Tarrant County License Hearing Guide

You have 15 days from the date of a Tarrant County DWI arrest to request a hearing to keep your license. Do nothing and the suspension starts automatically on the 41st day. That count includes weekends and holidays. If you refused the breath or blood test, the suspension is 180 days on a first offense, or two years if you had a prior alcohol contact in the last decade; if you took the test and blew 0.08 or more, it's 90 days on a first offense.

The request goes to Austin, nowhere else

The officer took your card and gave you a DIC-25. To contest the suspension, the written request has to reach the DPS Enforcement and Compliance Service in Austin. There is no drop box at the Fort Worth DPS Mega Center or at the courthouse, and staff there will not take it. Fax it to (512) 424-2650 and keep the confirmation page; that's the cleanest proof it arrived on time. Mail to P.O. Box 4040, Austin, TX 78765-4040 works too, ideally certified. There's also an online portal.

File on time and the suspension is stayed. The DIC-25 stays valid as a license until an administrative judge rules, and the Tarrant County docket often runs 60 to 120 days out, so that permit can carry you for months. The DIC-25 is good the moment you're released, by the way. The "12-hour wait" people talk about is just the jail's sobriety hold, not a gap in the permit.

The hearing is not at a courthouse

Tarrant County hearings are run by the State Office of Administrative Hearings out of an office building at 6777 Camp Bowie Boulevard, Suite 400, Fort Worth. Show up at the criminal courthouse and you'll find no docket. Nearly all hearings now happen over Zoom anyway, with the link mailed to you in the Notice of Hearing, so keep your address current with DPS. Requesting the hearing is worth it even in a weak case: it's your one shot to cross-examine the arresting officer before trial, and if you subpoena the officer and they don't appear, the judge often throws out the report and the suspension with it.

If the license is already suspended

The occupational license lets you drive for work, school, and essential errands. File the petition in a Justice of the Peace court, which is cheaper and faster than County Court. Tarrant County courts favor the logbook version over a fixed schedule: you get up to 12 hours of driving in any day and you keep a logbook in the car recording the date, time, start point, destination, and purpose of every trip. You have to ask for the logbook option in the petition and give a reason, or you'll get locked to fixed hours. Precincts have their own quirks. Arlington's Precinct 2 wants an employer letter on company letterhead; the Hurst precinct wants a registrar letter for students; some precincts take filings by email.

Your packet needs a verified petition, an SR-22 certificate filed by your insurer (a regular insurance card isn't enough), a certified Type AR driving record dated within 30 days (about $20), the essential-need affidavit, and roughly a $54 filing fee.

Reinstatement

When the suspension period ends, driving privileges don't come back on their own. Pay the $125 reinstatement fee to DPS, complete the 12-hour DWI education program if it's required, and keep the SR-22 on file. The old annual surcharges were repealed in 2019, so that cost is gone.