Colorado Department of Motor Vehicles Appeals

QUESTION: "The DMV hearing officer revoked my driver's license. What do I do now?"

ANSWER: Sections 42-2-126, 42-2-135 and 24-4-106 C.R.S. allow you to appeal a driver's license revocation, suspension or denial to the District Court in your county of residence. Not every decision is worth appealing, but many are! Give us a call at 303.806.5104 for a free consultation.

How A DMV Appeal Works

Your appeal will be done based upon the record before the DMV. The "Record on Appeal" includes a written transcript of your DMV hearing, if any, and any documents submitted or reviewed in your case. No new testimony or evidence can be introduced during the appeal. This is important because I get a lot of calls from people who want to introduce evidence or make arguments on appeal that were not presented during the DMV hearing. Other callers want to present evidence of hardship that they believe will justify a reversal of DMV's action against their driver's license.

Unfortunately, the Colorado Administrative Procedures Act, under which DMV case are appealed, does not allow new evidence to be introduced during an appeal. Bottom line - evidence of hardship, civil rights violations, police misconduct or other such evidence may be considered by the courts unless it was part of the original proceedings before DMV.

Further only issues and arguments raised during the DMV hearing may be brought up during an appeal. This means that if you or your attorney did not seek a ruling on legal, factual or evidentiary issue while the case was before the DMV you may be foreclosed from bringing up the issue on appeal. The takeaway is that you need to consider choose your DUI attorney carefully based upon experience and technical knowledge of Colorado DUI law. If your DUI attorney doesn't do a good job during the hearing it may be too late to fix the problem on appeal.

Timing

I often get calls from people who want to appeal a Colorado DMV license revocation that occurred months or even years ago. In general, there are strict limits on the amount of time to file an appeal of an administrative license action in the district court. Depending on the type of DMV license action you have either thirty-five (35) or sixty (60) days to file the appeal in district court. There are exceptions to these time limits but they are rare. Please call if you have questions about whether a timely appeal is available in your case.

How Long Does An Appeal Take?

The actual "Appeal" consists of the filing of written "Briefs" by your attorney and the DMV's attorney. The District Court will decide the appeal based upon these briefs. The entire appeal process can take anywhere from ninety days up to a year or more depending on how long it takes DMV to compile the "Record on Appeal" and how long it takes the Court to make its ruling once briefing of the case is completed.

Call 303.806.5104 for a totally free, confidential, assessment of your case.