A Texas DWI Arrest Starts Two Cases: The Criminal Case and the ALR License Case

Why You Have Two Case Numbers

If you were arrested for DWI in Texas last night, you have two separate legal problems starting right now. One is the criminal case. The other is your driver’s license and the clock on that one is already running.

When a person gets arrested for Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) in Texas, two legal trains simultaneously take off from the station. One is the criminal charge and the other is the potential driver’s license suspension. One of these trains is criminal (DWI) while the other is civil (driver’s license). The Department of Public Safety (“DPS”) is going to try and suspend the arrested person’s license through its Administrative License Revocation program, for a period of time ranging from 90 days to two years.

That is why two different case numbers show up. The criminal charge is filed by the county or district attorney and lives in a criminal court. The license case is called an Administrative License Revocation, or ALR, and it is brought by DPS, not by a prosecutor. The ALR process is a civil administrative proceeding run by the Texas Department of Public Safety. It is completely separate from the criminal DWI case.

Nobody explains this at the jail. Most people find out they have a second case when a deadline on it has almost run. The rest of this page walks through how the two cases differ and which one needs attention first.

The License Case Moves First

The license case starts the night of the arrest. If you refused testing or failed a breath test, the officer hands you a form called the DIC-25, titled Notice of Suspension. Receiving that form starts a 15 day window to request an ALR hearing, and the day you receive it counts as day one. If no hearing is requested in time, the suspension takes effect automatically 40 days after you received the notice. No judge weighs in and no one argues your side. The full mechanics of that window live on The 15-Day Rule.

If you voluntarily gave blood, the clock works differently. There is no DIC-25 that night because the blood has to be tested first. If the result comes back at 0.08 or higher, DPS mails a notice to the address on your license, and a 20 day window opens instead. That path has its own trap, covered on Your Blood Case and the 20-Day Notice.

When a hearing is requested, the case is heard by an administrative law judge at the State Office of Administrative Hearings, known as SOAH. Every ALR hearing is now held virtually. The judge does not decide whether you are guilty of DWI. The judge decides a short list of narrow questions, such as whether the officer had a lawful reason to stop and arrest you, and whether DPS proved a refusal or a failed test. DPS only has to prove its side by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not, and it is allowed to make its case entirely on paper without calling a single witness. What happens inside that hearing, and why it is worth fighting, is covered on The ALR Hearing.

The Criminal Case: Slower, Higher Standard

The criminal case is the one most people picture: a courtroom, a prosecutor, and a judge. It moves on the court’s calendar, not on a 15 day fuse. Your first court date typically arrives weeks after the arrest, and the case itself can take months to resolve.

The standard of proof is the other big difference. To convict you of DWI, the State must prove every element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt, the highest burden in the legal system. Compare that to the license case, where DPS wins by showing its version is merely more likely than not. Same night, same traffic stop, two very different bars to clear.

The criminal case is also the only one that can produce a conviction, jail time, a fine, or probation. The license case can only ever touch your driving privileges. What the criminal side looks like from first appearance to resolution is mapped on The Texas DWI Court Process.

You Can Win One and Lose the Other

Because the two cases run in different buildings, under different rules, with different burdens of proof, their outcomes are independent. You can win the ALR hearing and still face the criminal charge. You can lose the ALR and still beat the criminal case.

This is the part that surprises people most. A dismissal or an acquittal in the criminal case does not automatically undo a license suspension that the administrative judge already ordered. And a win at the ALR hearing, while it keeps your license valid, does not make the criminal charge go away. Each case has to be handled on its own terms.

The two cases are separate, but they are not strangers. The ALR hearing is often the first chance for a defense lawyer to question the arresting officer under oath, months before the criminal case reaches any hearing. That sworn testimony is recorded, and if the officer later tells the story differently in criminal court, the transcript becomes powerful material for the defense. Handled well, the license case can quietly build the criminal defense. How long a suspension actually runs if one is ordered is covered on How Long Your License Is Suspended.

