Employee shouldn’t be able to hold dual positions as the agency’s advocate and impartial decision-maker

The DMV permits hearing officers in the “administrative per se” or APS system to hold dual positions as the agency’s advocate and as an impartial decision-maker, which violates drivers’ due process rights, a California court recently said.

The plaintiffs – California DUI Lawyers Association and an individual attorney – initiated the case of California DUI Lawyers Association et al. v. California Department of Motor Vehicles et al. The case focuses on the DMV’s administrative hearings, which decide whether the automatic suspension of the license of a driver arrested for driving under the influence is warranted.

The DMV authorizes its hearing officers to simultaneously act as the DMV’s advocates and as triers of fact and allows its managers either to change hearing officers’ decisions or to order hearing officers to change their decisions without the driver’s notice.

The plaintiffs sought injunctive and declaratory relief from the DMV and its director – the defendants in this case. The plaintiffs claimed violations of drivers’ rights to due process under California’s constitution and under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as well as illegal expenditure of funds under s. 526a of the Code of Civil Procedure, through the absence of a neutral hearing officer and through ex parte communications between DMV’s managers and hearing officers.

In the present case,...

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