Don't waive a hearing in Kansas DUI

If you get a ticket for DUI in Kansas you can keep the right to drive for at least a little while if you insist on a driver's license revocation hearing.

Each year across Kansas, police make roughly 19,000 to 20,000 arrests for driving under the influence.

State law basically says those people's licenses will be suspended 30 days after their arrest -- unless they seek a hearing with the state.

But because of the way the hearing process works, thousands of suspected DUI drivers can legally keep driving for three to 10 months after their arrests -- sometimes longer.

Some lawmakers, looking for ways to close gaps in the state's DUI laws, say the process takes too long and endangers public safety. One way to solve it is to hire more hearing officers and support staff to conduct the hearings, they say.

Now, the state employs four attorneys to hold thousands of DUI hearings statewide.

The driver's license appeals process plays out in stages. In roughly half of the state's total DUI cases -- 9,500 to 10,000 -- the motorists appeal by requesting a hearing. While waiting on the hearing, they get to keep driving -- with a temporary license -- for typically three to four months after their arrest, said Jim Keller, the deputy general counsel for the Kansas Department of Revenue. The department's division of vehicles administers driver's licenses.

At the hearing, where they often are represented by a lawyer, most lose their case to keep driving privileges. If they lose, their license gets suspended 30 days later.

But about 400 of them a year -- a growing number -- file a second appeal to district courts, Keller said. It allows them to legally keep driving nine or 10 months or longer after their arrest.

The system tries to balance a motorist's right to a fair hearing with the public's safety.

Still, it shouldn't take so long to suspend the license of someone suspected of DUI, said state Sen. Phil Journey, R-Haysville, who as a defense lawyer has defended DUI suspects and as a legislator has tried to toughen DUI laws.

The time between the arrest and the initial hearing should be 30 to 45 days instead of 90 to 120 days, Journey said.

The Department of Revenue employs three full-time attorneys to conduct driver's license hearings around the state and a fourth, part-time attorney to hold most of the hearings for the Wichita area.