DWI checkpoints often result in both DWI arrests and arrests for driving with a suspended license. Often, drivers who are driving with suspended licenses may escape detection by traveling in vehicles that are not their own and by refraining from attracting the attention of law enforcement officers. When there is a DWI checkpoint, all drivers must interact with law enforcement officers as they pass through the checkpoint, and this is why so many drivers with suspended licenses get apprehended.

If you get arrested for DWI, license suspension is a real possibility. If you are like many Texans, your ability to drive touches on many areas of your everyday life, from getting to and from work to bringing your kids to and from after-school activities. A license suspension could be quite costly, regarding both financial penalties and personal freedom.

Since license suspension has the potential to have a significant impact on your life, it is essential that you understand that you have just fifteen days from the date of your DWI arrest to preserve your chance at retaining your driving privileges. The process by which a driver can try to keep their driving privileges begins with a request for an ALR hearing. As I mentioned before, this hearing must be requested within fifteen days of your DWI arrest or your license will automatically be suspended. Instructions for requesting an ALR hearing are at the bottom of your Notice of Suspension.

Now that you know that you must ask for an ALR hearing if you wish to try to avoid license suspension, it is important that you learn a little bit more about what an ALR hearing is. An Administrative Law Review hearing, or ALR hearing, is a civil proceeding which the Department of Public Safety brings against a driver who refuses a blood or breath test after a DWI arrest, or who took a blood or breath test and failed it.

At an ALR hearing, the issue for discussion is the fate of your driving privileges. Requesting a hearing gives you a chance to contest the proposed suspension of your driver’s license. It also delays the imposition of any ALR sanctions until your hearing takes place. At your ALR hearing, the Department of Public Safety (DPS) will try to prove that your license should be suspended because you either took a breath or blood test which resulted in a reading of .08 or greater, or because you refused to take a blood or breath test. It is harder for the DPS to suspend your license after you refused to submit to testing because that type of suspension requires proof of four different elements. These elements are reasonable suspicion for the vehicle stop, probable cause that the driver was in control of a vehicle in a public place while intoxicated, an opportunity for the driver to voluntarily participate in testing along with both oral and written notice of the consequences of refusal, and an actual refusal. If the DPS fails to prove their case, your license must be returned to you.

Texas DWI Defense Attorney Alex Tyra – Protecting the Rights of Texas DWI Defendants

Texas DWI defendants have a lot at stake, and experienced Texas DWI Defense Attorney Alex Tyra may be able to help you resolve your DWI case. To learn more, call (903) 753-7499.