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, 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, 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 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. |
