What Is a Defensive Driving Affidavit?
Who Are You—And Who Did You Pay to Take Your Course?
- First Published —
- August 16, 2022
- Last Updated —
- November 6, 2022
What Is An Affidavit?
According to Collins Dictionary, an affidavit is a written statement which you swear is true and which may be used as evidence in a court of law. Now, I know what you’re thinking—”Wow, that’s interesting, but what the heck does that have to do with defensive driving?”
In certain circumstances, you will have to submit an affidavit to your defensive driving provider before they will release your certificate of completion. The defensive driving school will provide you with the form, which you will have to have notarized, affirming your identity.
In a nutshell, the state wants to be sure that the person taking a defensive driving course is the one who is the one who is supposed to be. I’m not sure how this would not be the case. After all, who are YOU going to convince to take your course for you?
A defensive driving affidavit is a document that is used to confirm the identity of a defensive driving student when that identity can’t be confirmed via state of Texas records. A notarized defensive driving affidavit is the only way these drivers will be able to receive a certificate of course completion from any defensive driving provider.
Not every driver is required to submit an affidavit. That being said, why is your defensive driving course rtequiring YOU to have one?
Why Does the State Require Them?
Again, if a driver has received permission to take defensive driving, the court wants to make sure that it is, in fact, the driver who is taking the course. How do they do that?
Defensive driving courses are required to ask “personal identification questions” randomly throughout the course to make sure there isn’t any monkey business going on. These questions are checked against a state database to make sure the answers given are the right ones. If your license is new or from out of state, the answers won’t be found in the license database, and that’s where the affidavit comes in. Your sworn, notarized statement that you are who you say you are will be enough to satisfy the court.
Is There More Than One Kind of Affidavit?
Yes, there are. Some courts require that ALL drivers that have been given the privilege of taking defensive driving submit an affidavit. This affidavit is one on which you’ll swear before a notary that you understand that the court has indeed given you permission to take defensive driving. I guess the notary lobby is pretty strong in those jurisdictions!
Of course, this also means that if you get a ticket in one of these jurisdictions and have a brand new or out-of-state license, you’ll get to visit a notary two times. Lucky you…
Got More Texas Defensive Driving Questions?
If you didn’t get the answer you needed here, we have even more ways to quench your quandaries:
- Talk to a Human
- Check out our FAQ page
- Check out our additional FAQ post (with videos!)
- Jump to our YouTube Channel
