First, determine how many holds you have and from which courts.
Search the database at www.texasfailuretoappear.com to find a list of all OmniBase holds on your license. You will need to provide your driver’s license or ID number and date of birth.
Note: If you have had both a driver’s license and a state ID in the past, you will want to check both numbers.
This website will show you which tickets are leading to a hold on your driver’s license renewal, but it does not necessarily show you all unresolved tickets that you have. You may have other tickets leading to warrants or collections that are not in the database and do not appear in your search results.
You may have holds from multiple courts if you received tickets in multiple places.
Also, one single court may have placed multiple holds—one for each ticket in that court.
You have to resolve each hold before you can get your license.
If you are having trouble finding your holds, call OmniBase Services at 1-800-686-0570.
Then, work with each court to lift the hold or holds they have placed.
In order to lift an OmniBase hold, you will need to resolve the amount owed to each court that has placed a hold or holds. The rest of this toolkit provides information on how to resolve fines and costs when you cannot pay.
The first step to lift an OmniBase hold would be to call the court and tell them you want to resolve what you owe to get your license back.
Ask when you can come to court to speak with the judge if you are able to get to the court.
If you live outside the area, send a letter explaining that you cannot pay the tickets but want to resolve them, and how you plan to resolve what you owe.
Go to Documents and Forms for sample letters to request Community Service, a Payment Plan or a Fine Reduction.
If you have not already appeared in court for these tickets, you will need to enter a plea to be given an alternative sentence.
If you want to plead not guilty, you will have to go to court for a trial.
If you want to plead guilty or no contest, you may be able to do so through the letter without having to go to court. For more information about consequences of Guilty and No Contest pleas, see here.
Explain to the judge in court or in the letter how you would like to resolve what you owe: a payment plan, community service, or a request that the amount be waived or reduced to a certain amount you know you can pay.
Ask if they have a special form that they use to show inability to pay. If not, use the Statement of Inability to Pay in the Documents and Forms section.
Send their form or the sample form along with a letter, or bring it to court with you.
For each hold on your license, you will be charged a $10 fee to lift the hold (or a $30 fee if the hold was placed before January 1, 2020), in addition to any fines and court costs.
Ask the judge to waive this fee for each hold, because you are unable to pay it.
State law requires the fee be waived if the judge finds you “indigent,” meaning very low-income.
If you need to enter a payment plan or complete community service to satisfy what you owe, ask the court to lift the hold or holds during the time you are completing those requirements.
The court has the discretion to wait until all payments have been made or all community service hours have been completed before lifting the holds.
However, if you promise the court that you will follow through on the requirements and explain why you need your license back immediately (for example, to get to work or to travel to the court-ordered community service), you may be able to convince the judge to lift the hold earlier.
Once you have resolved what you owe by paying it in full or by completing your required community service, the court should lift the hold.
Call the court clerk to confirm this has been done.
You may still need to renew your license depending on whether it expired during the hold. This can usually be done online at www.texas.gov/driver-services; select the link under “Driver license or ID card" or through here.
