Welcome to Austin DWI charges with Charlie Roadman, Austin criminal defense attorney. Practical advice on dealing with an arrest.

Ellen Stader:

So the next topic that we're going to talk with Charlie Roadman about is so something, a lot of people have a question about. What happens to your license when you get arrested for a DWI?

Charlie Roadman:

DWI. All right, let's see.

Ellen Stader:

Let's get into it.

Charlie Roadman:

So the first thing that is a little surprising to people is that they take your physical license. Okay. So, which is weird. When I first started this business 20 years ago, they didn't do that. But, and I remember the day in the statesmen there was an article and the headline was people arrested for DWI get to keep their licenses. And it was just... That was basically the crux of the article was that the officer didn't take it. And so a politician just ran down to the courthouse... Or not courthouse, to the capital and wrote a law that says that the police must take, physically take your Texas driver's license. And so that passed. And so now the police take the driver's license. Now, the problem with that is that that doesn't really do anything other than take away this identification that's really important to people in everyday life for everything.

Ellen Stader:

For a lot of other things besides driving.

Charlie Roadman:

Right. And for one picking up the car that they just towed because you were arrested, you know what I'm saying?

Ellen Stader:

Impossible once you-

Charlie Roadman:

Well, not impossible because they do have these other, if you have passport, but anyway, way more difficult. And some people don't have other, so it is sometimes impossible. But anyway, it's tricky. And the reason that it doesn't do anything is because the thing that controls the status of your driving ability I say is DPSs super computer. Whatever that supercomputer says is whether you're allowed to drive or not. The police go to their car, they type your name in. It calls the super computer and says, should Ellen be driving? And if it says no, you're going to jail. So-

Ellen Stader:

It doesn't matter if you have that little piece of plastic or not.

Charlie Roadman:

You could have 10 of them. You can go, "Here's 10 Texas drives license," and then they'll go, "No, that supercomputer told me..." And it is a drag because I have said a lot in my career about the system, it's not irrational. Things make sense. Okay. And I said, because lawyers, it's literally their profession to be rational and logical about things.

Ellen Stader:

Certainly.

Charlie Roadman:

But not politicians. They don't care. If it emotionally can get them a few more votes they're going to do it. So, that's the first thing is they take this driver's license, but that leads us to the next weird part of this is they can go to DPS or go online and request a new one, and DPS will send you a new one. So which I say is crazy, because one law enforcement agency just took it away from you, and another law enforcement agency is just happy to give it to you.

Ellen Stader:

Give you another copy.

Charlie Roadman:

Right. So, hopefully people can do it online. And basically you just follow if you Google lost my license or replacement license. And I always joke, yeah, you lost your license to that cop. But anyway, people are kind of freaked out. They're like, "Are you sure?" And I always say-

Ellen Stader:

Is it going to flag me in the system? They're going to come to my house?

Charlie Roadman:

Come to get you. It feels weird, but you can do it. No one cares. DPS doesn't care because they've got their super computer.

Ellen Stader:

Which just highlights how stupid it is to take the license in the first place.

Charlie Roadman:

Yes.

Ellen Stader:

But please go on.

Charlie Roadman:

So, hopefully people can do it online. There are some scenarios, like if you're close to your renewal period and they want to get a new photo, they'll say you have to come in.

Ellen Stader:

Where you might have to come in.

Charlie Roadman:

But most people, They just go online and get a new one. I think it costs $20 or something like that, but they get a new one in the mail in 10 days. So, it's amazing. So that's the first thing you should do if you have a Texas driver's license, and they don't take other states. So if you have an Idaho license, they don't take that. But they still suspend your ability to drive in Texas. That's kind of-

Ellen Stader:

So you can get the physical license back. But if you've gotten a DWI and they take your license, your license is not worthless, but it is dinged. They can see.

