Have you been summoned for a medical board review of your driver’s license? Here are some things to know about this kind of hearing.

What is a Medical Board Review Hearing?

You might be contacted for a medical board review hearing if someone makes a complaint about your driving. The complaint states that you are unsafe to drive due to a medical condition.

Who Can Make that Complaint?

Officers can make this complaint, as well as driving instructors and a few other people. Oftentimes we’ve seen them related to DUIs. So for example, if a person makes suicidal statements when pulled over for drunk driving, the officer can make a complaint. The officer would report to the DMV that they thought, based on that person’s mental health, that they were not safe to be driving.

What Happens Next?

Once the DMV gets that notification, they’ll suspend the driver’s license immediately. In order for you to get your license back, you have to submit forms to the DMV signed off on by doctors. This might include various doctors such as your primary care physician, a psychiatrist, or whoever the DMV requests based on what the medical concern is.

Then those forms get reviewed by the DMV medical board. The medical board is a board of doctors. They make a determination whether the information on those forms is sufficient to return the license or if it needs to go to a hearing.

A lot of times what the DMV will do is say, “The information on the forms is fine but you need to take another road test.” So they might set a condition on returning your license but you won’t have to go to a hearing to get it back.

Resolving Hearings or Overturning Verdicts

If you provide the right information, the hearing will likely be resolved in your favor. Or, if you want to contest the allegations against you, you could request a hearing. At the hearing you can present evidence contrary to the report that the DMV received. You can prove that you are safe to drive due to this medical reason. There are essentially two paths that you can take. The first option is fighting the suspension all the way to a hearing. Or, you can just fill out the DMV forms with your doctor and they’ll reinstate it without a hearing.

As long as you fill out the forms correctly, you will likely get your license back. And we’ve had a couple of situations where doctors have not filled out the forms so we’ve had to call over to doctor’s offices to make sure that they’re filling them out correctly and within the time frame that the form needs to be filled out.

How Can a Lawyer Help?

The forms that the DMV requires occasionally have to contain specific information. So, if the medical report is psychiatric in nature, then you need to have your psychiatrist write certain things on the report. They should explain that they have discussed the specific incident that triggered the report to the DMV. They should also say that they don’t have any concerns about your mental health or driving ability. A lot of the time, a client wouldn’t know that unless they contacted us and we helped them through the process.

If you need help dealing with the DMV or a medical board review hearing, an attorney may be able to help. Contact us for further assistance.