Georgia DUI Refusal, Implied Consent, and the ALS Hearing Request Form

Understanding Georgia Implied Consent Law

Georgia's implied consent law controls what happens to your driver's license after a DUI arrest, and an ALS hearing request form is how you fight the suspension that follows. O.C.G.A. § 40-5-55 is the implied consent statute, and two events trigger it. One is an arrest for driving under the influence. The other is involvement in a traffic accident that causes serious injuries or a fatality.

If you refuse the state's test, an ALS hearing request form is what preserves your right to fight the suspension. The section below explains how to file it.

Know what is optional at the roadside. Field sobriety evaluations are voluntary. So is the handheld preliminary breath test an officer offers before an arrest. You must identify yourself, and you may decline the rest politely.

The calculation changes after an arrest. Once the officer reads the implied consent notice, the request is for a state-administered chemical test. A refusal suspends your license for a minimum of one year. For a commercial driver, a refusal is also a major violation.

One detail deserves care. The statutory notice warns that a refusal to submit to blood or urine testing may be offered into evidence at trial. Breath is not part of that warning.

Georgia has not amended its implied consent statute in recent legislative sessions. Everything below comes from the standing law. Our DUI Lawyer Atlanta page covers the criminal side of a Georgia DUI case.

Your Two Options Within 30 Days of a Georgia DUI Refusal

A refusal to be tested starts a 30-day clock. You have two options. They are mutually exclusive, and both close on the same deadline.

Option one: request the administrative license suspension hearing. O.C.G.A. § 40-5-67.1 lets you contest the suspension before the Department of Driver Services. File a written request with DDS within 30 days of the notice, and pay the $150 filing fee. Georgia gives you 30 days, not 10. The 10-day figure belongs to Florida law. Keep proof of delivery to DDS.

Option two: elect the ignition interlock limited permit. An eligible driver may apply for an ignition interlock limited permit (IIDLP) within 30 days under O.C.G.A. § 40-5-64.1. The permit runs one year, and the issuance fee is $25. It requires an affidavit that waives the administrative hearing.

Eligibility is narrow. You must be 21 or older and licensed, with no DUI conviction in the prior five years. Drivers under 21 cannot use the IIDLP. Neither can commercial license holders.

Doing neither is the outcome to avoid. If 30 days pass with no hearing request and no permit election, the suspension takes effect. No salvage option remains for that suspension period.

How to Request an ALS Hearing in Georgia

An ALS hearing request form is the written request you file with the Department of Driver Services to contest a DUI license suspension. Filing that ALS hearing request form within 30 days is what preserves your right to a hearing at all.

The sequence starts at the arrest. The officer reads the implied consent notice. The officer also serves the DDS 1205 form, the sworn report that begins the administrative suspension. You or your attorney have 30 days from the date of that notice to file the written request with DDS. Include the $150 filing fee the implied consent statute requires.

The request should identify the driver and license number, the date and place of the arrest, and the grounds you contest. Common grounds include whether the officer had a lawful basis for the stop and the arrest. Also whether the implied consent notice was read correctly and in the right sequence.

Two points cause confusion. This is a DDS administrative hearing, and it is a separate track from your criminal case. Its outcome does not decide the DUI charge. Second, do not assume the officer's paperwork lets you keep driving indefinitely. Ask a lawyer what your specific documents say.

An attorney may file the request for you. Deadlines here are unforgiving, and no lawyer can promise a hearing outcome.

Does Georgia Implied Consent Law Require a Breath Test?

A refusal can lead to a one-year loss of all driving privileges in Georgia if you lose the "refusal" hearing. This happens during the administrative license suspension phase of your case. This legal proceeding is separate from the pending criminal charges. The same DUI attorney needs to handle both the criminal and the administrative aspects of a Georgia DUI.

You can refuse to be breath tested. Georgia officers may then contact a magistrate judge and obtain a search warrant to have your blood drawn. That warrant can be carried out over your objection. When an accused drunk driver refuses the official GA implied consent law breath test for alcohol, the risks are significant. A blood test for drugs may follow after an arrest. The detained DUI suspect risks having his or her Georgia driver's license taken away for a year, as described above. The person now may be subject to an IIDLP or may face a Georgia DDS appeal.

