Apply For IDAP In Oklahoma

How Do You Apply For IDAP In Oklahoma?

DPS has a form, which I don't believe they have on their website. Unfortunately, the way things are set up here in Oklahoma, I don't believe DPS has direct control over their website. They have to go through another state agency. Yet, here we are in March, so we're more than four months after the law went into effect, and DPS still has old information up on its website.

The way somebody would apply for that is, they fill out a form to make the application. They have to make the application within 30 days of the date that they've been given the notice of revocation. DPS will then process that and send them notice that they've been accepted. Then they'll have to enroll in the program. Enrollment in the program consists of having the ignition interlock device installed on their vehicle and paying an enrollment fee of $200 and $50 for a restricted license. If they're an Oklahoma licensee, they pay another $25 for a duplicate license for a total of $275 to DPS for the IDAP program.

How Do You Pass Or Graduate From The IDAP Program?

The way you graduate from the IDAP program, we'll just use an example of the first one, six months. They call it the 180-day program. During the first 120 days, the person is in what's called phase one. DPS is monitoring them for any ignition interlock violations. A violation could be something as simple as having three start failures within a 15-minute time frame. That would be indicative that somebody's been drinking and trying to start their vehicle. Or if they have missed what are called roving-restarts. Where, as they're driving down the road, the device wants them to blow a sample, and it gives them a time frame, say three or four minutes, in which to do that, and the person doesn't provide the sample, then that would be a violation.

During phase one of the program, they can be counseled or sent back for training with the installer to learn how to better use that device. During the last 60 days of that 180 days, they're in what's called phase two. If they have violations during that time frame, then it extends their program to where they... It doesn't extend it 60 days. What they have to do is they have to go 60 days without any violations.

If you have somebody who has a week left and they have a violation, well, then they're going to have the rest of that week and then, conditionally, 53 days longer on that program to complete the full 60 days without any violations. Once they successfully complete it with no violations in the last 60 days, then they submit a document from the Oklahoma Board of Tests saying that they've had no violations, and they also submit a drug and alcohol assessment completion certificate to DPS. Once that's all done, then DPS will allow them to remove the interlock device and reinstate without a restriction on their license.

At The Time Of My Arrest, The Officer Seized My Driver's License. Can I Continue To Drive?

When a person's arrested, the document that the officer gives to that individual is good for 30 days, so that's why we have the 30-day time frame for either filing your appeal or doing the IDAP program. Essentially, they're operating off of the piece of paperwork that the officer gives them as a receipt for their driver's license. If they do the IDAP program, then DPS will issue them a new license that has a restriction code on it, but it's a restriction R, on their driver's license.

If the individual files an appeal with the district court, DPS will go in and stay that revocation until such time as it can be resolved in the district court. DPS will generally submit, if the officer submits the license to DPS, DPS will then return that license to the individual to await the outcome of the district court case.

How Do I Determine The Date Of Notice Of Revocation?

Generally, if an individual is arrested and they take a breath test and blow over the legal limit or if they refuse to take the test, the officer will give them a notice of revocation at that time. That will be the date that it starts. You can have an individual that’s arrested, let’s say prior to midnight. They get taken down, and by the time they process the paperwork, it's the next day. That would be the day that the notice is given to them, not necessarily the date that they're arrested, but the date that notice is given to them. That's when their 30-day time frame starts. It doesn't count the first day.

However, with blood test cases, it’s a little bit different. Where an officer has to take an individual for a blood test, obviously, we don't know the results until that blood is analyzed. The officer in those instances does not take their driver's license from them. The person will keep their driver's license. The blood is then sent to the lab to be analyzed. If that analysis comes back as being over the legal limit, then the lab will send that paperwork to DPS. DPS will then issue a notice of revocation to that individual via the mail. In that letter, it will state, "We're revoking you, and here's your final date to request IDAP or file a district-court appeal."

Is There Any Way To Get An Extension For The IDAP Program Or A Modification?

Get an extension for the IDAP program? No, because the statutory driving says that they have 30 days in which to request the IDAP program. Modification is something completely different. That's where the individual's license has been revoked. Let's assume you could have an instance where the person does not file a request for IDAP and does not file an appeal to challenge it. In that instance, they go under revocation at the end of that 30 days. That individual can then go directly to DPS and ask that to be modified at any time, so there's no time limit on that.

However, there is a caveat to that. Whenever they do ask for the modification, under the law, any modification and revocation have to run at the same time. DPS will restart the revocation period. An example of that would be if I'm on a six-month revocation and I'm already two months in and I go in I've got four months left on the revocation, and I decide I want to get it modified at that point, well then I'm going to start the whole six-month process all over. It would be the same as a one-year and a three-year.

There have actually been instances where I've had clients who were two and a half years into a revocation, and they finally decided they needed to get driving privileges, and I've had to caution them, "You might want to wait six more months because if you go down and get a modification now, you're going to start the whole three years all over again. You get no credit for the two and a half years that you've been sitting out."

When People Are Weighing Out Their Options Whether To Do IDAP Or To Challenge The License Suspension, What Are The Pros And Cons?

A lot of it's going to be fact-driven based on what happened in their case. Is there anything that we can find right off the bat from the paperwork that the officer's given to them where maybe the officer made a mistake that we might be able to use to challenge the revocation? Was the stop bad? You saw the two previous examples I gave. In one, there was no basis for the stop. In the other one, we found there was no basis for the arrest. It's really going to be kind of fact-driven.

But the answer that I typically give to clients who ask that question is, it really kind of depends on what's most important for you. If you challenge the revocation and are not successful, then the revocation appears on your driving record. DPS will report that for a three-year period. Then you have the reinstatement fees of $360 and $390.

If you do the IDAP program, then you don't have that revocation on your record, and you don't have the reinstatement fees. It really kind of boils down to what is most important to the client. I've had clients who I thought should go to trial, but the most important thing to them was, they absolutely did not want that revocation appearing on their driving record. The only way to guarantee that then would be to do the IDAP program. It's really an individual response to each client as to what's most important. I had one gentleman, he could care less whether the revocation appeared on his driving record. He wanted to fight it.