Charlie Roadman:

They can see it does. Yeah. Getting the physical license back doesn't stop what's happening. It just allows you to have identification. So that's the thing. If you are arrested for DWI and you blew over 0.08, or you refused to blow or refused to give blood, then your license will be suspended in 40 days from the date of arrest, unless we or your attorney requests a special hearing, which we'll talk about in a minute. But let's talk about that 40 day period, which is a little weird too, right? It's like, okay, you just got a DWI arrest, but we're going to let you drive no problem for 40 days and then suspend your license.

Ellen Stader:

Just so you can get ready for this license suspension that's hanging over you.

Charlie Roadman:

Which is nice, but it's just this weird delayed punishment. You've got this 40 day period where... and a lot of people, they find out about this system from the police giving them paperwork, and the paperwork is really confusing. I wouldn't even say it's legalese, but it's legalese combined with-

Ellen Stader:

Cop speak.

Charlie Roadman:

Cop speak, DPS speak, it's really difficult. And so a lot of people think right after their arrest their license are suspended. So they're like, "I haven't driven in a few days," and I'm like, "That's okay. But it isn't suspended yet. It's 40 days from the date of arrest."

Ellen Stader:

Because everyone assumes that laws are in place to immediately stop the behavior that they're written about.

Charlie Roadman:

And they just took your license.

Ellen Stader:

Right. So you think I can't drive.

Charlie Roadman:

But they get this sheet of paper that says temporary driver's license, but it's just confusing. So, people are... That's one of the main conversations I have with people in their states without their driver's licenses. So, you've got this 40 day period where you're okay to drive like normal, as long as there's nothing else wrong with your license. And then we have 15 days from the date of arrest, this is another sort of weird arbitrary date to request the hearing. And it's called an ALR hearing, an administrative license revocation hearing, which is us, the defense attorney, or the defendant can do it themselves too, they can request it, but it's better if a defense attorney does it. It tells DPS, hey, we're objecting to suspension. We don't think it's right. So you have 15 days to request that, and when you request that, that stops the 40 day period suspension and moves it all the way to whenever the hearing happens. And we don't know when the hearing's going to happen, but it's going to be anywhere from four months to eight months. So there's this-

Ellen Stader:

Okay.

Charlie Roadman:

So you-

Ellen Stader:

So that extends the period during which you can drive.

Charlie Roadman:

Right. And so during that time we subpoena the officers. Because if you don't subpoena the officers, they do what's called on paper, which is just what the officer wrote down. And the judge 100% another time will just go, "Okay, I suspend your license." They're not going to... I joked that no officer ever has written down that they made a mistake. It's just not... they don't [crosstalk 00:08:11].

Ellen Stader:

Really?

Charlie Roadman:

Yeah, really. So we subpoena the officers because if they don't show up, then we win. Okay. Although the judge will give them a couple times to show up. They get a couple chances, but we can win if they don't show up. We can theoretically win if the police made such a bad mistake about what they did. If they lied about things and we catch them lying. And the judge is like, "That's too... You can't lie that much." So there are scenarios where a defense attorney can win a hearing, but not often.

Charlie Roadman:

So we subpoenaed officers, they either show up or don't. They show up at the hearing. And then when the hearing happens, and 90% of the time our client's license get suspended, we'll be able to get them an occupational license, which is what will allow them to drive anyway. And even though it's called occupational, it doesn't mean just to your work, because you might assume-

Ellen Stader:

That's exactly what it sounds like.

Charlie Roadman:

But it's for any household duties. So that includes grocery store, gym, legal stuff, medical stuff, anything I say that's not entertainment. So, if how this would happen, you'd have to tell the police officer that you just were... You just were going bowling. Something weird.

Ellen Stader:

We were going shopping and then we went bowling and stopped at the bar. I said too much.

Charlie Roadman:

Said too much. Right. So don't say that. You're always going to GB. Or they could see you come out of the bowling alley I guess, but they'd have to pull you over for speeding. Anyway, so an occupational license really allows people to function.

Ellen Stader:

Drive again.

