Travis County ALR Hearing Guide

Three different state offices in Austin handle three different pieces of a DWI license case, and showing up at the wrong one means you lose by default. The criminal case is at the courthouse on 11th Street. The agency that suspends your license, DPS, has its hearings office at 5805 North Lamar. But the hearing itself is run by a separate agency, the State Office of Administrative Hearings, in the William P. Clements Building at 300 West 15th Street near the Capitol, and most hearings are on Zoom anyway.

The 15-day request

You have 15 calendar days from the arrest to ask for a hearing to stop the suspension. Miss it and DPS suspends your license automatically on the 40th day. As established Texas law, a first refusal to test is a 180-day suspension and a first failure at 0.08 or higher is 90 days.

Send the request to DPS in Austin one of four ways: the online portal, fax to 512-424-2650, certified mail to Director of Hearings, ALR Program, P.O. Box 15327, Austin, TX 78761-5327, or hand delivery to Building A at 5805 North Lamar during business hours. There is no after-hours drop box, and leaving it with a guard or at another DPS building doesn't count. File on time and the suspension is stayed; the DIC-25 keeps you legal until a judge rules, often 60 to 120 days out.

The DIC-25 is valid the moment you're released. The "12-hour wait" people mention is a bond condition set by the magistrate that bars you from driving for a set time after release, not a problem with the permit.

The Zoom link comes by mail

Once your hearing is set, the judge issues a scheduling order with the Zoom meeting ID inside, sent to the address DPS has on file. If you move during the months before the hearing and don't update your address, that order and its link get lost, and a missed hearing is an automatic suspension. Log in early; cases are batched and you wait in a virtual room until called.

For evidence, DPS gives you the sworn report and warnings on request at no charge; there's no flat $50 packet fee. The dashcam and body camera video is held by Austin police, not DPS, and they charge for it, roughly $10 a recording plus about $1 a minute of body camera footage. Subpoenaing the officer costs a $10 witness fee plus mileage if they travel over 25 miles.

The occupational license

Travis County restricts an occupational license two ways at once. The order sets a fixed weekly schedule, a grid of time blocks you pick, capped at 4 hours a day unless you justify up to 12. On top of that you must keep a logbook in the car recording the date, time, destination, and reason for every trip. At a stop the officer checks both: the trip has to match a logbook entry and fall inside your scheduled hours.

File the petition in a Justice of the Peace court, or attach it to your County Court at Law case if the misdemeanor has been filed. You need an SR-22 from your insurer and a certified Type AR driving record.

The 45-day rule

Once the judge signs the occupational license order, that paper works as your license for 45 days. In that window you have to send the order, the SR-22, and the $125 reinstatement fee to DPS. If the plastic card doesn't arrive within 45 days, the paper order expires and you're unlicensed until it comes.