Do You Need Insurance to Get Your License Reinstated After a DUI?
After you get arrested for suspected DUI, you may have your driving privileges revoked and need to get your license reinstated along with new insurance. If you fail a breathalyzer or blood test, or if you refuse a test, the officer or the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety will give you a piece of paper explaining license revocation. This document acts as your driver’s license for 30 days. When that 30 day period expires, the DPS will revoke your driving privileges. For a first offense DUI, the revocation lasts 180 days.
You can request an administrative hearing in the first 15 days after you receive the document. At the administrative hearing, you can argue that your driving privileges should not be revoked. If you do not get you driving privileges back at the hearing, or you do not request a hearing, your privileges will be suspended for 180 days. This means that you cannot drive and you will not have a valid driver’s license.
How Do You Get Your License Reinstated?
To get your license reinstated after the period of revocation of driving privileges ends, contact the DPS. The DPS will need various paperwork and confirmations from you before it will issue you a license. In particular, you will need to show that you completed the 180 day period successfully and that you have proof of insurance.
Do You Need an SR22 to Get Insurance?
In many states, drivers convicted of DUI must get SR22 forms along with new insurance. An SR22 is a form filled out by your auto insurance provider that it gives to the state. The form shows that you have the necessary auto insurance and that you are financially responsible. Oklahoma does not have an SR22 requirement. If you will be mostly driving in another state besides Oklahoma or if your revoked driver’s license was from another state, you may need an SR22. Contact your insurer and the DMV in the other state for details.
How Do You Get Insurance Again?
Talk to your insurance provider of choice about your options for getting a new policy or using your old policy. When you get new insurance, you most likely will have to disclose that your license was revoked. If you were convicted of the underlying DUI offense, you most likely will have to disclose that too. This will make your insurance rates very, very high. As time passes after your conviction, your insurance rates may start to go down. Talk to an insurance agent for advice about maximizing your savings.
If you would like to avoid all this hassle and the high insurance rates, seek out the help of an experienced DUI attorney who can represent you through the administrative hearing and the criminal court case. Working with an attorney, instead of on your own, gives you much better chances of keeping your license.
If you need representation in an Oklahoma court for a DUI charge, seek out the attorney who teaches other attorneys and law enforcement about sobriety testing techniques. Clint Patterson, Esq., of Patterson Law Firm, a former Tulsa prosecutor now using his trial experience and expert-level knowledge of DUI science to defend drivers, may be able to challenge gas chromatography testing for you. To schedule a case evaluation, visit Patterson Law Firm online or call Clint’s office at (918) 550-9175.