Michigan Driver’s License Restoration Lawyers – The Winning Questions

By Jeffrey Randa

  |  

Driver’s License Restoration

  |  

Published on Apr 12, 2021

As a Michigan driver’s license restoration law firm that guarantees to win every restoration and clearance appeal case we take, my team and I have to ask each and every potential client some tough questions as part of our initial screening. Because the key goal of every license appeal is proving that a person has given up alcohol (and drugs) for good, we must ask any potential client some very direct questions about his or her relationship to alcohol, and specifically, when he or she last consumed any.

Make no mistake, our firm is in business to make money. However, our guarantee means that when we take on a driver’s license restoration or clearance appeal, we are obligated to stick with it until our client does win, and the last thing we want to do is accept a case that cannot succeed. If we did that, then we’d wind up eating a loss and then getting stuck having to do the whole thing all over again the following year – for free.

The simple truth is that we earn our livings winning these cases the first time around. Although we seldom lose a restoration or clearance appeal, on the very few occasions that we haven’t won the first time, we have never hesitated to honor our guarantee. Nevertheless, our whole screening process is designed to make sure we don’t wind up taking on a case that cannot or is otherwise not yet ready to win.

This protects us from having to do everything a second time, at our expense, as “warranty work.” Whatever else, that’s double the work for half the money.

The reason why this matters will make more sense if we first clarify a few basic things about Michigan’s DUI laws:

As the reader no doubt knows from first-hand experience, racking up 2 DUI’s within 7 years or 3 within 10 years results in the automatic revocation of his or her license. What he or she may not know, however, is that when either of those things happen, a person is legally categorized as a “habitual alcohol offender.”

This is important, because once a person is categorized as a habitual alcohol offender, he or she is also presumed, by law, to have an alcohol problem. Some people get upset because they take this to mean that the state “thinks” they’re an alcoholic; that’s not what we’re talking about here.

Although any person categorized as a habitual alcohol offender is presumed to have some kind of risky and/or troubled relationship to alcohol, the presumption itself does not define either its nature or extent of that problem.

Instead, it simply means that any person who has lost his or her license for multiple DUI’s has established him or her self to be a potential hazard when it comes to drinking (and driving).

This ties directly into the rules governing license restoration and clearance cases. In order to win a Michigan license appeal, a person must prove at least the following 2 things, by what the law specifies as clear and convincing evidence:

First, that his or her legally presumed alcohol problem is “under control,” meaning that he or she has been completely alcohol-free (and drug, including recreational marijuana) for a legally sufficient period of time and

Second, that the person’s alcohol problem is “likely to remain under control.” This requires demonstrating both the ability and commitment to remain alcohol and drug-free. Put another way, this requires that the person prove him or her self to be a safe bet to never drink or use intoxicants again.

The simplest way to look at this is that the Secretary of State (correctly) interprets the law as making clear that the ONLY people who can win a license appeal are those who can prove these 3 things:

1. That they have quit drinking and using any other substances
2. That they have been abstinent from alcohol and drugs for that “legally sufficient” period of time, and,
3. That have the commitment and tools to never drink again or use intoxicants.

And to be clear, the whole abstinence thing includes marijuana. Under no circumstances whatsoever can a person who uses recreational marijuana – no matter how infrequently – win a license appeal. It’s even hard to win with a medical marijuana card, but that’s another subject in its own right, and the reader can click any of the linked articles to learn more.

Every day, our office gets loads of emails and phone calls from people who have found us online, looked over the sheer volume of information we have published, liked our guarantee to win every driver’s license restoration and clearance appeal case we accept, and say they ready to hire us on the spot.

They usually start out by telling us things like:

• How much they need a license;
• How many years it has been since they’ve had one;
• The difficulties they face getting by without being able to drive;
• The employment opportunities that await them if they can drive again, and/or
• That they haven’t been in any kind of trouble for a long time.

Not to be cold about it, but we have heard these things a million times over. So has the Secretary of State. Everyone knows how much it sucks to be unable to drive. Unfortunately, absolutely none of it matters in the context of a license appeal.

Remember, we’re in business to make money. There is no profit for us in turning away someone who stands ready to hire us.

However, my team and I have certain standards, and the very first of them is to do the right thing. Even if we didn’t have our guarantee in place, it would just be plain WRONG to take someone’s money and file a license appeal that can’t win.

Frankly, I’d be embarrassed to do that. It takes a lifetime to build and maintain a good reputation, but it only takes one stupid thing to call it into question. I would NEVER want the hearing officers from the Michigan Secretary of State to think that our office took a case just to get paid.

Our integrity is not for sale.

Yet for all the self-praise I could heap upon my team and myself, the simple fact is that our guarantee stands as a firm safeguard, because as much as it protects the client from risking his or her money on a license appeal that can’t win, it also prevents us from ever being tempted to take any such case in the first place, lest we get stuck with a losing matter that will obligate us to do “warranty work.”

This brings us back to why we need to be tough in our screenings. Ann, our senior assistant, likes to say that if you think we’re being tough, how do you expect to get though the license appeal process with the Secretary of State?

We’ve already seen how the law works, but the hearing officers who apply it in real-life license appeal cases bring a wealth of experience to their jobs.

I honestly believe that even if the most naive person on the planet was somehow made a hearing officer, it would take less than a week for him or her to realize that a substantial portion of the job involves listening to BS and lies from people who try to say what they think they should say, and having to filter through all of it to find those people who really are clean and sober. In the real world, they spend all day, every day, deciding cases for people who try every trick in the book to win back their driver’s licenses.

Their job is to apply the law and make sure that the only people who do win their licenses back are those who have proven, by that legal standard of “clear and convincing evidence,” that they have been completely abstinent from alcohol (and drugs – including marijuana) for a long enough period of time, and who are otherwise a safe bet to remain abstinent for life.

To do that, they have to look at the facts of a person’s case and then ask some very probing and tough questions. They KNOW that they’re going to get lied to every day, and that people are going to do everything possible to figure out what they “should” say, and then try to say those very things.

This really underscores how spot-on our senior assistant’s take on this really is; if you think we’re tough, how do expect to get through the Secretary of State?

If you call our office, we’re going to want to know about your drinking, when you quit, and why. We’re going to ask about your marijuana use, including the last time you indulged.

And let me be clear, upfront: We are 100% NOT interested in taking a case for anyone who wants to BS about this. There is no “nod-nod, wink-wink” here. We screen to make sure that anyone whose case we take has GENUINELY quit drinking.

We won’t have any part of that “you tell me what I need to say” stuff. If we can’t win your case by telling the truth, then we’ll pass.

However, and as I often point out, we’ll gladly speak to anyone, even if just in the hope that we can say something that will help him or her decide to finally quit drinking at some future point so that, eventually, they can tell the truth and be eligible to win a driver’s license appeal.

Jeffrey Randa and Associates provides Michigan residents with the clarity and confidence they need to successfully navigate the driver’s license restoration process. Call our office for a free consultation – done over the phone, right when you call – to receive guidance on your journey to regain independence.