Houston Municipal Courts: requesting defensive driving for a ticket

Houston’s municipal courts handle tickets issued by Houston police inside the city. They run two tracks for driving safety courses: the mandatory track (your right under state law, if you ask on time) and a more expensive discretionary track for people who don’t qualify for the first.

The Houston court website wouldn’t load from our location, so we read its pages as captured by the Internet Archive on September 11, 2026, and its forms as captured in 2025. Check the court’s live page before you send anything.

Requesting the course

Fill in the court’s DSC/MOTC application and send it with:

• a copy of the front of your Texas driver license (active-duty military, spouses and dependents can send ID and orders instead);
• proof of auto insurance that lists you;
• payment.

You can send it by mail to P.O. Box 4996, Houston, TX 77210-4996, by email to mcd@houstontx.gov, or take it in person to one of the six municipal court locations, including the Herbert W. Gee Municipal Courthouse at 1400 Lubbock St. For mail or email requests, the court takes card payments by phone.

Deadline: on or before your arraignment date — the first court date on your ticket — “to avoid a Failure to Appear Warrant”. The application says that if it’s postmarked on or before your court date, you don’t have to appear. State law refers to certified mail, return receipt requested, so use it if you’re mailing close to the deadline.

New tickets usually take up to 10 business days to appear in the court’s system.

Fees

The payment is non-refundable. The discretionary track is for drivers who missed the mandatory deadline or took a course within the past year — state law lets the judge allow it, with a higher charge.

Ignore an old instructions PDF from 2008 that’s still on the court’s site: it shows out-of-date fees.

After the course: what to file

You have 90 days. On the mandatory track, send:

1. the signed “Court Copy” of your completion certificate;
2. your certified Type 3A driving record (how to order it);
3. the court’s DSC affidavit, signed and notarized.

On the discretionary track, the court asks only for the certificate.

Send the documents by mail or in person — not by email. If you deliver them in person, the clerk can certify the affidavit for a $10 fee instead of a notary.

If the documents are late, the court sets a show cause hearing, about 30 days after the due date.

Juveniles

Drivers under 17 must come to court in person with a parent or guardian.