Texas Accident Lawyer | License Plate Requirements | Fort Worth Attorney

Avoid a Ticket: Display front license plates

I recently discovered that there is a state law that you must display a license plate on the front bumper of your car.

Despite this law, some cars are sold in the state of Texas without a front license plate holder. Unfortunately, I bought one of those cars this year. When I received my plates in the mail, I then realized that there was no place to put a front license plate.  Being a lawyer, I should have looked into the law, but I just assumed that the car dealership would not have sold me a car that was not in compliance with state law. Anyway, I set the front license plate aside and continued driving my car.

A police officer in Chico, Texas apparently was well aware of the law and was very happy to stop me as I was driving through his town. Fortunately, I only received a warning after answering several questions of what I was doing in his town (I was driving through after I had gone to meet a victim of drunk driving in Brownwood earlier in the day). Upon request, the dealership where I bought my car immediately installed a bracket on the front bumper and I then put a license plate on to comply with the law.

Recently, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the law as it related to a 2006 drug arrest in Lubbock. In that case, a drug dealer was pulled over for his lack of front license plate on his Chevy Impala.  The stop resulted in the police finding a half‐pound of cocaine in his van. He is now serving a 60‑year prison sentence.  I bet he regrets not putting a license plate on the front bumper!