South Dakota DUI Administrative Hearing

Two Different Hearings, Two Different Deadlines

South Dakota's DUI administrative hearing system confuses nearly everyone because the deadline depends entirely on whether you refused or took the chemical test. These are separate processes managed by the Department of Public Safety — not the criminal court.

Chemical test refusal (120-day deadline): If you refused the breath, blood, or urine test at the station, the officer confiscated your license and issued a Notice of Intent to Revoke. That notice doubles as a temporary driving permit valid for 120 days. To contest the automatic one-year revocation, you must submit a written request for an administrative hearing to DPS within 120 days of the arrest date. Miss that window, and the revocation takes effect with no further opportunity to challenge it.

Standard license withdrawal for non-refusal reasons (15-day deadline): If DPS mails you a notice of intent to withdraw your driving privileges for reasons other than a chemical test refusal — such as point accumulation — you have 15 days from the postmarked date of the DPS notice to submit a written hearing request under Administrative Rule 61:18:01:02.02.

Consented and failed the test: Here's what catches people off guard — if you took the chemical test and blew 0.08% or higher, South Dakota does not impose an immediate administrative license suspension. Your license remains valid until a criminal court conviction, at which point the judge orders a judicial revocation. There is no separate administrative hearing to request in a standard failed-test scenario.

The 10-Day Myth

Many national DUI information sites and even some South Dakota defense attorney websites claim you have only 7 or 10 days to request a hearing. This is wrong for South Dakota. That deadline exists in states like California, Colorado, and Florida, and gets copied into marketing content without jurisdiction verification.

South Dakota's 120-day window for refusal hearings is one of the longest in the country. Don't let inaccurate information from out-of-state sources pressure you into panic.

How to Request the Hearing

The request is straightforward: submit a written petition to the Department of Public Safety, Driver Licensing Program. The petition should include:

• Your full legal name and date of birth
• Your driver's license number
• The date of arrest
• A copy of the Notice of Intent to Revoke (the document the officer gave you)
• A clear statement that you are requesting an administrative hearing to contest the revocation

Mail it to the DPS address listed on the Notice of Intent to Revoke. Send it certified mail with return receipt — you need proof that it was postmarked before the 120-day deadline.

What Happens at the Hearing

The administrative hearing is conducted by the Office of Hearing Examiners — not a judge in a courtroom. It's a civil proceeding, meaning the rules are different from criminal court:

The burden of proof is lower. DPS only needs to show by a preponderance of evidence (more likely than not) that you refused a lawful chemical test. The criminal court standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt" does not apply here.

The scope is narrow. The hearing examiner considers only whether the officer had reasonable grounds to believe you were driving under the influence, whether the arrest was lawful, and whether you were properly informed of the consequences of refusing the test and still refused. The examiner does not consider your guilt or innocence on the DUI charge itself.

You can present evidence. Bring the officer's arrest report, any squad car or body camera video your attorney has obtained through the criminal case discovery, and testimony about the circumstances of the refusal. Technical arguments — like whether the implied consent advisory was read correctly — can succeed at this hearing.

Outcomes: If you win, the revocation is rescinded and your driving privileges are restored (pending the criminal case). If you lose, the one-year revocation stands, and your only remaining option is a court appeal to circuit court.

The Administrative Track Runs Independently

The administrative hearing result does not affect your criminal case, and your criminal case result does not affect the administrative action. You can win the administrative hearing and still be convicted of DUI in criminal court. You can have your criminal charges dismissed entirely and still lose your license for a year through the administrative revocation.

This dual-track structure is why many first-offense defendants end up fighting on two fronts simultaneously — and why understanding which deadlines apply to which track matters from the first day after arrest.

The South Dakota First-Offense DUI Guide maps both tracks side by side — criminal court timeline and administrative licensing process — so you can coordinate deadlines and avoid falling through the gap between them.

See more South Dakota guides →