The department shall reject any untimely hearing
request. When a written hearing request is received and rejected,
the department shall mail written notice to the defendant that the
hearing request was received and rejected, and state the reason for
rejection. When a telephone hearing request is received and rejected,
the department shall mail a written notice of the reason for rejection
only upon request.
(6) Upon receipt of a timely hearing request, the department
shall schedule a hearing and mail written confirmation to the defendant.
(7) A timely hearing request stays the suspension or
disqualification pending a final affirmative decision by the administrative
law judge.
(8) The department will presume that notice of hearing
date, time, and location was received on the fifth day after the
day it was mailed.
|