Dallas DWI Lawyer

Dallas County DWI cases are heard at the Frank Crowley Courts Building. A first or second DWI is a misdemeanor and goes to one of the County Criminal Courts on the 3rd or 4th floor. A felony DWI, intoxication assault, or intoxication manslaughter goes to a Criminal District Court in the same building. Our Dallas County court guide covers the whole building.

Dallas County does not run a pretrial diversion program for DWI; its DIVERT program is a drug-court track. That does not make a conviction inevitable. A first DWI can still be eligible for deferred adjudication under Texas law, and beyond that the defense itself is what drives the outcome here: challenging the stop, the testing, and the lab work. Start with our guide to the most common DWI defenses in Texas.

No. Dallas blood is tested at the county SWIFS lab, and lab results are only as good as the chromatography, calibration, and handling behind them. We request that underlying data in every blood case and review it at the chemistry level. Blood cases get challenged and won. Our guide to the evidence in a Texas DWI case explains what we look for.

Fifteen days, counted from the day you receive your notice of suspension rather than automatically from the arrest. If an officer handed you a DIC-25 form, that is the day the clock started. If your case involved a blood draw, DPS usually mails the notice after the lab reports, which can be weeks later, and the law treats it as received five days after mailing. Miss the window and the suspension takes effect on its own. If you are not sure where you stand, call and we will work it out with you, and if the deadline has already passed an occupational license is usually the next step. Our guide to the 15-day deadline walks through the request.

Any licensed lawyer can take the case. The question is whether they can read a SWIFS chromatogram, cross-examine on field sobriety protocol, and know how each Frank Crowley court runs. DWI is a science case wearing a criminal charge. Our guide to choosing a DWI lawyer covers what actually matters.

It can. Since September 1, 2019, Texas law lets a judge grant deferred adjudication on a first DWI when your alcohol concentration was under 0.15, you have no prior conviction under the intoxication statutes, and you did not hold a commercial license at the time. An ignition interlock is a required condition, and the decision is the judge's, not automatic. Deferred is not a dismissal, but the case ends without a final conviction. It is not available where a child was in the car, or on intoxication assault or intoxication manslaughter. Our guide to deferred adjudication covers who qualifies and what it does to your record.

It varies with the charge level and whether the case is headed to trial, and we are direct about numbers at the first call. The consultation itself is free, we offer payment plans, and our fee guide explains what a DWI defense should and should not cost.

Garland, Irving, Mesquite, Grand Prairie, and every other Dallas County city all prosecute at Frank Crowley. Wherever the stop happened, we defend it. See our Dallas County guide for how a case moves through the building.