Ask Deandra: What Is an ALR Hearing and Do I Need One?

Here is the longer answer: what ALR actually is, how the hearing works, and why the strategic value of an ALR hearing goes well beyond the license itself.

What ALR Actually Is

ALR stands for Administrative License Revocation. It is a civil, administrative process run by the Texas Department of Public Safety under Chapters 524 and 724 of the Texas Transportation Code. Chapter 524 applies when a driver provides a breath or blood specimen with an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more. Chapter 724 applies when a driver refuses to provide a specimen after being read the DIC-24 statutory warning.

ALR is not your criminal case. The criminal DWI prosecution under Penal Code §49.04 is handled separately in a criminal court by the county or district attorney. The ALR case is handled by DPS and is heard by an Administrative Law Judge at the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH). The two cases run on parallel timelines. Think of them as 2 trains running on parallel railroad tracks. They do not leave the station at the same time and do not cross paths. You can have your DWI dismissed and still lose your license through ALR. You can win your ALR hearing and still face the criminal DWI.

This is a feature of Texas law, not a glitch. The legislature built ALR as a quick administrative sanction that does not depend on a criminal conviction. It is why so many drivers are blindsided by license suspensions even when they thought their DWI case was going well.

The 15-Day Deadline

The single most important fact about ALR: you have 15 days from the date you are served with the notice of suspension to request a hearing. That deadline runs from the date of service, not the date of arrest. The notice is typically handed to you at the time of arrest, but in some circumstances it is mailed to you later. Since September 2023 the DIC-25 is notice only: it no longer doubles as a temporary driving permit, and officers no longer confiscate your plastic license when they serve it.

Miss the 15-day deadline and the suspension takes effect automatically. No hearing, no defense, no second chance. Your license is gone by operation of law.

Request the hearing on time and the suspension is stayed until after the hearing decision, and the stay is what keeps you driving in the meantime, not any paper you were handed. That alone is often worth the cost of counsel.

How the 15 days are counted, and the four ways to file the request, are on The 15-Day Deadline to Save Your License. If you gave blood voluntarily rather than taking a breath test, no clock started at the roadside and yours runs differently: see If You Gave Blood, Your ALR Deadline Works Differently. And if the window has already closed, four situations look like a missed deadline and are not, covered on Missed the Deadline? Your Options.

What Length of Suspension Are You Facing?

The potential suspension depends on which chapter applies and whether you have prior alcohol-related enforcement contacts:

• Breath or blood test failure after consent (Chapter 524): 90 days on a first offense. One year if you have had a prior alcohol-related enforcement contact within the past ten years.
• Refusal (Chapter 724): 180 days on a first offense. Two years if you have had a prior alcohol-related enforcement contact within the past ten years.
• Drivers under 21: Any detectable alcohol can trigger ALR consequences under Texas’s zero-tolerance framework.
• Commercial drivers: a DWI arrest in any vehicle can disqualify a commercial driver’s license for one year on a first offense, regardless of the personal license outcome. Transportation Code 522.081(b) is the provision, and the detail CDL holders almost never know is that it runs on the refusal or the 0.08 or higher result by itself. No criminal conviction is required, which means winning the DWI does not protect the commercial license.

Suspension is not the same as revocation. Once the suspension period ends, reinstatement requires payment of fees and compliance with any outstanding requirements, including the SR-22 filing. A commercial disqualification escalates differently. The first one costs a year. Under Transportation Code 522.081(d), any two qualifying events from separate incidents, meaning any combination of a conviction, a refusal, and a qualifying test result, produce a lifetime disqualification. That is the one that ends a driving career.

The full table of suspension periods, including how a prior enforcement contact lengthens them, is on How Long Is My License Suspended After a DWI?

What Happens at an ALR Hearing

ALR hearings are held at SOAH in a virtual courtroom. The proceeding looks like a small civil hearing:

• DPS has the burden of proof. The agency must prove its case by a preponderance of the evidence which is a much lower standard than the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard used in criminal court.
• The ALJ decides a limited set of issues. The judge is not deciding whether you are guilty of DWI. The list is short and it differs depending on whether yours is a refusal case or a failure case, and it is set out in full further down under What DPS Must Prove.
• The officer is subpoenaed. The defense can (and should) subpoena the arresting officer. The officer must testify under oath and is subject to cross-examination. If the officer is properly served and then fails to appear without good cause, the information that came from that officer is not admissible. Because DPS proves most of these cases on the officer’s paperwork, that alone can end the suspension case, though DPS may ask for a continuance if it can show good cause for the absence.
• Evidence is introduced. The State typically introduces the offense report, the DIC-24, any test results, and the officer’s testimony. The defense can introduce video, medical records, witness testimony, and expert analysis.
• The ALJ issues a written decision. If DPS meets its burden, the suspension takes effect. If DPS does not, the license is preserved.

