Menu
You must submit a written request for an ALS hearing to the NH Bureau of Hearings within 30 days of being served your suspension notice, or you lose the right to contest it. The hearing itself is narrow. It cannot decide guilt, but it can stop your license suspension before your criminal case even starts. If the deadline is close, act now and consider talking to an NH DWI attorney before you file.
TL;DR:
- Filing your ALS hearing request within 30 days of service is critical, as missing the deadline typically results in an outright denial.
- The hearing only examines six specific issues, such as reasonable grounds for the stop and proper advisement, not your guilt or impairment.
- Proper preparation includes gathering police reports, test records, witnesses, and timely requesting the officer’s presence to influence the outcome.
- Procedural accuracy, such as timely filing and clear documentation, is more important than contesting impairment symptoms during the hearing.
- Hiring an attorney can enhance procedural focus and ensure that all statutory requirements are correctly addressed, increasing the chance of suspension dismissal.
An ALS hearing is an administrative proceeding, not a criminal trial. A hearing examiner from the Bureau of Hearings presides, testimony is given under oath, and the session is recorded. Rules of evidence are relaxed, so hearsay and officer reports carry weight that would face more scrutiny in a courtroom.
The examiner decides only the narrow set of statutory questions listed in RSA 265-A:31. Whether you’re guilty of DWI is not one of them. The standard of proof is also lower than in criminal court: preponderance of the evidence, meaning the state only needs to show something is more likely true than not. That’s a meaningfully easier bar for the state to clear than “beyond a reasonable doubt,” which is exactly why the hearing’s tight statutory limits matter so much to your strategy.
The clock starts the day you’re served, not the day you get around to dealing with it. You have 30 days from that date to submit a written request, and the New Hampshire Department of Safety does not accept phone requests under any circumstance. Miss the window, and the request is typically denied outright.
You have four acceptable ways to file:
State clearly whether you want the arresting officer present at the hearing. This decision affects your entire strategy, so don’t leave it blank. File once through a single channel. Duplicate requests across multiple methods can create confusion at the Bureau and occasionally cause processing delays right when you can least afford them.
RSA 265-A:31 limits the examiner’s review to six specific questions. Understanding this list is the whole game, because every piece of your preparation should target one of these points rather than the broader facts of your arrest.
Each of these is a discrete, checkable fact. If the arresting officer skipped an advisement or the paperwork is inconsistent, that gap can be enough to win, regardless of what happened out on the road that night.
Hearings take place in Concord or Dover, though the Bureau allows remote participation by phone or Microsoft Teams if you request it in writing ahead of time. That flexibility matters for people juggling work schedules or living far from either office.
If you didn’t request the officer’s presence, the examiner may decide your case using only the written police report. That’s a real risk: a report can contain vague or boilerplate language about “signs of impairment” without much specific support. When you do request the officer appear and they fail to show without good cause, the case may be dismissed and the suspension order rescinded entirely.
The reverse also holds. If you fail to appear without good cause, you waive your right to the hearing altogether, and the suspension stands. Hearings are recorded, and the examiner typically issues a written recommendation within roughly 15 days of the session. There’s no jury, no opening statement theater. It’s a focused, document-driven proceeding.
Suspension length depends heavily on your history. A first offense with no prior DWI, refusal, or ALS suspension typically results in a six-month suspension. If you have prior offenses on record, RSA 265-A:30 extends that to two years.
The suspension becomes effective 30 days after you were served, regardless of when the hearing decision comes down. New Hampshire license holders often receive a temporary permit covering that 30-day gap. If your license was issued by another state, New Hampshire simply transmits the suspension order there, and a temporary NH permit generally isn’t issued in that situation.
Losing the hearing isn’t necessarily the end of the road. RSA 265-A:33 and 265-A:34 outline a statutory appeal path, which is a separate process from any appeal tied to the underlying criminal case. It’s worth exploring with counsel rather than assuming the administrative decision is final. Related suspension consequences of a first-offense conviction are covered in more detail in our first-offense DWI overview.
Preparation for an ALS hearing looks different from preparing for a criminal trial, because you’re not defending your character or explaining your night. You’re checking whether the state followed its own procedure.