Charlie Roadman:

And there are two types. There's one that has limited hours, 12 hours a day, which you have to define in advance. You define a week's worth of... so like Monday from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, Tuesday, and you can break it up from eight to noon and then two to six, based on... almost based on what old timey jobs used to be where they were solid. Now, so many people have flexible jobs and they need all this time. Anyway, there are some problems with clients have with occupational license that have these times, because you can't shift the times once you've created the license.

Charlie Roadman:

There is another type of occupational where you have the ignition interlock device in your car. And if you have the ignition interlock device in your car, you can drive any time. Which sort of-

Ellen Stader:

As long as you blow.

Charlie Roadman:

Yeah. Blow into it. They don't care. But anyways, so those are the two types of occupational licenses that are possible. And then sometimes our clients, they just decide to sit out the suspension. It could be three months, six months, year, two years, depending on some facts.

Charlie Roadman:

But some people just say, you know what, I don't want to go... And there is some expense to the occupational license in that you got to get SR22 insurance. And there's a clerks fee of 60 bucks, and then there's a reinstatement fee of 125. Anyway, there's some fees. We list them out for all of our clients. So some people just so you know what, I'm just going to-

Ellen Stader:

I can get a ride.

Charlie Roadman:

Get a ride. But most of our clients get an occupational license because it's still tricky to function. But that is the main categories of driver's license issues that come from a DWI arrest.

Ellen Stader:

There are so many forks in that road. Every juncture, every decision somebody makes is send you off on a different right path.

Charlie Roadman:

Yeah. And that is... between the legalese and... and that's why defense attorneys are valuable at this just because even when clients do it themselves, they're not even sure they've done it. So there's still anxiety. Because like I said, they can request their own hearing. They've got 15 days and there's a phone number, but most of them don't know that you then need to subpoena the officers, and I don't know how-

Ellen Stader:

How would anyone know to do that if it weren't their profession?

Charlie Roadman:

Or how to do it at all, because-

Ellen Stader:

Exactly.

Charlie Roadman:

And there's a sort of a joke I make sometimes. People say, "Well, can I do it myself?" And I'm like, "Yeah, the same way I could rebuild a car motor myself. Theoretically." It's like-

Ellen Stader:

I could watch a lot of YouTube videos and try and put stuff back together.

Charlie Roadman:

But it just would be better to let someone that does it all day long every day.

Ellen Stader:

Exactly.

Charlie Roadman:

Which is what we do. And that's the main driver's license stuff. I'm trying to think if there's anything that anything else people need to know. I mean, I've got a video about it.

Ellen Stader:

You do. Where is that video to be found?

Charlie Roadman:

YouTube.

Ellen Stader:

On the YouTube.

Charlie Roadman:

YouTube. But in it I put a chronology, like a PowerPoint with a different time, the dates, how it works.

Ellen Stader:

Nice. That's actually what I was just wondering about is the time breakdown. And if you take this step, then that incurs you this many days of hoops to jump through.

Charlie Roadman:

I guess one other part, DPS, like it's still 1950, mails us the new dates and stuff.

Ellen Stader:

My God.

Charlie Roadman:

It's crazy.

Ellen Stader:

Why does anyone mail anything?

Charlie Roadman:

And so when we request hearings, we can't tell people when the hearings are going to be, because DPS mailed it to us.

Ellen Stader:

You have to wait for the information to come in the mail, and then...

Charlie Roadman:

And then it might come... they might do it in two weeks. They might do it in three months. So there is... a lot of our job is tracking DPSs... I don't want to say incompetence.

Ellen Stader:

Operations.

Charlie Roadman:

I'm not saying they're incompetent. I'm just saying that they're not pro competent you. I don't know what... I don't know. That's a big bureaucracy, and I'm-

Ellen Stader:

It's bureaucracy.

Charlie Roadman:

I'm not an anti-government guy, but DPS makes me sometimes think that there's...