ALR hearings move quickly. They are typically set within a few months of the request and resolved in a single setting. They are lower-stakes in one sense (civil, no criminal conviction) and higher-leverage in another (fast, early, and under oath).

Every Hearing Is Now Virtual

In-person and telephone hearings ended in August 2022, and requests to move a hearing back to a live setting are routinely denied. Your notice of hearing names the virtual room, the date, and the time. The DIC-25 still asks whether you want your hearing by telephone or in person, which is a leftover from the old system. The hearing will be virtual either way.

The remote format changed one thing in your favor. Because everything is filed rather than handed across a table, DPS now has to prefile its marked exhibits with the judge and with you at least two business days before the hearing. Before the pandemic a lawyer often did not see the state’s paperwork until it was offered in the room. Paperwork that misses that prefiling deadline can be kept out of evidence on a proper objection, and a license cannot be suspended on evidence the judge never admits.

Getting the Officer There

Witnesses do not show up on request. Every witness has to be subpoenaed. Your lawyer can issue two subpoenas without asking the judge for permission, which normally covers the officers who stopped and arrested you. Anyone else, such as a civilian witness or the technical supervisor on a breath test, takes a judge-issued subpoena, filed at least ten days ahead with an affidavit explaining why that person’s testimony matters.

The timing rules are strict and they are where these efforts usually fail. The subpoena has to be served at least five business days before the hearing, and the return of service has to be filed at least three business days before. Miss either one and DPS moves to quash it.

Moving the Date

You get one easy reset. It is commonly called the five-day reset, and the name is now misleading: any period of five days or less is counted in business days, so the request has to be filed no later than five business days before the setting.

After that one, further continuances go through the DPS attorney, and the statute allows only one more. That second one is reserved for a medical condition that prevents you from attending, and it is capped at ten days. One practical note since the virtual docket began: the scheduling system assigns the new date, not the judge, so you may not get the date you asked for.

If You Win

Keep the written decision. DPS cannot suspend your license based on that arrest. It is still worth pulling your Texas driving record a few weeks later to confirm the outcome is actually reflected there.

Two Deadlines That Outlive the Hearing

If you miss the hearing itself, you have ten business days to undo it. Failing to appear without just cause waives the hearing and a default order can follow, but a written motion filed inside those ten business days can ask the judge to vacate the default for good cause. DPS also had to give proper notice of the hearing date in the first place, so a default entered without that notice is worth challenging. This is a different deadline from the one to request the hearing, and missing the hearing is a different problem from missing the request window.

The recording is kept for roughly 60 days, and then it is gone. The hearing is recorded and a copy has to be provided on request. That matters because sworn testimony from the arresting officer, given months before a prosecutor prepares that officer for trial, is often the most useful thing the license case produces for the criminal case. If the request is not made inside that window, the record of what the officer said under oath is lost, whether the hearing was won or not.

What DPS Must Prove: Refusal Cases vs. Failure Cases

The burden at an ALR hearing belongs to DPS, and the standard is a preponderance of the evidence, more likely than not, far below the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard of the criminal court. What DPS has to establish depends on which kind of case yours is.

In a refusal case, DPS must prove:

• The officer had reasonable suspicion to stop you or probable cause to arrest you;
• Probable cause existed that you were operating a motor vehicle in a public place while intoxicated;
• You were placed under arrest and offered the chance to give a breath or blood specimen; and
• You refused when the officer asked.

In a failure case, DPS must prove:

• The officer had reasonable suspicion to stop you or probable cause to arrest you; and
• You consented to a breath or blood test with a result that showed an alcohol concentration at or above the level set by Penal Code §49.01 while operating a motor vehicle in a public place.

If DPS fails to establish any one required element, the judge must deny the suspension and your license stays valid. Two things get tested along the way in either kind of case: whether the stop itself was lawful, and whether the statutory warning about the consequences of refusing or failing was properly given. And one thing worth knowing early: DPS is not required to bring a witness at all. It can try to prove its case through the paper file alone, which is exactly why subpoenaing the officer changes the hearing.

The Real Reason You Need an ALR Hearing

Most people think the only reason to request an ALR hearing is to save the driver’s license. That is reason enough, but it is not the strongest reason.

It helps to see the hearing for what it is: one half of the two separate cases a Texas DWI arrest creates, decided by a different body on a different standard than the criminal court applies.