Why You Can Usually Still Drive Right Now

Here is the question everyone asks the next morning: can I drive to work today? For most people the answer is yes, and it matters why.

Requesting the ALR hearing on time stays the suspension. Nothing happens to your license until the administrative judge rules on your case. That stay, triggered by the hearing request, is the reason you can keep driving. It is not the paper itself.

The paperwork changed in September 2023 and a lot of older advice has not caught up. The DIC-25 used to serve a second function while a hearing was pending, and officers used to take your plastic license when they served it. Both of those things ended. Today the DIC-25 is only what its title says, a notice of suspension, and officers no longer confiscate your license. So keep your plastic license, request the hearing inside the window, and your driving privileges hold while the case is pending. If a suspension is eventually ordered, there is still a path to legal driving through an occupational driver’s license, but that is a later chapter, not tonight’s problem.

Which Clock to Handle First

The license clock. It is shorter, it is unforgiving, and letting it expire gives up real ground in both cases.

The criminal case will wait for you. Your first setting is weeks away, and nothing about the criminal case is lost in the first two weeks. The ALR window is different. Fifteen days from the notice, counted from the day you received it, and then the request is gone for good, along with the stay that lets you keep driving and the early look at the State’s evidence that the hearing provides.

So the order of operations after a Texas DWI arrest is simple. First, protect the license case by requesting the ALR hearing before the deadline on The 15-Day Rule. Second, turn to the criminal case with the time that buys you. A lawyer hired inside the window can do both at once, and the work done in the license case feeds directly into the criminal defense. For the full first-week picture, start with After a DWI Arrest.

How the Two Cases Feed Each Other

Independent does not mean sealed off. The license case finishes first, and what happens inside it flows downhill into the criminal defense. The ALR hearing is usually the earliest chance to put the arresting officer under oath, months before any criminal setting reaches the same ground. The officer’s answers about the stop, the tests, and the warnings are transcribed, and that transcript is fixed. If the story shifts by the time of a suppression hearing or trial, the earlier sworn version is impeachment material. If the officer is subpoenaed and does not appear, the license case can be won outright on that basis alone.

The flow runs the other way too. A prosecutor evaluating the criminal case knows what happened at the ALR hearing, and an officer who could not articulate reasonable suspicion under oath in the civil case is a problem the State can see coming. The mechanics of the hearing itself live on The ALR Hearing.

If the Criminal Case Is Dropped, Is Your License Safe?

No, and this is the single most expensive misunderstanding in the two-case structure. A dismissal of the criminal charge does not undo the ALR suspension, because the civil case was never about guilt. It was about whether you refused a test or produced a result at or above 0.08, decided on a lower standard by a different judge. A suspension that already took effect keeps running through a dismissal.

An acquittal at trial is the one outcome that reaches back: it should end a running ALR suspension and it is the only result that clears the ALR reference from a driving record. A dismissal does not do that, and neither does a reduction. There is also a credit rule worth knowing: where both an ALR suspension and a conviction suspension apply, Texas law requires time already served on the ALR side to be credited in defined situations, so the months rarely stack twice on a first offense. The details and the exceptions are on How Long Your License Is Suspended.

One Lawyer or Two?

Two cases does not mean two lawyers. The practical arrangement is one DWI lawyer handling both tracks, because the license case is where the criminal defense gets its first discovery and its first sworn testimony, and a lawyer who runs only one side is working with half the file. When you evaluate counsel, the question to ask is not whether they will request the ALR hearing but how they use it. What that answer should sound like is covered in Choosing a Texas DWI Lawyer.

Which Case Should Worry You More?

The honest ranking: the criminal case matters more and the license case matters first. Only the criminal case can put a conviction on your record, with everything that follows it. But the license case is the one with a fuse, and it is the one people lose without ever fighting, not because it was strong but because nobody requested the hearing in time. So the order of operations is not a judgment about importance. It is arithmetic about deadlines. Handle the short clock, then give the long one the attention it deserves.