The One-Year Suspension After a Georgia DUI Refusal

Suppression practice explains why the notice matters so much. A DUI defense lawyer who focuses on implied consent litigation will often attack the notice itself. Challenging the legal sufficiency and accuracy of the implied consent notice is usually a more productive pretrial avenue than attacking a blood search warrant. Warrants are hard to undo. Notice problems are often provable from the officer's own recording.

The stakes are worth stating plainly. A refusal carries a minimum one-year administrative suspension. No work permit or hardship license exists for a refusal standing alone. The only verified routes to any driving privilege are the DDS hearing and the interlock permit election described above.

Commercial drivers face a second layer. In a commercial motor vehicle, the alcohol notice threshold is 0.04, not 0.08. A refusal counts as a major violation for commercial license purposes. O.C.G.A. § 40-5-151 sets out commercial driver's license disqualification, and O.C.G.A. § 40-5-142 supplies the commercial license definitions behind it. A CDL holder cannot solve the problem with an interlock permit, because CDL holders are not eligible.

Whether a notice challenge helps depends on the facts, the video, and the timing. No lawyer can guarantee a particular result.

What Happens After a Georgia DUI Refusal to Blow?

A refusal can trigger consequences that reach well past the arrest. After a Georgia DUI arrest, when the officer asks for state-administered breath testing under the implied consent law, submitting usually protects your ability to drive. The one-year suspension that follows an upheld refusal is the reason.

Beyond the search warrant issue covered above, several reasons support that suggestion. First, no restricted license or work permit is available once a refusal is upheld at the administrative license suspension hearing. Most drivers cannot absorb a full year with no driving privilege at all.

Second, the two suspension tracks stack. The administrative suspension runs on its own timeline, and a conviction adds a separate suspension explained below.

Third, age changes the math. Under O.C.G.A. § 40-6-391(k), a driver under 21 commits driving under the influence at 0.02 or more within three hours of driving. That is a specific number, not any trace at all. Drivers under 21 also cannot elect the interlock limited permit, so a refusal hits them hardest.

Blood Draws by Search Warrant After a DUI Refusal

Refusing the breath test does not end the evidence gathering. Since the Birchfield case reached the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2016, many Georgia agencies routinely seek judicial search warrants for blood. An officer can reach a magistrate by telephone or electronically, and a warrant can issue quickly.

Those samples go to the GBI for analysis. The lab can report blood alcohol content, and it can also test for drugs. A driver who refused in order to limit the evidence may end up facing a broader result than a breath number would have produced.

Georgia drug DUI cases run through the less safe prong. The state must prove the driver was under the influence of a drug to the extent it was less safe for that person to drive. A trace or a metabolite alone does not prove that. Impairment still has to be shown.

If you do submit to the state's test, you may request an independent test. Designate the hospital or lab you want. Our firm has had substantial success litigating chemical test evidence in Georgia courtrooms. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

Can You Refuse a Breath Test in Georgia?

Yes. A driver can physically refuse the state-administered breath test. No officer can force air into a machine. What an officer can do is apply for a search warrant for blood, and many now do.

Refusal still carries the license consequences described above. The evidence rule, though, is narrower than most people think. The statutory notice warns only that a refusal to submit to blood or urine testing may be offered into evidence at trial. Breath is deliberately absent from that warning.

The testing rules give the defense real ground to work with. O.C.G.A. § 40-6-392 sets the rules for chemical testing, which require methods approved by the GBI Division of Forensic Sciences. A breath test must produce two sequential samples that agree within 0.020 grams. The statute gives the driver a right to an independent test. That test must be by a physician or other qualified person of the driver's own choosing, at the driver's own expense.

Understand what refusing does not accomplish. Georgia has two alcohol prongs. DUI less safe asks whether alcohol made the driver less safe to drive. DUI per se asks whether the driver's alcohol concentration was 0.08 or more at any time within three hours after driving ended. A driver under 0.08 can still be convicted of DUI less safe, test or no test.