The ALR hearing is the earliest, cheapest, and most complete discovery tool available to the defense in a Texas DWI case. Here is why:

• The officer testifies under oath months before the criminal trial. Whatever the officer says at the ALR hearing is locked into a sworn record. If the officer’s story shifts at the criminal trial, the prior testimony becomes impeachment evidence.
• You get a preview of the State’s case. You see how the officer explains the stop, the arrest, the field sobriety test administration, and the test procedure. You learn what the State’s case actually looks like on its feet and not just how it reads on paper.
• You expose weaknesses early. Gaps in the reasonable-suspicion narrative, problems with the 15-minute observation period on an Intoxilyzer 9000, missing DIC-24 language, the time that passed between driving and testing, chain of custody problems on a blood vial, and other procedural errors can all come out in cross-examination at the ALR hearing and become the foundation for suppression motions in the criminal case.

Requesting the hearing also opens a document request to DPS, and what comes back is the file the State built: the officer’s sworn report, the statutory warnings form, breath test records or blood draw documentation, and the lab printouts. How that request works, and how fast DPS has to answer it, is covered on What You Are Entitled to See in a Texas DWI Case.

A defense attorney who declines to request an ALR hearing is walking past a free discovery opportunity that no other procedural tool in a DWI case matches. Even in cases where winning the ALR hearing seems unlikely, running the hearing to gather testimony and evidence is often the right strategic call.

What If I Lose the ALR Hearing?

Losing at ALR is not the end of your ability to drive. Texas law provides two primary options for drivers whose licenses have been suspended:

• Occupational Driver’s License (ODL). Authorized under Texas Transportation Code §§521.242–521.248, an ODL allows limited driving for essential purposes such as work, school and household duties under conditions set by the court.
• Ignition Interlock Restricted License. Authorized under Texas Transportation Code 521.246, this license allows broader driving privileges so long as the driver operates only a vehicle equipped with a court-approved ignition interlock device. It is frequently the better of the two, because 521.251(d-1) waives the waiting period that otherwise applies before an occupational license can issue, and 521.248(d) bars the time, place, and purpose restrictions a conventional ODL carries. The device becomes the only restriction on your driving.

Each option has its own requirements and limitations. The right choice depends on the length of the suspension, the circumstances of the arrest, and the driver’s daily needs. Both licenses, what each one permits, and why the interlock version is often the better of the two are covered on What Is an Occupational (Essential Need) Driver’s License? An attorney experienced in ALR and license restoration can walk through the options and handle the court filings required to secure either one.

The decision itself can also be appealed. That is a separate case on a 30-day clock, filed in a different court and decided on the record rather than reheard, and it is covered in the ALR section of Appealing a Texas DWI Conviction.

Common Mistakes That Sink ALR Cases

The mistakes that lose ALR cases are almost always procedural or strategic and not factual. The most common:

• Missing the 15-day deadline. By far the most common and most costly error. Once the window closes, the suspension runs.
• Assuming the criminal case will take care of it. It will not. ALR is independent, and a dismissed criminal case does not automatically restore a suspended license.
• Representing yourself. ALR procedure, subpoena practice, and rules of evidence at SOAH are not intuitive. The DPS attorney is a specialist. The defense should be one too.
• Skipping the hearing because “the facts are bad.” Even a losing ALR hearing is a winning discovery tool. Skipping it forfeits both the license and the intelligence it would have produced.

The Bottom Line

An ALR hearing is not optional for anyone serious about defending a DWI case in Texas. It is the fastest, cheapest, and most informative piece of the entire defense and it is the only one with a fifteen-day fuse attached to it. Whether you passed, failed, or refused, whether the criminal case looks strong or weak, the ALR hearing is where a real defense starts. Request it in time, staff it with a trained lawyer, and use it for everything it can deliver.

ALR Defense at Deandra Grant Law

Deandra Grant Law defends DWI and intoxication-offense cases across North and Central Texas including Dallas, Fort Worth, Plano, McKinney, Frisco, Allen, Lewisville, Denton, Rockwall, and Waco. Our team handles the ALR hearing and the criminal DWI case in coordination, using the hearing as discovery and the discovery as leverage.

If you have been arrested for DWI, do not wait. The 15-day ALR deadline runs from the date you were served with the notice of suspension (not the date of arrest). Call Deandra Grant Law at (214) 225-7117 or visit texasdwisite.com to schedule a confidential consultation today.

Have a DWI question you want answered in this series? Submit it at texasdwisite.com. You might see it featured in a future Ask Deandra post.