To request an administrative hearing with the AST-60, send a written request to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Hearing Unit in Montgomery within 10 days of the date the arresting officer handed you the form. The request can be mailed or hand-delivered, but it must be postmarked or received inside that 10-day window. Miss it and you waive the hearing, and your suspension takes effect automatically.
The 10-Day Deadline
The clock starts the day the officer served you with the AST-60, which is normally your arrest date. You have 10 calendar days from that date to get a written hearing request either postmarked or hand-delivered to ALEA.1Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 32-5A-307 – Administrative Hearing
Those 10 days include weekends and holidays. Count carefully. If day 10 lands on a Saturday, your envelope needs a Saturday postmark at the latest; the deadline does not roll forward to Monday. Treat this as a hard cutoff and plan to send the request well before day 10 if you can.
What to Put in the Request
The AST-60 lists the information your written request must contain:2Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. AST-60 Alabama DUI Form
- Your full legal name, exactly as it appears on your license.
- Your driver’s license number, which is printed on the AST-60 itself.
- Your date of birth.
- A current mailing address where ALEA can send the hearing notice.
- A current telephone number.
Check each entry against what the officer wrote on your copy of the AST-60. A transposed digit in the license number or a stale address is the kind of clerical slip that creates processing delays, and your timeline has none to spare.
Where to Send It
Send the request to ALEA’s Hearing Unit in Montgomery. A local police station, sheriff’s office, or courthouse cannot process it, and dropping it off there does not stop the clock. The addresses printed on the form are:2Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. AST-60 Alabama DUI Form
- By mail: Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, ATTN: Hearing Unit, P.O. Box 1471, Montgomery, AL 36102-1471.
- By hand delivery: ATTN: Hearing Unit, 301 S. Ripley Street, Montgomery, AL 36104.
If you mail it, use certified mail with return receipt. That receipt is your proof of a timely postmark and delivery. Without it, you have no way to push back if the agency later says the request arrived late.
Your 45-Day Temporary Permit
When the officer served the AST-60, they took your plastic license and forwarded it to ALEA. The AST-60 itself is now your temporary driving permit, valid for 45 days from the date of arrest.2Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. AST-60 Alabama DUI Form Keep the original in your vehicle. A photocopy or a phone photo is not a substitute if another officer pulls you over.
One point to be clear about before you file: requesting the hearing does not extend the 45-day permit or delay the suspension. The statute and the form both say so directly.1Alabama Legislature. Alabama Code 32-5A-307 – Administrative Hearing When day 45 passes, the suspension takes effect even if your hearing has not been scheduled, let alone decided. The request preserves your right to contest the suspension; it does not keep you on the road.
What Happens After You File
Once the Hearing Unit receives a timely request, a hearing officer will mail you the date, time, and location of your hearing.3Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. AST-60 Alabama DUI Form
There is no set timeline for when the hearing will occur, and the wait commonly stretches past the 45-day permit. In that gap you cannot legally drive unless a court grants you a separate hardship or restricted license.
At the hearing, the issues typically include whether the officer had reasonable grounds to believe you were driving under the influence, whether any chemical test was properly administered, and whether you were lawfully informed of the consequences of refusing the test. This is a civil administrative proceeding. It is separate from the criminal DUI case in district or municipal court, and the outcome of one does not automatically decide the other.
If You Miss the 10-Day Window
Failing to file inside the 10-day window waives the right to a hearing entirely. The suspension takes effect automatically on day 46 after your arrest. The only remaining avenue is judicial review of the agency’s decision under Alabama Code Section 32-5A-308. That is a narrower and more procedurally demanding route than the administrative hearing you gave up, which is why the 10-day deadline is the one date to put in front of everything else after a DUI arrest in Alabama.
Before You Mail It
A short checklist before the envelope leaves your hands:
- Confirm the arrest date on the AST-60 and count 10 days forward on a calendar, including weekends.
- Match the name, license number, and date of birth on your request to what appears on the form.
- Address the envelope to the ALEA Hearing Unit, not to any local agency.
- Send it certified mail, return receipt requested, and keep the receipt with your copy of the AST-60.
- Keep the original AST-60 in your vehicle for the full 45 days.
If you have any question about the suspension period you are facing, prior alcohol or drug-related contacts on your record, or how the administrative case interacts with your criminal case, those are questions to put to an Alabama DUI attorney well before day 10. The hearing request itself, though, is a short written document on a short clock, and getting it in on time is the single step that keeps every later option open.