Start gathering these before your hearing date:
Every piece of evidence should point back to one of the six statutory issues covered earlier. If your test refusal was ambiguous, or if the officer’s advisement about independent testing was rushed or unclear, that’s where your challenge belongs, not in arguing you weren’t actually impaired.
Pro Tip: Request the officer’s presence in writing whenever your defense depends on questioning how a field sobriety test was administered or whether an advisement was properly given. A report alone can’t be cross-examined, but a person on the record can.
Hiring an attorney isn’t required for an ALS hearing, but it changes what’s possible. A lawyer can frame procedural objections precisely, subpoena calibration or maintenance records, and know which questions actually move an examiner. For readers weighing this decision, our DUI attorney selection guide breaks down what to look for.
Attorney Kalie Lydon has seen the same pattern play out again and again: people spend their preparation time relitigating whether they’d really had too much to drink, when the examiner legally can’t consider that question at all. The hearing rewards a different kind of focus, the narrow statutory list in RSA 265-A:31 and nothing else.
The most common, avoidable mistakes are procedural. Missing the 30-day window outright. Calling the Bureau to request a hearing instead of putting it in writing. Forgetting to request the officer’s presence when the case genuinely needs live testimony. Filing the same request twice through different channels and creating confusion at the Bureau.
Lydon Law approaches ALS hearings with a targeted evidence checklist built around those six statutory questions, drawing on courtroom experience arguing procedural and technical issues at the examiner level rather than the broader criminal case.
Most people treat the ALS hearing like a preview of their criminal trial, and that’s the biggest strategic mistake I see. The examiner doesn’t care whether you were impaired. They care whether the officer had reasonable grounds, followed the advisement requirements, and documented the refusal or BAC correctly. Conventional advice tends to focus on “telling your side of the story,” which almost never moves the needle here.
What actually wins is procedural precision. Small things, an advisement given too quickly, a report that’s vague about the specific facts supporting reasonable grounds, a refusal that wasn’t clearly documented, carry real weight under a preponderance standard. That’s a lower bar for the state, but it cuts both ways: it’s also a lower bar for you to raise a credible doubt.
If you take one thing from this article, prioritize the 30-day filing deadline above everything else. You can build a strong procedural argument later. You cannot get back a missed deadline.
— Kalie
Some law firms offer to handle the full arc of these cases: preparing your written hearing request, deciding whether to demand the officer’s presence, gathering test and calibration records, and representing you directly at the Bureau of Hearings.
A consultation focuses on the facts that actually matter under RSA 265-A:31, not a general retelling of your arrest. That precision is often the difference between a suspension that sticks and one that gets dismissed on procedure. Because the 30-day window doesn’t pause for anyone, the sooner you reach out, the more options stay open. Visit our criminal defense practice page to see how we handle DWI and ALS matters, or contact us today to talk through your specific timeline before it runs out.
The statutes and Bureau pages behind this article are public and worth reading directly. Start with RSA 265-A:31 for the hearing’s statutory scope, RSA 265-A:30 for suspension lengths and effective dates, and the Bureau of Hearings FAQ page for filing logistics and contact details.
This article is general information, not a substitute for advice from a qualified lawyer. Consult a qualified legal professional about your own circumstances before acting on anything here.
A hearing examiner reviews whether the officer had reasonable grounds for your stop, whether you were arrested, and whether you refused testing or had a disqualifying BAC, then issues a written recommendation, typically within about 15 days.
A first offense with no prior DWI, refusal, or ALS suspension usually results in a six-month suspension, while prior offenses under RSA 265-A:30 extend that to two years.
Yes. If your license was issued by another state, New Hampshire transmits the suspension order to that state, and a temporary NH permit generally is not issued in that scenario.
ALS stands for Administrative License Suspension, a civil process separate from your criminal DWI case that focuses narrowly on the six statutory issues listed in RSA 265-A:31, not on your guilt or innocence.
Representation isn’t required, but because the hearing’s scope is so narrow, an attorney experienced with procedural challenges, like the team at Lydon Law, can meaningfully improve how your evidence and objections are presented.
© 2026 Lydon Law|Legal Disclaimer|Privacy Policy