DWI: Administrative License Revocation

Texas law requires that anyone arrested for Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) have two cases filed against them: a criminal case filed in the county where they were arrested, and a civil case filed by DPS. While the criminal case is more potentially more serious, the civil case, called an Administrative License Revocation, can carry some very harsh consequences.

If this is your first arrest for DWI, you face a suspension of up to 90 days for providing a breath or blood test over 0.08% BAC or a suspension of up to 180 days for a refusal to provide a breath or blood sample. If you have been arrested for DWI, refused to take a breath or blood test, or failed a breath or blood test within the ten years before the date of your arrest, you face a suspension of up to 1 year for providing a breath or blood test over 0.08 BAC or a suspension of up to 2 years for a refusal to provide a breath or blood sample.

If you are under 21 at the time of your arrest and have any alcohol in your system, your license can be suspended from 60 to 180 days depending on whether or not you have prior convictions for alcohol-related offenses.

If you hire us to represent you on your criminal case, we will represent you at the ALR hearing free of charge. Although we will vigorously fight the legal basis that the officer had to come into contact with you and eventually arrest you, if the officers do show up, it is very likely that your license will be suspended. Even if we lose the ALR hearing, it gives us an opportunity to get discovery from police officers and to lock them into a particular version of the facts surrounding your arrest.

If your license is suspended, we can ask our local judges to give you what is known as an Occupational Driver's License (ODL). An ODL allows you to drive during certain hours of the day to go to work, counseling, and perform essential household duties (such as grocery shopping). However, an ODL is only valid for between 4 and 12 hours a day. (If you are pulled over outside of your permitted hours, you can be charged with another Class B Misdemeanor.)

Betty Blackwell will defend your rights in your DWI criminal case and the ALR proceedings. Call to schedule your free consultation with a lawyer who is Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Call Betty Blackwell.