Gwinnett County DUI attorneys were amazed this week when Rockdale County Superior Court Judge Sidney Nation issued an order to the state not to suspend the driver's licenses of fifteen people who were arrested for DUI, but refused the blood-alcohol test.

Judge Nation said in his order that the police officers who seized the drivers' licenses under the authority of Georgia's implied consent law had not sent sworn reports of the incidents to the Department of Driver Services. The law requires sworn reports.

A class action was filed, claiming that over a thousand cases could be affected by the failure of police to complete the necessary paperwork for the mandatory license suspensions.

Georgia law says that

drivers who are suspected of driving drunk but refuse to submit to a blood-alcohol test can have their licenses suspended for a year.

First, though, the arresting officer must forward the driver's license to the DDS with a sworn and notarized copy of a notice of intent to suspend the license. This notice is called Form 1205.

One of the Georgia DUI attorneys for the plaintiffs said, "For the past decade, DDS has routinely ignored the mandatory statutory requirements relating to the administrative suspension of driver's licenses in Georgia and, as a result, the rights of drivers suspected of DUI have been repeatedly violated. We decided that it's time for someone to take a stand against this practice and put an end to it once and for all."