You Must be Off Probation to Win
As a general rule, the Michigan Secretary of State’s Office of Hearings and Administrative Oversight (OHAO) will not grant driving privileges to anyone who files a Michigan license restoration appeal while on probation or parole. Throughout the driver’s license restoration section of our blog, we examine how and why this is the case in much closer detail than in this abbreviated section.
For purposes of inquiry, however, the reader should understand that OHAO views anyone on probation or parole as unable to prove that any abstinence from alcohol is completely voluntary, because the person is forbidden, as a condition of that probation or parole, from consuming alcohol.
In other words, it is a standard condition of every probation or parole that a person refrains from drinking. Sometimes they are tested, other times not, but if they are found to have consumed alcohol, their probation or parole can be violated, and they can face punitive consequences, including further incarceration.
To the person who has really gotten sober, this almost feels like a slap in the face, because they want to say, “I could easily get away with drinking if I wanted to, but I don’t want to, and that’s why I’m not drinking, not because I’m afraid of getting into trouble.”
We understand that. However, the state doesn’t accept that argument. It calls abstinence from alcohol while a person is on probation or parole “living in a controlled environment,” and sobriety in a controlled environment does not count as voluntary.
Therefore, in almost every case, a person must wait until they are off probation or parole before they can win a Michigan driver’s license restoration case.
How Long Must You Wait Once You’re Off Probation or Parole?
No doubt, anyone reading wants to know “how long?” The answer is a classic, coming from a lawyer…
It depends.
Our starting point is at least 18 months of voluntary sobriety, and time spent on probation or parole does not count toward it.
Beyond that, we can tell when a person has had enough voluntary sobriety to go in front of one of the OHAO hearing officers in an actual license restoration hearing. We have a well-honed instinct about this, as we should, given that we guarantee to win every restoration case we take. If a case doesn’t win the first time, we keep working on it at no additional fee until it does.
There are, of course, exceptions. We have won cases where a person was still on probation (never parole) at the time of their license hearing. Such cases are rare, and concluding that someone is one of those few “exceptions” requires a careful analysis of his or her situation.
If you are on probation or parole, or recently off it, and want to know where you stand, call us for a free, confidential phone consultation, Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 5 PM, at 586-465-1980. An after-hours answering service is available, and you can also reach us through the contact form or chat box on our website. Learn more about Michigan driver’s license restoration.