If you sit across our desk after a DWI arrest in McKinney, we have two different fires to put out. One is the criminal charge sitting in a Collin County courtroom. The other is the countdown on your driver’s license.
Most people assume the court handles everything at once. That assumption costs them their ability to drive. The State of Texas splits a DWI into two separate battles, and the first one starts the moment you walk out of the Collin County jail.
You’ve got exactly 15 days to act. Miss the deadline, and you lose before we even start.
The 15-Day ALR Deadline
When an officer arrests you for a DWI, they usually confiscate your physical driver’s license. They hand you a temporary permit in its place. What they don’t always explain clearly is the fine print on that paperwork.
That paperwork is a Notice of Suspension. You have 15 days from the date of your arrest to request an Administrative License Revocation (ALR) hearing with the Texas Department of Public Safety.
If you do nothing, your license automatically suspends on the 40th day after your arrest. Period. You can’t appeal it later. You can’t ask a judge for a favor.
Requesting the ALR hearing stops the automatic suspension. It forces the state to prove they had a legal reason to stop your car and arrest you. More importantly, it gives us a strategic advantage. The ALR hearing is often our first chance to cross-examine the arresting officer under oath, long before your criminal trial begins. We lock them into their story. If their testimony changes later, we use that against them.
Why the First Few Days Matter for Evidence
Evidence disappears fast. The police report is just one side of the story, and it always makes you look guilty. We need the raw data.
We need the dashcam footage showing how you actually drove. We need the bodycam video showing how you spoke and moved during the field sobriety tests. We need the maintenance logs for the breathalyzer machine.
Consider someone who gets pulled over on US 75 late at night. The officer writes in the report that the driver stumbled out of the car and slurred their words. If we wait two months to request the bodycam footage, that video might get overwritten or lost. But if we pull that video in the first week, we might see a driver who stepped out perfectly fine and spoke clearly over the highway noise. That video contradicts the written report. That’s how we dismantle a case.
The Criminal vs. Civil Tracks
You’re fighting a two-front war.
The ALR hearing is a civil administrative process. It only decides whether you keep your driving privileges. The burden of proof is relatively low.
The criminal charge is entirely separate. The Collin County District Attorney’s office handles the criminal prosecution. They have to prove you were intoxicated beyond a reasonable doubt.
You can win the ALR hearing and still face criminal charges. You can lose the ALR hearing and still beat the criminal case. Because these tracks move independently, you need a defense strategy that coordinates both. A mistake in the administrative hearing can hurt your criminal defense.
We Know the State’s Playbook
Before we defended clients at Lewis & Ashworth, we built cases for the state. We spent years as prosecutors. We know exactly how the District Attorney’s office evaluates a DWI file.
We know which officers have a history of cutting corners on field sobriety tests. We know how prosecutors try to patch holes in a weak case. We look at your arrest report the exact same way they do, but we do it to find the flaws.
We don’t wait for the first court date to start working. We start immediately. We pull the video. We review the blood or breath testing procedures. We look for constitutional violations in the initial traffic stop. If the officer lacked reasonable suspicion to pull you over, the entire case can fall apart.
Don’t Navigate the Justice System Alone
A DWI arrest in McKinney doesn’t have to ruin your record. But you can’t wait and hope things work out.
The clock is ticking on your license right now. The sooner we get involved, the more options you have. We can request your ALR hearing, protect your right to drive, and start building your defense today.
Call Lewis & Ashworth at 214-239-8007 or contact our Plano office online. The consultation is free, and the conversation is completely confidential. Let’s get to work.