How to Protect Your License After Receiving the Texas DIC-24

The Texas DIC-24 form is the statutory warning a peace officer gives you after a DWI or BWI arrest, and it starts a 15-day clock to request a hearing before your driver’s license is automatically suspended.¹ The form spells out what happens if you refuse a breath or blood test, what happens if you take one and fail, and it serves as the notice of suspension itself. Miss the 15-day window and the suspension takes effect on the 40th day after the notice was served, with no hearing to contest it.

What the Form Warns You About

Texas law requires the officer to read the warning out loud and hand you the printed version before asking for a breath or blood specimen.² A Spanish version, the DIC-24S, is available for suspects whose primary language is Spanish.³ The administrative suspensions it describes are handled by the Texas Department of Public Safety and run completely separately from any criminal case a court may bring later.

If You Refuse the Test

A first-time refusal triggers an automatic 180-day license suspension. If your record shows one or more alcohol-related or drug-related enforcement contacts in the previous ten years, the suspension jumps to two years.⁴ The form also warns that your refusal can be used against you as evidence in the criminal case.²

If You Take the Test and Fail

For drivers 21 and older, a specimen showing an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher brings a suspension of at least 90 days on a first offense.² Drivers under 21 face at least 60 days if any detectable amount of alcohol is in their system, even when the concentration falls below 0.08.⁵ Prior alcohol-related contacts within ten years lengthen later suspensions.

If You Hold a Commercial Driver’s License

A CDL holder faces a separate one-year disqualification of commercial driving privileges on a first refusal, whether the arrest involved a personal vehicle or a commercial one.⁶ A second offense results in lifetime disqualification.⁷ No occupational license can be issued for a commercial vehicle during a disqualification.⁸

The officer may also ask you to sign a consent statement confirming the warning was given and that you agreed voluntarily to provide a specimen.² Signing is not required for the test to proceed.

The 15-Day Deadline to Request a Hearing

You have 15 days from the date the notice of suspension is served to request an Administrative License Revocation hearing. The notice is usually served on the date of arrest, so count from that day. If you let the 15 days pass without filing, the suspension takes effect automatically on the 40th day after service.¹

You can submit the request in several ways:

Online through the DPS hearing request portal at dps.texas.gov
By mail, email, or fax to DPS headquarters in Austin
By phone, by calling DPS directly

The request has to be received at DPS headquarters in Austin inside the 15-day window.² If you file by mail, email, or fax, include your name, date of birth, driver’s license number and issuing state, email address, current mailing address, home and daytime phone numbers, the date and county of arrest, the arresting agency and officer, and whether the test was refused or failed. Include your attorney’s name and contact information if you have one.¹

Filing on time matters for a reason beyond preserving the hearing itself: a timely request automatically stays the suspension until the administrative law judge rules.⁹ You keep driving while the case is pending.

What the Hearing Decides

The ALR hearing is held before an administrative law judge through the State Office of Administrative Hearings.⁹ The judge is not deciding whether you are guilty of DWI. The scope is narrower: whether the officer had reasonable suspicion for the stop, whether there was probable cause for the arrest, whether the DIC-24 warning was properly delivered, and whether a refusal or test failure actually occurred.

DPS mails a confirmation letter with the hearing date to the address you listed on the request. If the judge rules in your favor, the suspension is rescinded and no reinstatement fee is owed.¹⁰ If the judge upholds the suspension, it takes effect under the terms of the decision. This is the only forum for challenging the administrative side of the case, so procedural problems with the stop or the warning are worth developing before you walk in.

Driving During the Suspension

If the suspension stands and you need to drive to work, school, or handle essential household duties, you can petition for an occupational driver’s license.⁸ The petition goes to the Justice of the Peace, county, or district court in the county where you live or where the offense happened.¹¹

If the court grants the petition, you receive a signed order that acts as a temporary license for 45 days while DPS processes the occupational license. To finish the process, you submit to DPS:

Certified copies of the petition and the court order
An SR-22 certificate of financial responsibility filed by your insurer
The occupational license fee
Any outstanding reinstatement fees on your record

The occupational license is typically issued for one year, up to a maximum of two years if the court specifically authorizes it.⁸ It covers non-commercial vehicles only. CDL holders cannot use it to keep driving commercially during a disqualification.

Refusing Does Not Always Stop a Blood Draw

The DIC-24 itself warns that an officer may apply for a warrant to take your blood even after you refuse.⁵ In some situations Texas law goes further and requires the officer to obtain a blood specimen over your refusal: when the arrest involves a crash in which someone has died, is expected to die, or has suffered serious bodily injury and been taken to a hospital.¹²

A mandatory blood draw also applies when you have two or more prior DWI convictions, or a prior conviction for intoxication assault or intoxication manslaughter.¹² In those cases, refusing still triggers the 180-day or two-year administrative suspension, but it will not keep the state from getting the blood evidence.

Getting Your License Back

Your license does not come back on its own at the end of the suspension. You have to pay a $125 reinstatement fee to DPS before the license can be renewed or reissued.¹⁰ That amount is on top of any other outstanding fees on your driving record.¹ Depending on the terms of your suspension, you may also need to file an SR-22 with DPS. Driving on a suspended license in the meantime brings its own criminal penalties and can extend the suspension further.

If You Live Outside Texas

A Texas ALR suspension does not stay in Texas. The state joined the Driver License Compact in 1993, an agreement among states to share information about suspensions and serious traffic violations. Under the compact’s “one driver, one license, one record” principle, your home state will generally treat a Texas DWI-related suspension as if the offense happened at home and apply its own laws.¹³

The National Driver Register maintained by NHTSA also keeps a database of drivers whose licenses have been revoked, suspended, or denied. States query this database when processing license applications, so applying for a new license in another state will not quietly erase a Texas suspension.¹⁴

1
Department of Public Safety. Administrative License Revocation (ALR) Program
2
State of Texas. Texas Transportation Code TRANSP 724.015 – Information Provided by Officer Before Requesting Specimen; Statement of Consent
3
Texas Department of Public Safety. DIC-24S Peace Officer DWI Statutory Warning – Spanish
4
State of Texas. Texas Transportation Code TRANSP 724.035 – Suspension or Denial of License
5
Texas Department of Public Safety. DIC-24 Statutory Warning
6
State of Texas. Texas Transportation Code TRANSP 522.081 – Disqualification
7
Department of Public Safety. Commercial Driver License CDL Disqualifications
8
Department of Public Safety. Occupational Driver License
9
State of Texas. Texas Transportation Code TRANSP 724.041
10
State of Texas. Texas Transportation Code TRANSP 724.046 – Reinstatement of License or Issuance of New License
11
State of Texas. Texas Transportation Code TRANSP 521.242 – Eligibility
12
State of Texas. Texas Transportation Code TRANSP 724.012 – Taking of Specimen
13
CSG National Center for Interstate Compacts. Driver License Compact
14
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. National Driver Register