Houston DWI Attorney

The rules have changed for DWI convictions and the State Legislature has decided that they can punish a person convicted of DWI and raise revenues at the same time. Texas law has recently added a surcharge to the driver's license of every person convicted of a DWI that was arrested after September 1, 2003. This "surcharge" is codified under the Texas Transportation Code § 708.120(b).

The surcharge will be applied to individual drivers contingent on the following factors:

The result of a breath test if the individual took one, and
The DWI conviction history of the individual.

The statute prescribes the following fees:

$1,000 per year for a person with no prior conviction history, for a total of $3,000,
$1,500 per year for a person who has been previously convicted of a DWI within the preceding 36 months, for a total of $4,500,
$2,000 per year for a person who gives blood, breath, or a urine sample which shows an alcohol concentration of 0.16 or higher, regardless of prior conviction history, for a total of $6,000.

As you can see, in addition to being unfair and amounting to nothing more than a second method of punishing a DWI conviction, it will become quite expensive to maintain your driving privileges. After conviction, in theory, The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) will send you notice of the surcharge assessment by first class mail. The DPS will send the notice to your most recent address, most likely the one on the same driver's license they are charging you extra to maintain. While the statute does not clearly state when a person will be notified of his responsibility to pay the surcharge, it can only be assumed that once the state receives the notification of the conviction from the county court, it will put the wheels in motion. Also, because the statute does not address the affect of an appeal on the surcharge, I can only assume that an appeal will stay the obligation to pay the surcharge because a case on appeal is not a final conviction.

Once DPS sends notice, the person will have 30 days from that day to pay the surcharge obligation. Obviously, this could cause problems when the mail is slow or mail is lost. It is not unforeseeable to see this situation causing all types of problems. Unfortunately, that is the way the statute is written and like all new statutes there are going to be some growing pains and there are going to be citizens that are not treated fairly.

The prudent way to handle the DWI surcharge is to expect the notice and, if after a period of time it is not received, do not believe yourself to be so fortunate that The DPS has forgotten you, but rather look into the situation and make sure you still have your driving privileges. If you fail to pay the surcharge, your driver's license will be suspended until all surcharges and penalties are paid in full.

The future of the DWI surcharge is uncertain. You may notice that the State of Texas has carefully worded this statute as a "surcharge" not a "fine", which is the proper tag for this unnecessary statute. Over the next few years, there will be many challenges to the constitutionality of a surcharge statute. One such challenge argues that if the surcharge is deemed to be a fine, than the United States Constitution protects against being placed in double jeopardy (being charged twice for the same offense). This amendment prohibits the imposition of another fine since one was already assessed in the case after the conviction, thus proving that the surcharge law is unconstitutional. Hopefully, one of these challenges will result in the revocation of this law, but it is unfortunately one that we will have to live with for the foreseeable future.