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Legislature Revises DWI Surcharge Law
10/1/03, by Peggy Fikac, San Antonio Express-News

AUSTIN - Too late for the people who rushed to plead guilty to drunken driving charges to avoid big new fees that kicked in Sept. 1, the Texas Legislature has voted to change the law. Under a bill sent to Gov. Rick Perry, the so-called Driver Responsibility Program would apply only to offenses that took place Sept. 1 or later - not to convictions on or after that date, as the law is currently worded. Sept. 1 was the law's effective date, and lawyers say it spurred guilty and no-contest pleas in August.

Under the law, drivers rack up points for various traffic offenses and must pay additional penalties if they get too many points. Failure to pay means loss of a driver's license. The fees are particularly high for drunken drivers, who face a $1,000 annual surcharge for three years and even higher levies for subsequent offenses or if their blood-alcohol concentration exceeds 0.16. But the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association had said imposing fines for offenses that occurred before Sept. 1 amounted to an unconstitutional, retroactive law.

The Texas Department of Public Safety had voiced concern about a possible court challenge to the law and told lawmakers it would be difficult to enforce because the driver's license system uses the date of offenses for enforcement. So lawmakers changed the wording. Perry is likely to sign the bill after reviewing it, said his spokesman, Gene Acuña.

When defense attorneys were informed of the expected change at a recent legal seminar, "everyone was looking at each other and saying, 'That would have been nice to know,'" said lawyer Michael Ramos of San Antonio. But Ramos said he hasn't heard from any clients who regret their pre-Sept. 1 pleas of guilty or no contest. The expected higher fines "kind of pushed them one way or the other" in deciding to enter a plea, he said.

Ramos said a couple of clients whom he'd cautioned to slow down had called him and were "kind of glad they held off" rather than rushing into a plea. He said he supported the change in the law. Statistics on driving-while-intoxicated pleas aren't yet available for the last week of August in Bexar County, said Assistant District Attorney Paul Vasquez. But he said there was a noticeable upswing, citing County Court-at-Law No. 5, in which he practices. "In my court alone, we had 91 DWI pleas. Typically, we have six to 12 in an average week," he said.

Shannon Edmonds of the Texas District and County Attorneys Association said in some counties, the number of DWI cases disposed of in August tripled compared with the number in previous months. "It did create sort of a run on various courthouses," Edmonds said. If the law is changed, he said, "I guess those people ran to the courthouse for nothing."

There is little recourse for those who may develop regrets, Ramos said. Someone who pleaded guilty may file a motion for a new trial if they wish to claim they entered an involuntary plea, but that normally has to be done within 30 days, he said. "It'll be pretty much impossible to do" at this point, he said. More extraordinary action can be taken after 30 days, but that takes "a lot more trouble and expense," he said.

Edmonds said, "It would be interesting to see if any defendant tries to claim his decision to plead guilty was not voluntary because he was somehow coerced by the imposition of this law. "The bottom line is people shouldn't be pleading guilty to something if they didn't do it". Keith Hampton, legislative director of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, predicted more people charged with DWI will choose in the future to go to trial rather than pleading guilty and facing thousands of dollars in new penalties. "They may view it as 'I don't have a lot to lose here,'" he said. "I do think there are going to be more trials."