New Hampshire Administrative License Suspension (ALS)

Almost all DWI cases in New Hampshire involve two separate proceedings:

• Prosecution for a criminal case in Court
• An Administrative License Suspension (ALS) proceeding in the Department of Safety

Each of these proceedings jeopardizes your right to drive in NH. When you hire Lothstein Guerriero, PLLC, one fixed fee covers defense of both proceedings. Contact us for a free consultation about this service.

Please note: you have a right to a hearing on whether your administrative license suspension is valid, but you must request such a hearing within thirty days of either your arrest (if you refused a breath test or blew over the legal limit) or of receipt of your notice of suspension (if a blood alcohol test was performed).

Will My License be Suspended if I'm Charged for DWI?

An Administrative License Suspension (ALS) is either a 180 day, or 2 year, suspension of your driver’s license or privilege to drive. Almost all DWI charges also involve an ALS. An ALS is NOT dependent on whether you are found guilty in Court. An ALS may proceed even if you are found innocent in Court.

An ALS will commence within 30 days if:

• You ‘refused’ to submit to a post-arrest chemical test (breath, blood, or urine), OR
• You submitted to one and it showed an alcohol concentration of .08 or more for a blood test, or .09 or more for a breath test, or .02 or more if you are under age 21

An ALS will commence, but not within 30 days, if:

• You submitted to a blood test. NH Forensic Laboratory testing can take 1-3 months. Once the test result becomes available, and served upon you, an ALS will commence 30 days after service (if the BAC was .08 or higher of course).

You will not face an ALS if:

• You did not refuse any post-arrest test, and
• You provide a breath test of .08 or lower, or blood test of .07 or lower.

If you submitted to a post-arrest breath test, you already know your test result. The official result of your breath test appears on the pink Intoxilyzer 5000 Test Record that should have been given to you by the police prior to your release from custody. The official result is the number that appears to the right of “REPORTED VALUE.”

If you submitted to a blood test, you will be notified by certified mail of the results of that test by means of a letter from the State of New Hampshire forwarded to you by the law enforcement agency that arrested you. It make take four to eight weeks, or more, for you to receive the results of your blood test.

Will my blood sample be tested for illegal and controlled drugs?

• The NH Forensic Laboratory will request testing of your blood sample for controlled and illegal drugs. They will do this even if your alcohol BAC was .08 or higher.
• The testing will look for illegal drugs like cocaine and fentanyl and cannabis.
• The testing will also look for controlled drugs that are lawful to possess only if one has a prescription, like Clonazepam (brand name Klonopin) and other valium-like drugs in the benzodiazepine class.

What if I have a medical marijuana card for the cannabis (THC) found in my blood?

• The answer is the same as if the question were "what if I have a prescription for the Clonazepam found in my blood?" That answer, of course, is that a medical card or valid prescription can never excuse driving under the influence of the prescribed drug. Under the influence does not mean that the medication is in the person's system. Under the influence means the medication is impairing the person's ability to drive safely.
• That being said, a medical marijuana card or prescription will make for a better case than if the driver was taking the controlled drug unlawfully.

Note for out-of-state license holders

Out-of-state license holders should take special note that your home state may revoke your license in your home state as a direct consequence of the actions of the NH Department of Safety. This is called "reciprocity" - most if not all States are within a Compact that requires them to share DWI conviction and ALS information with the State where the arrestee lives and holds a license. We have represented MANY people charged with DUI in NH who have an out-of-state license. When we represent such a client, we need to informally consult with attorney colleagues in the other State, and then if appropriate, refer the client to an attorney in their home State that can advise them regarding reciprocity issues.

How many such people have we represented? We have subject matter files with reciprocity information that we learned while representing a client, for the following States and countries: Arizona, Canada, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Vermont, Washington.

ALS Hearings

Do I fight my ALS in Court?

No. An ALS is an administrative hearing. That means it is not a court case. Instead, it is adjudicated within the administrative agency (the NH Department of Safety) by a "Hearings Examiner" which is an attorney who conducts the hearing and decides the outcome. No courtroom, no robe, and for the most part, no constitution. In an ALS hearing, which is considered to be a civil matter, most of your constitutional rights do not apply. That being said, we have handled over a hundred administrative hearings at Department of Safety at their Concord and Dover locations. We have found the Hearings Examiners to be thoughtful, fair and impartial. We have won many of these hearings, and lost many more. The law may be against you in these hearings, but the Hearings Examiners are not.

The Hearings Process

You do have a right to a hearing on whether the suspension is valid, but you must request such a hearing within thirty days, or forever lose the right to such a hearing, and will suffer a license loss of either 180 days or two years, depending on your motor vehicle history. The thirty days begins to run on the date of your arrest, if you either refused to take a test or you took a breath test showing an alcohol concentration at or over the legal limit. If you took a blood test, you will have about thirty days from the date you receive a notice of suspension from the New Hampshire Motor Department of Safety. The notice will be sent to you shortly after the arresting department sends you notice of the results of your blood test analysis.

At the hearing, the arresting officer and chemical test operator (if a different person) must appear, testify under oath, subject themselves to cross-examination, and submit certain critical documents. Many police officers who appear at the Department of Safety for ALS proceedings have little or no experience presenting cases in that forum, and have no prosecuting lawyer to assist them at the hearing. (Sadly, we’ve seen clients appear for a hearing with a lawyer that has even less experience than the rookie police officer.)

Even police officers that have appeared frequently at Department of Safety, however, sometimes lose their hearings because the Hearings Examiners do hold them to a burden of proof based on the “preponderance of the evidence.” That burden is far less onerous than the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. Nevertheless, to provide a few examples, Ted Lothstein has had cases where the client prevailed in the ALS hearing despite

• Blowing a 0.15 breath test at the time of arrest (nearly twice the legal limit)
• Providing a 0.15 blood test at the time of arrest
• Driving a company vehicle, with a prior DWI conviction
• “Booking video” captures client’s appearance, movements and speech on film

  Is there a deadline for the police to file a request for administrative suspension?

  The Department of Safety establishes Administrative Rules that interpret the laws regarding administrative license suspensions (ALS). Administrative rule Saf-C 2803.01(d) requires the law enforcement officer to mail the ALS form within 10 calendar days of the arrest date. Saf-C 2804.02(b) states that the ALS hearing “shall be scheduled within 20 days from receipt of the request unless a continuance is requested”). This is modeled on a state law, RSA 265-A:31, I(c) which requires an ALS hearing to be held within twenty days of a request.

  So if the police fail to mail in the ALS form within 10 calendar days of arrest, you win, right?

  Wrong. Recently, the New Hampshire Supreme Court issued a non-precedential Order in the Kyla Bernard-Nichols v. New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles, No. 2023-0628 (April 16, 2025). It held that the even though these time limits are expressed as a mandate with the word "shall", if the deadlines are not met, the hearing still goes forward, unless Respondent (the client) can show "prejudice."

  The fact that the person goes under suspension after 30 days even if the hearing hasn't started yet, is not considered to be "prejudice." It's hard to imagine what would constitute prejudice. In criminal trials where the defendant contends that his right to a speedy trial was violated, prejudice can be shown if, for example, a defense witness has moved to a jurisdiction where she cannot be lawfully subpoenaed, or has become incapacitated, or has died. But defense witnesses are almost never called in ALS hearings.

One Fixed Fee for Defense of Both New Hampshire DWI and ALS Proceedings

Contact Lothstein Guerriero for a free, confidential consultation about representation for DWI and ALS defense. Complete our online information form, or call our offices in Keene (603) 352-5000 or Concord (603) 513-1919. Evening and weekend appointments are available.