Missouri Form 2385 is the Notice of Suspension or Revocation of Your Driving Privilege that a law enforcement officer hands you after arresting you for driving with a blood alcohol concentration at or above the legal limit. The form does three jobs at once: it tells you your license is going to be suspended or revoked, it works as a 15-day temporary driving permit, and it contains the tear-off request forms you use to fight the suspension or keep driving during it. You have 15 days from the date on the form to act. Miss that deadline and the suspension takes effect automatically, with no further appeal.1Missouri Department of Revenue. Administrative Alcohol FAQs
The 15-Day Clock and What the Form Does
The date the officer writes on Form 2385 starts a 15 calendar-day window. During those 15 days, the form itself is your driving permit, but only if the license you held at the time of the stop was valid, unexpired, and not already suspended or revoked.2Missouri Department of Revenue. Form 2385 – Notice of Suspension or Revocation of Your Driving Privilege
If the arresting officer did not take your physical license, you’re expected to mail it to the Driver License Bureau at P.O. Box 3700, Jefferson City, MO 65105-3700.
Within the 15 days you can do one or both of two things. You can request an administrative hearing to challenge the suspension. You can request an immediate restricted driving privilege so you don’t have to stop driving when the suspension starts. The bottom of Form 2385 has tear-off sections for both requests. Do nothing, and on day 16 the suspension or revocation begins and your right to a hearing is gone.1Missouri Department of Revenue. Administrative Alcohol FAQs
One thing to know up front: this administrative process is separate from your criminal DWI case. A not-guilty verdict in criminal court does not undo the Department of Revenue’s suspension. You have to fight the two tracks independently.3Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 302.505 – Determination by Department to Suspend or Revoke License
How Long You Lose Your License
What the form actually costs you depends on your driving history over the past five years and whether you took the chemical test.
First Offense, No Prior Alcohol Contacts in Five Years
A 90-day administrative suspension: 30 days of no driving, then 60 days of restricted driving to work, school, and substance abuse counseling. You can also skip the 30-day hard suspension entirely by taking the immediate 90-day interlock privilege described below.2Missouri Department of Revenue. Form 2385 – Notice of Suspension or Revocation of Your Driving Privilege
Prior Alcohol-Related Contact Within Five Years
One-year revocation. The Department of Revenue will not grant you a restricted driving privilege during that year. After 90 days you can petition a circuit court judge for a hardship limited driving privilege, but granting it is entirely up to the judge.2Missouri Department of Revenue. Form 2385 – Notice of Suspension or Revocation of Your Driving Privilege
Chemical Test Refusal
Missouri is an implied consent state. By driving on Missouri roads, you’ve already agreed to submit to a chemical test of breath, blood, saliva, or urine when lawfully arrested for a DWI offense. Refusing triggers a one-year revocation on its own, regardless of whether this is your first offense. If you have a prior refusal on your record, refusing again still means one year, but you become ineligible for even a hardship privilege during that year.4Missouri Department of Revenue. Refusal to Submit to an Alcohol or Drug Test FAQs
The BAC thresholds that trigger Form 2385 in the first place are 0.08% for drivers 21 and older, 0.04% for commercial vehicle operators, and 0.02% for drivers under 21.5Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 577.012 – Driving With Excessive Blood Alcohol Content3Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 302.505 – Determination by Department to Suspend or Revoke License
Requesting an Administrative Hearing
An administrative hearing is your chance to challenge the suspension before it takes effect. Your written request has to be received by, or postmarked to, the Department of Revenue within 15 days:1Missouri Department of Revenue. Administrative Alcohol FAQs
Missouri Department of Revenue
ATTN: General Counsel’s Office
PO Box 475
Jefferson City, MO 65105-0475
Fax: (573) 751-7151
Use the hearing request section built into Form 2385, or let your attorney submit it for you. The form asks whether you want a telephone hearing or an in-person hearing at a regional location. If you don’t check the in-person box, you get a telephone hearing by default.
