What if You are Caught Driving with an Invalid or Suspended License in Texas?

Should you be caught driving with a suspended license under Texas law you will be charged with a misdemeanor criminal offense. While first time offenders will likely never see the inside of a jail cell for such a crime, you could end up paying severe fines and having your license suspended for an even longer amount of time. Assuming you are stopped by a police officer and the officer finds you are driving with an invalid or suspended license once he runs a computer check of your license. Under certain circumstances the person whose finds out their license was invalid or suspended during a routine traffic stop was not aware there was a problem with their license.

The police officer may either issue you a citation to appear in court or could arrest you and take you to jail immediately. Whatever the officer decides, it is a sure bet you will not be allowed to leave by getting behind the wheel of your car. Driving with a suspended or invalid license is embarrassing as well as a potentially serious criminal charge. In order to keep your criminal and driving records clean you should not take such charges lightly, rather you should immediately hire an experienced Houston attorney who can ensure your rights and your future are properly safeguarded. A qualified attorney can also help you obtain an occupational driver’s license which covers limited driving purposes while you are getting your regular license back.

Civil or Criminal Suspension

If you received a suspension on your driver’s license as part of the penalties for driving drunk or impaired you will be required to return to the court and request an occupational driving license. If you received two convictions for having no insurance which resulted in a suspension on your license then you will need to first obtain the proper insurance then contact the Texas Department of Public Safety. You will likely be required to pay a reinstatement fee under these circumstances. Perhaps you received a DPS letter telling you they are about to suspend your license due to the fact that you have too many moving violation convictions.

This type of suspension can be contested in court, however you must act quickly. Remember that a criminal license suspension is issued by a criminal court while a civil license suspension is issued by DPS. Should you have been convicted of criminally negligent homicide involving a vehicle or convicted of eluding the police or leaving the scene of the accident which resulted in injuries or death, then you will receive an automatic suspension of your driver’s license. You could also have your driver’s license suspended if you were convicted of a Texas drug possession offense, for specific criminal mischief offenses, if you forego insurance on your vehicles or if you fail to pay child support as ordered by Texas family court.

Penalties for Driving with an Invalid or Suspended License

Should the courts find you guilty of willfully and knowingly driving with a suspended license, you could be charged with a Class C misdemeanor which is punishable by a fine of as much as $500. If the courts find you have other convictions for driving on a suspended or invalid license or if you had your license revoked due to a DWI conviction this instance of driving with a suspended license could become a Class B misdemeanor and garner you six months in county jail. Generally speaking, DPS will suspend your license for the same amount of time that it was originally suspended for. In other words if you were under a six month’s suspension of your license and were caught driving, DPS will add an additional six months onto your suspension once the original suspension ends. You may also find yourself paying fees and fines which can include towing fees, daily storage fees for your car, criminal fines which range as high as $2,000, a reinstatement fee in order to get your license back, SR-22 insurance which is almost prohibitively expensive and a Texas surcharge of $250 per year for three years.

As you can see the consequences for driving with an invalid or suspended license are very serious and can be very far-reaching. Texas traffic laws can be complex and have been known to change without warning.

2 comments on article "What if You are Caught Driving with an Invalid or Suspended License in Texas?"

Diana Cruz

5/9/2013 1:27 PM

I believe all states should send out notice if your driver's license has been suspended. Why? Well I have known several people who were not aware of their D.L. being either invalid or suspended and on their way to work to make a living get pulled over and yes taken to jail unaware of the situation. A friend of mine has been paying Austin Tx. for over 3 years that I know of and has still not yet heard anything about getting his D.L. back. Also I would like to add I think it is very very unfair for us not to receive some type of notice because we are unaware of the suspension and we go buy insurance for our vehicle next thing you know we get a cancellation notice BUT they keep our money. In my eye's that is wrong, that is hard earned money we pay to believe we are legal and then it's taken away. O.k. EXAMPLE: If you have no one to help you or drive you where you need to go what do you do? I mean really it's ridiculous. How do we make a living or get to work to pay these serious fines to get back on the road? And believe me not everyone has someone to help. That's a fact!!! Who has a solvent for this? ANYONE???????

Andrew Sullo

5/9/2013 1:51 PM

You comment touches on a very real and reoccurring problem we have in Texas with license suspensions. Many times people will change addresses and not update that information on their license. If a suspension occurs in that situation, the driver is never notified. There is one way to make sure this never happens to you. Suspensions and revocation are mainly due to traffic tickets and driving while intoxicated. Many times people just pay their tickets, miss their court dates, or generally think that they can handle these 'minor' infractions without the help of an attorney. The system is set up to take advantage of peoples' naivety. I would recommend always hiring an attorney up front. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. On the other hand, if you have already gone down the road yourself and wound up in a situation where you now have a suspended license, there are a few ways an attorney can help to get you driving legally again. Occupation Driver's licenses, ALR hearings, and License Suspension hearings with DPS are all ways an attorney can try to keep their clients legal on the road.

What if You are Caught Driving with an Invalid or Suspended License in Texas?

2 comments on article "What if You are Caught Driving with an Invalid or Suspended License in Texas?"

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