Plano DWI Lawyer Blog

Over the last few weeks, I have received a number of calls and emails inquiring about the surcharge Amnesty and Indigency programs. I am pleased to be able to write the the program is now active.  The following is the important information to determine your eligibility.

Amnesty willl be offered from January 17 to April 17, 2011.

Applications will only be accepted through April 7, 2011.

Amnesty will not apply to any surcharges assessed after January 15, 2011.

 Anyone who has an unpaid surcharge that was assessed between September 30, 2004 and December 31, 2008 is eligible.

At least one of the surcharge(s) meeting the above criteria must be in default prior to the Amnesty period.

TO APPLY:

Application will be available online here or by telephone at 1 (877) 207-3170

No applications will be accepted by mail, email or fax; this includes contacts made to

Municipal Services Bureau or the Department of Public Safety

Finally, there appears to be relief on the immediate horizon for Collin, Dallas and Denton County Motorists who are subject to the so called Driver Responsibility Program.  The Driver Responsibility Program was established in 2003  as a means of increasing revenue by requiring persons convicted of Driving While Intoxicated in Texas to pay a surcharge for the first thirty six months following a DWI conviction or face a driver's license suspension.

 The amount of the surcharge is not insignificant.  For example, a person convicted of DWI, first offense is required to pay $1,000.00 surcharge annually for the first three years.  People convicted of a second offense or those who show an alochol concentration of .16 or higher face a much larger annual surcharge.

By almost every measure, the Program has failed. The anticipated revenues are not materializing and the compliance and enforcement have been large problems.  For some time, the failure of this initiative has been known to the Texas Legislature, generally.   I have written previously on a few occassions about the plans that were afoot to change the law.  

It appears that now we may be seeing the first concrete steps in that direction.  On October 21, 2010 the Texas Public Safety Commission agreed to adopt rule changes directly affecting the Driver Responsibility Program.  The rule changes are scheduled to take affect in November.

Among other features of the program:  For those who receive amnesty

their license suspension will be rescinded while amnesty payments are being made.

payments will be reduced to ten percent of the total amount owed.

Please click HERE  to see a copy of the official press release

On July 8, 2010 the Texas Sentate Criminal Justice Commitee heard wide ranging testimony
on DWI policy. Among the topics discussed were the surcharges imposed on people convicted of DWI and the potential for legislation authorizing sobriety checkpoints.

At the Dallas Morning News, it was reported that witnesses testified that,

"stiff civil fines and mandatory punishments have prompted those arrested for driving while intoxicated to refuse plea deals and probation that could include treatment and alcohol monitoring. Instead, they are insisting on jury trials."

Resulting in a  "20 percent drop in conviction rates since 2005, and a court backlog of 125,000 casescivil fines and mandatory punishments have prompted those arrested for driving while intoxicated to refuse plea deals and probation that could include treatment and alcohol monitoring. Instead, they are insisting on jury trials."

It doens't appear that any of the witnesses attributed any portion of the drop in conviction rates to not guilty verdicts delivered by juries due to the filing of marginal or poorly investigated cases.

The Houston Chronicle coverage of the hearings reported on testimony concerning the potential that Texas may move forward on establish the legal framework authorizing sobriety checkpoints.  As I have blogged about in the past, The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled approximately fifteen years ago that sobriety checkpoints, without specific legislative authorization, are unreasonable and therefore unconstitutional.  Since that time, the political will to pass law establishing such checkpoints has not existed.  Perhaps that is changinng, perhaps not.

  In some of the testimony yesterday, Bill Lewis of M.A.D.D. analogized the public roads of Texas with airport security checkpoints while testfiying in support of checkpoints.  Said Mr. Lewis "I've never tried to carry a gun into the airport or the Capitol or the Senate gallery, yet I go through a checkpoint." 

There will always be a tension between public safety and individual privacy as guaranteed by the Constitution.  If Mr. Lewis envisions a society in which travel n public roads is as intrusive and regulated as passing through airport security, I must confess that I don't share the same view.