Ellen Stader:

I think a lot of people would join you there, Charlie, myself included. And we say this in the shadow of DPS right over here.

Charlie Roadman:

I know, they're right-

Ellen Stader:

Hello. I know you're listening.

Charlie Roadman:

Hundred yards from us. I actually talked with someone that was high up in DPS at one point, and I was complaining about this. They had this system where they won't cash checks or process things for 21 business days. And I was just thinking 21 business days, that's the craziest... I've never heard anyone say that.

Ellen Stader:

My God.

Charlie Roadman:

I know. And so anyway, I did this video and it was kind of interesting because people high up and DPS started contacting me going, "Oh, we want to talk to you about it." But after I talked with them about it, they basically kind of were like, "Yeah, we have three years worth of IT things that are ahead of this."

Ellen Stader:

My God.

Charlie Roadman:

So like it's just a slow moving thing, but-

Ellen Stader:

How is it that an institution that affects so many people's lives, literally every single person who drives in this entire higher massive state, can be so behind in their IT needs. It's unforgivable. That is not right.

Charlie Roadman:

Yeah. It isn't. And there's parts where you have to mail in a check and I'm like, "Well, why can't you pay it online?" And they're like, "Uh..."

Ellen Stader:

Like you can do with literally everything else in the world in 2021.

Charlie Roadman:

2021. I did... I saw a movie that that made this line that someone was going, "Yeah, we'll get back to you in five to six business months." And that's when I thought, man, that's what DPS should say. Business months.

Ellen Stader:

Just be honest.

Charlie Roadman:

Yeah. Three business months. Anyway. I've got a bunch of YouTube videos about different parts of this.

Ellen Stader:

And your YouTube channel is what? It is called...

Charlie Roadman:

It's called youtube.com and then in the search bar type Charlie Roadman.

Ellen Stader:

Okay. That's exactly what I was going to ask.

Charlie Roadman:

Yeah, I don't know. But they're there.

Ellen Stader:

That's fine. You don't have to like throw deuces and make duck face and ask people to like and subscribe. You can go to YouTube, look up Charlie Roadman and he will enlighten you on many, many issues, especially related to DWIs.

Charlie Roadman:

Yes, I do. That is my hobby making videos about this.

Ellen Stader:

And comic books and PowerPoints and-

Charlie Roadman:

Yes. I actually just wrote a... I was wrote a little article or working on one talking about just that I used to be a teacher, so this is... Looking back, because I mean a lot of attorneys do videos, but not a ton. And I was just thinking about it, I was like, yeah, I like teaching.

Ellen Stader:

It is a perfect melding of your inclinations, really.

Charlie Roadman:

Yeah.

Ellen Stader:

I think a lot of people believe, and this may or may not be rightly so, that everyone involved in the legal system has an interest in keeping it murky for people outside it, and because if people knew what was going on, they wouldn't need lawyers or they wouldn't... Which given the immense complication of even the slightest little thing that's legally related would not be the case. You're never not going to need a lawyer because that shit's just too complicated.

Ellen Stader:

But just through this work with you learning the little bit that I have, it was a revelation to understand what you said, which is that laws aren't arbitrary. They follow a pattern. They're there for a reason. They are like the answers to certain phenomena. And that in itself was a revelation to me. And I think so much of it is not knowing what to expect when you're up against what feels like a massive brick wall and you know it's going to fall on you and you just don't know from which corner. And being given even a little indication of how things might go, it's sort of like an immense unlock of... I don't know what. It feels like it gives you some kind of tools to protect yourself.

Charlie Roadman:

Yeah, yeah. Because the anxiety. I mean it's bad enough the event, and then you're worried about the future. So it's like the past and the future combining anxiety.

Ellen Stader:

And your fate is in the hands of people you don't know, and you don't know if they're people of good will or if they're just doing their job or sick of you or out to screw you over or what. So you have been listening to Charlie Roadman dispense wisdom on the topic of what happens to your license when you're arrested for a DWI.