Costs
Costs of Doing Nothing
Let's face it: nobody budgets for a driver license suspension. Unfortunately, if your license has been suspended by DMV, you don't have a choice of whether you will pay money. You are going to pay money, period. You have a choice only of whom you will pay.
If you do nothing and accept the suspension, you will pay, at a minimum, higher insurance premiums for several years. If the suspension resulted from a DUI or the refusal to take a chemical test, you will likely be relegated to the assigned risk pool, with increased premiums of several thousands of dollars before you will be eligible for an ordinary policy.
You will also have to take a DUI class if you get a restricted license. That class can cost another thousand dollars or more.
Because there will be a fixed period when you cannot drive at all, you may incur costs of alternate transportation. If you choose to drive on a license that was suspended for a DUI, you risk jail time and a significant fine for a misdemeanor offense.
Fixed Expenses of the Writ Process
The typical writ proceeding requires the expenditure of funds for five expenses: filing fees for the writ petition and stay request; the fee to DMV for producing a recording of the DMV hearing; the fee to produce a transcript from that recording; service of process on the DMV; and courier/fax filing charges for the usually expedited filing for writ cases. In total, these costs run between five hundred and six hundred dollars.
Attorney's Fees
Attorney's fees will vary depending on the complexity and amount of work involved in a particular case. Variable factors also include the relative difficulty involved in working in a particular county's court system and the extent of travel involved to obtain both a stay of the suspension and the ultimate writ. In general, though, you can expect to pay between three and four thousand dollars in the pursuit of both a stay of your license suspension and a DMV writ.
Pro Bono Writ Work
Because Mr. McCoy is one of California's leading appellate attorneys handling DMV and DUI issues, there are always DMV issues he is on the lookout for. In some rare cases, he is willing to do pro bono (for "the good," meaning "free of charge") work on cases that present these novel appellate issues. If you have a DMV case that presents one of his Hot Button DMV Issues, please give us a call.