I am a criminal defense lawyer in Austin TX. That means I defend clients in Central Texas and throughout the state accused of a broad spectrum of crimes from Class C tickets all the way to serious misdemeanors. One of my biggest passions and joys is restoring my clients’ driving privileges in the state of Texas. I am good at it and I love doing it. If you have been struggling with getting back behind the wheel legally - if you have been stuck in a cycle of surcharges, charges of driving while license invalid (DWLI), suspensions, and failure to appears - and you don’t know what to do to get your driving privileges straightened out and get your license back, you have found the right lawyer. I do not stop until you get legal and this unfair, unjust punitive cycle keeping you down is fixed.
There are many, many things that can cause you to lose your driver’s license in Texas. In my practice, I unravel this tangle of issues and prevent any further ones from arising.
Here’s some examples of what I can do:
Certain convictions, like for DWLI and DWI, carry mandatory suspensions. They also trigger a surcharge assessment, which is a fee you have to pay to DPS to keep your license. Even after the mandatory suspension is up, you have to stay current on your surcharge payments to keep driving legally until the surcharge is fully paid. If you are under a mandatory suspension, I can often get you an occupational license to keep you driving until the suspension is up. If you cannot afford the surcharges, I can assist you in applying for a waiver to reduce or eliminate your payments based on your income.
Failure to appears entered into the OMNI database will not suspend your license if it is current, but they will block you from renewing your license once you expire. Driving on an expired license does carry criminal penalties and you can be charged with and possibly arrested for DWLI. If you have entries in the OMNI database anywhere in Texas, I will track these down. If they are “open” tickets and you have never pled, I will represent you in these cases and do everything I can to get a disposition that does not result in any further suspensions or surcharges. If they are in commitment/capias status because you have already pled and agreed to pay, I will work to get you on a better payment plan so you can close the case and get it out of OMNI.
If you are currently charged with DWLI in Central Texas, I will represent you on that case and work to get your driving privileges restored as part of that representation. Often times, if you get your driving privileges restored, I can get a result worked out that will allow you to avoid a conviction for the DWLI – which will prevent a further suspension and surcharges.
If you have pending tickets and do not have eligibility to drive, you need to call me before you do anything on those tickets. Paying a moving violation – ie a ticket you got for violating a traffic law while driving – is automatically a plea of no contest. This is an admisssion of driving, and DPS will move to suspend your license for an admission of driving without a legal license. If you do not have a good license, this will prevent you from getting a good license. Its not good, however easy it is, to just “pay the ticket”. As your lawyer on the ticket, I will work to get a disposition on the ticket that does not include a final conviction, protecting your ability to get a good license.
If you’ve never had a license, you can indeed be charged for driving while license invalid (DWLI) for driving. DWLI emcompasses driving when you’ve never tested and gotten a license. You can be placed under suspension, assessed surcharges, and denied your ability to test for a license for offenses that happen when you’ve never had a license before. If you want to get a good license, and you have things preventing you from testing, I can work on these problems just as I could if you had a regular license.
Lastly, if you have a hearing pending with DPS in front of a judge, either a JP or Municipal Court judge, in which DPS is moving to suspend your license or revoke your license for medical reasons, you need to call me. There may be ways to keep DPS from being successful in that motion.
If the problems I’m describing sound familiar, you need to call me. I will do a free consultation to go over the problems you are facing and develop a plan to eliminate them one by one. There is a way out of this cycle – and I’m the lawyer to get you back behind the wheel with no fear of further arrest.