State Office of Administrative Hearings

Hearing Types

Hearing Types

The State Office of Administrative Hearings generally handles two types of hearings:

  1. Driver's License hearings, also known as Administrative License Revocation hearings, referred from the Texas Department of Public Safety.
  2. General hearings, also known as contested case hearings, referred from other State of Texas agencies or governmental entities.

Driver's License Hearings

Driver's license hearings, also known as Administrative License Revocation or ALR hearings, are administrative driver's license suspension hearings referred by the Texas Department of Public Safety under the Administrative License Revocation program. In these hearings, a driver has been arrested for driving while intoxicated and has requested a hearing on the proposed suspension by the Texas Department of Public Safety of his or her driver's license.

The hearing determines the following:

  • Whether the police officer had reasonable suspicion to stop and probable cause to believe the driver was driving while intoxicated.
  • Whether the driver either refused or failed a breath or blood test.
  • Whether the license can be suspended.

Please refer to the Driver's License Hearings Schedule to view scheduled driver's license hearings by docket number or location.

For information regarding representing oneself in a driver's license hearing at the State Office of Administrative Hearings, please refer to Representing Yourself at the State Office of Administrative Hearings: Driver's License Hearings.

General Hearings

General hearings, also known as contested case or general docket hearings, include cases in which a State of Texas agency decides to take certain action against a person or business. In these cases, the law often allows the person or business to request an administrative hearing to challenge the agency's action.

When a hearing is requested, the agency refers, or sends, the case to the State Office of Administrative Hearings for the hearing. After the case is referred to the State Office of Administrative Hearings, the referring agency will send a notice of hearing to the person or business notifying them of when and where the hearing will be held.

Please refer to the General Hearings Schedule to view the schedule of general hearings.

For information regarding representing yourself in a general hearing at the State Office of Administrative Hearings, please refer to Representing Yourself at the State Office of Administrative Hearings: General Hearings.

 


Source URL: https://www.soah.texas.gov/hearing-types