What is a DUI Surcharge?
Posted on Oct 3, 2012 10:45am PDT
Right when you thought that your DWI troubles were over, you may be hit with an irritating and expensive DWI surcharge. This is an expense that is issued by the Texas Department of Transportation to make sure that a DUI offender is held accountable for his or her mistake. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, surcharges are a part of the state Driver Responsibility Program which is governed by the Texas Transportation Code. The surcharges are established based on certain traffic violations and is active for all offenses that occurred after September of 2003.
A surcharge is defined as an administrative fee that is charged to a driver based on the convictions that are reported to the driving record. This charge is not issued by the court, but by the Department of Public Safety when the driver goes to reinstate his license after suspension. Normally, the Texas Department of Public Safety looks at two criteria when determining whether or not to issue a surcharge. They will evaluate the Point System and the Conviction Based surcharges.
The point system is a method used to evaluate moving traffic offenses. Texas government issues two points to the offender’s driving record if he or she is convicted of an out-of-state moving traffic violation. The driver will be given three points for an out-of-state moving violation that resulted in a crash.
If a driver accumulates a total of six points over the three years that the points can remain on his or her driving record, then he or she can be held accountable to pay a surcharge. Normally, if you have six points on your driving record you will be required to pay $100. Additional points add another $25 to the bill. The department will evaluate your driving record yearly and issue these surcharges as needed. After points have been on the record for three years, they will be dropped.
As well, the Texas Department of Public Safety will use convictions to determine surcharges. Some crimes come with an automatic surcharge no matter how many points are on your driving record. For example, a first-time DWI offender will get a $1,000 surcharge every year for three years whether he or she had a Texas conviction or an out-of-state conviction. For subsequent DUIs, the government will issue a $1,500 surcharge every year for three years.
If you were convicted of a DUI and have a BAC off over twice the legal limit, then the surcharge jumps to $2,000 per year for 3 years. The charges can be added to for additional offenses. Driving without insurance adds $250, driving with an invalid license adds $250, and driving without any license at all can add another $100. If you have been charged with a crime and are now worried about paying expensive DUI surcharges, then try to nip your case in the bud before it becomes an issue. Hire Troy P. Burleson to help you with your offense and seek justice in your case!