Sunday, January 13, 2008

Nebraska Supreme Court reverses the Platte County District Court and allows the Department of Motor Vehicles to seek to enhance a driver's license suspension if the driver had a prior alcohol-related license suspension. Stenger v. Department of Motor Vehicles, S-06-1176, 274 Neb. 819 § 60-498.01 permits the hearing officer at the Administrative License Revocation hearing (ALR) the receive evidence for enhancement at a revocation hearing. A lthough 60-498.01 limits the issues under dispute, it does not prohibit evidence pertinent to the ultimate disposition of a case after those issues have been resolved. Whether a person’s driver’s license has previously been revoked is relevant evidence in determining the length of the revocation under § 60-498.02(1)(b). Therefore, § 60-498.01 allows receiving the driving abstract to enhance a revocation, and we hold that a driving abstract may be admitted in an A LR proceeding for that purpose. A party still may contest the accuracy of the abstract as to whether the party did in fact have a prior revocation. S ection 60-498.02(1)(b) explicitly provides that if a driving abstract shows that the driver had a revocation in the prior 12 years, the revocation can be enhanced to 1 year. T herefore, the Legislature clearly intended for the Department to consider such matter in the ALR proceedings

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