Once your request is in, the Department mails you a temporary driving permit (assuming you surrendered your license and were otherwise eligible to drive). That permit keeps you on the road until 15 days after the hearing decision is mailed. Before a telephone hearing you also receive a free copy of the arresting officer’s report.
The hearing itself is narrow. It doesn’t decide whether you’re guilty of DWI. The hearing officer looks at whether the officer had probable cause, whether the arrest and testing procedures complied with the law, and whether you were properly informed of the implied consent rules. The state’s burden is a preponderance of the evidence, which is a much lower standard than the criminal “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
If you win, the suspension is reversed and your license is restored. If you lose, you can petition the circuit court in the county where you were arrested for a trial de novo. Filing that petition does not automatically stop the suspension, though the Department may issue a restricted privilege while the petition is pending if you have no alcohol contacts in the past five years.6Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 302.535 – Restricted Driving Privilege
Keeping Driving Privileges During the Suspension
If this is your first offense in five years and your license isn’t already suspended or revoked for another reason, Form 2385 gives you two ways to keep driving. Both are described on the form itself.7Missouri Department of Revenue. Restricted Driving Privilege – Alcohol
Immediate 90-Day Interlock Privilege
This option skips the 30-day hard suspension entirely. To qualify, you have to submit the request within 15 days (the section built into Form 2385, or the separate Form 5489) to the Driver License Bureau, PO Box 3700, Jefferson City, MO 65105-3700, or by fax to (573) 526-3452. You then have to install an approved ignition interlock device on every vehicle you drive and file proof of installation. If you’re 21 or older, you also need to file an SR-22 proof of insurance. Drivers under 21 on a first suspension don’t need the SR-22.
The privilege doesn’t kick in until the Department has the IID proof and, where required, the SR-22 on file. Once active, you drive with the interlock for the full 90 days.
Serve 30 Days, Then Drive Restricted for 60
If you’d rather sit out the hard suspension than install an interlock right away, you can wait 30 days and then drive on a restricted basis for the remaining 60 days. To activate the restricted period, you file an SR-22 if you’re 21 or older, plus proof of IID installation if you have any prior alcohol offense on your record (even one outside the five-year window). Restricted driving is limited to travel for work, school, and substance abuse treatment.
Ignition Interlock Requirements
An ignition interlock connects to your vehicle’s ignition and requires a clean breath sample before the engine will start. The device has to be certified by the Missouri Department of Transportation, and the installer notifies the Department of Revenue directly.8Missouri Department of Revenue. Ignition Interlock Device FAQs
The device must be on every vehicle you operate, not just your main car. Letting the device lapse while driving on a restricted or limited privilege ends that privilege. A court can also order the interlock for longer than the standard six months. And driving without a required IID is itself a crime: a first conviction is a one-year revocation, and a second is a five-year revocation.
Getting Reinstated After the Period Ends
When your suspension or revocation period runs out, your license does not come back on its own. For an alcohol-related suspension or revocation, reinstatement requires:9Missouri Department of Revenue. Reinstatement Requirements
- Paying the reinstatement fee.
- Filing and maintaining SR-22 insurance for two years from the starting date of the suspension or revocation.
- Completing the Substance Abuse Traffic Offender Program (SATOP) or an approved comparable program. Your program level is assigned after a screening by a qualified professional that includes a face-to-face interview, a review of your driving record, and your BAC at arrest.10Legal Information Institute. 9 CSR 30-3.206 – SATOP Structure
- If your record shows more than one alcohol-related contact, keeping an IID installed and violation-free for at least six months from your reinstatement date. Any violation adds another six months.
- Retaking the complete driver examination if your privilege was revoked rather than suspended.
The single most important thing to take from Form 2385 is the date on it. Fifteen days is not much time, and everything the form lets you do, including preserving your right to a hearing and keeping yourself on the road, has to happen inside that window.