Ticket Help Texas: A Toolkit to Resolve Your Unpaid Fines & Restore Your Driver’s License
This toolkit is intended to be a resource for people who owe fines and costs in criminal cases that they are unable to pay, including those who are not able to obtain a driver’s license because of unpaid fines and fees. It includes information about your rights, as well as suggestions for resolving what you owe.
When someone is unable to pay a fine right away, the costs may compound over time, often resulting in more tickets, fines, and fees. Additionally, failing to pay a fine or failing to appear in court can lead to an arrest warrant and jail time, as well as a hold that prevents you from renewing your driver’s license. We hope this toolkit will help you resolve what you owe and break this difficult cycle.
This toolkit is intended to provide advice specifically about fine-only misdemeanors, which include Class C misdemeanors, most traffic tickets, and other minor offenses that are supposed to be punished by only a fine and no jail time. If you are charged with a more serious offense, like a Class A or B misdemeanor or a felony, defense counsel must be appointed to you by the court if you cannot afford to hire an attorney; they can advise you what to do if you are convicted and cannot afford your fines or fees. However, in a fine-only misdemeanor case, no counsel will be appointed to represent you if you cannot afford to hire your own.
Sometimes, it is possible for a legal aid or nonprofit attorney to represent you for no cost in a fine-only misdemeanor case. For more information on free legal representation, see the Legal Help section.
The authors of this toolkit are nonprofit organizations working to ensure justice for all people in the Texas courts, regardless of their race or income. The authors are not affiliated with any court, law enforcement agency, or other government agency.
This toolkit is not legal advice. For legal advice, consult an attorney.
Special thanks to the Annie E. Casey Foundation: This toolkit is a product of our work with the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Southern Partnership to Reduce Debt, which is developing strategies to lessen the impact of criminal and civil judicial fines and fees, as well as medical fees, high-cost consumer products and student loan debt, on communities of color. We thank the Casey Foundation for its support but acknowledge that the findings and conclusions presented here are those of the authors alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Foundation.
Special thanks to the following individuals: Judge Ed Spillane, Judge David Cobos, and Bronson Tucker for their review of and helpful suggestions for this toolkit.
