Henry County License Hearing Guide

Napoleon has two separate government offices handling motor vehicle paperwork, and walking into the wrong one wastes a trip. The Henry County BMV Deputy Registrar on West Front Street handles licenses and suspensions — that's where your ALS gets processed. The Clerk of Courts Title Office on Oakwood Avenue, a few blocks away, only does vehicle titles; it cannot touch a driver's license reinstatement no matter how similar the paperwork looks.

The suspension itself begins at the roadside under Ohio's implied consent law. A failed chemical test triggers an immediate 90-day suspension, with no limited privileges available for the first 15 days no matter the circumstance. A refusal triggers a full year, with the no-privileges window extended to 30 days.

You have 30 days — either filed at your initial court appearance (within five days of arrest) or from the mailing date of the suspension notice — to formally appeal. Send the request to the BMV's Columbus headquarters, PO Box 16784; there's no fee for the OVI-specific ALS hearing, but you need to include a copy of the Notice of Suspension. The burden of proof sits entirely on you: you have to show the officer lacked reasonable grounds for the stop, failed to follow proper procedure, or improperly administered the chemical warnings. Filing the appeal doesn't pause the suspension while it's pending, and the hearing examiner reviewing it has no authority to grant limited driving privileges — only the Napoleon Municipal Court judge can do that.

Once the suspension period runs its course, reinstatement costs $315 directly to the BMV — a comparatively modest number by Ohio standards, reflecting recent fee-reduction legislation. You'll also need to maintain SR-22 high-risk insurance continuously for a minimum of three years; any lapse in that coverage triggers an immediate re-suspension, so don't let the policy slip even briefly.