Appealing a DUI Conviction vs. Appealing Your License Suspension

Georgia drivers routinely mix up two separate fights. Knowing which one you are in changes what you file, and when.

Track one is the license suspension. You contest it through the 30-day DDS hearing request described above. That proceeding decides your driving privilege, nothing else.

Track two is the criminal case. A conviction for driving under the influence carries its own license suspension under O.C.G.A. § 40-5-63. On a first conviction, that suspension runs 12 months. Early reinstatement may be available at 120 days once you finish a Risk Reduction Program. Pay the reinstatement fee, which is $210 in person or $200 by mail. A limited permit may be available under O.C.G.A. § 40-5-64 for a $32 fee.

Winning at DDS does not dismiss the criminal charge. A conviction triggers that separate suspension on its own.

Drivers who want to appeal DUI conviction results should talk with counsel quickly. A convicted driver may have avenues to challenge the conviction, and those avenues are time-sensitive. Have a lawyer review the record and the deadlines that apply in your court.

Two related corrections matter. Georgia's remedy is record restriction under O.C.G.A. § 35-3-37, not expungement, and record restriction does not reach a DUI conviction. Charges that are reduced or dismissed may qualify. A plea of nolo contendere to DUI is governed by O.C.G.A. § 40-6-391.1, rests in the judge's discretion, and still counts as a prior in the ten-year lookback. That history shapes your options if you ever need to appeal DUI conviction consequences in a later case.

More Articles About Georgia's Implied Consent Law

Our deeper coverage of Georgia's implied consent law is collected below.

• What Does Implied Consent Mean?
• Implied Consent Laws and Your Driver's License
• Alcohol Tests Under Georgia's Implied Consent Law
• Driver's License Loss and Implied Consent Law
• 7 Ways to Have License Suspended by Implied Consent Law
• Avoiding DUI License Suspension Under Georgia Implied Consent Law
• How Do I Get My License Back?
• Implied Consent 30-Day DDS Letter
• Miranda Rights Are Not Part of Georgia Implied Consent Law in a DUI Arrest
• Three Warnings in OCGA 40-5-67.1
• GA Implied Consent Law: License Suspension in GA
• Can I Talk to a DUI Lawyer in GA before Taking the Implied Consent Test?
• Implied Consent and DUI Less Safe in Georgia
• Georgia Implied Consent Law Interlock Option

Talk With a Georgia DUI Refusal and ALS Lawyer

The 30-day clock runs from the date the implied consent notice was read to you. Within that window you can request the DDS hearing or elect the ignition interlock limited permit. You cannot do both, and both choices expire on the same day.

William C. Head, PC focuses on Georgia DUI defense and DDS administrative practice. We offer a free consultation to review your paperwork, confirm your deadline, and walk through which path fits your circumstances. Contact Us Now to set up that review, or email bubba@bubbahead.com directly. No lawyer can guarantee a particular result, and every case turns on its own facts.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Do I File an ALS Hearing Request Form After a Georgia DUI Refusal?

A written request goes to the Department of Driver Services within 30 days of the implied consent notice, with the $150 filing fee. Keep proof of delivery. An attorney can file it for you.

How Long Do I Have to Act After a DUI Refusal in Georgia?

Thirty days from the date of the notice. Georgia is not a 10-day state. Miss the deadline and the suspension takes effect, with no salvage option left.

Can I Get a Limited Permit After Refusing a Breath Test in Georgia?

You may qualify for the ignition interlock limited permit if you are 21 or older, licensed, and free of any DUI conviction in the past five years. Electing it waives your DDS hearing. CDL holders and drivers under 21 are not eligible.

Is the DDS Administrative Hearing the Same as My Criminal DUI Case?

No, they are separate tracks. The DDS hearing decides your license only, and its outcome does not decide the criminal charge.

Does a DUI Conviction Suspend My License Even if I Win at DDS?

Yes, it can. A conviction carries its own suspension, separate from the administrative track. Winning the DDS hearing protects your license from the administrative suspension only.