The Michigan Secretary of State has issued a new requirement that an Evidence Affidavit be submitted at the time a Request for Hearing is submitted for Michigan drivers license appeal. The Evidence Affidavit requires the petitioner to state that they have submitted all of their evidence. Evidence that is often submitted includes 3-6 letters of sobriety, treatment records and AA sign-in sheets. The Evidence Affidavit must be submitted up front at the time the Request for Hearing is submitted. In the past, a petitioner could request a driver license reinstatement Michigan hearing and submit evidence later. If the petitioner had a live hearing scheduled, the petitioner could present the evidence at the hearing.
The impact of these changes will be twofold. First, those who do submit additional information/evidence at the hearing run the risk that the evidence will not be accepted by the hearing officer. For example, if a petitioner requested a hearing without submitting the required minimum three letters, and instead submitted the letters at the hearing, the hearing officer could reject the evidence. If this happened, it very well could result in a loss of the drivers license hearing, because the petitioner would not have submitted the required evidence. Whether or not additional evidence will be accepted at the drivers license reinstatement Michigan hearing will most likely be decided on a case-by-case basis and will probably vary by hearing officer. However, best practice will be to submit all evidence up front with the Request For Hearing.
The second impact of the Evidence Affidavit will be to lengthen the time that petitioners must wait to get their drivers licenses. Presently, there is a significant lag between filing a Request For Hearing and actually getting a hearing date. Often, it takes a couple of months to get a drivers license appeal Michigan hearing date. In the past, petitioners could file their case as soon as they had their evaluation and work on obtaining additional evidence, such as letters of sobriety, while waiting for the hearing to be scheduled. The new requirement that all evidence be submitted up front will mean longer waits for petitioners, since they will not be able to request the hearing for drivers license restoration Michigan until they get all the evidence.
