Federal Criminal Defense in the Northern District of Texas

If your case caption reads "Northern District of Texas," the next line matters as much as the first. The division determines the courthouse, the judges who may be assigned, and the jury pool.

A Dallas Division case and an Amarillo Division case are the same district and very different propositions.

The seven divisions

Dallas Division — the Earle Cabell Federal Building and United States Courthouse at 1100 Commerce Street in downtown Dallas. Serves Dallas, Ellis, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Navarro, and Rockwall counties. See our Earle Cabell courthouse guide.

Fort Worth Division — the Eldon B. Mahon United States Courthouse, 501 West 10th Street, Fort Worth. Serves Tarrant, Parker, Wise, Jack, Hood, Palo Pinto, Erath, and Comanche counties.

Amarillo Division — the J. Marvin Jones Federal Building, 205 Southeast 5th Avenue, Amarillo. Serves the northern Panhandle counties.

Lubbock Division — the George H. Mahon Federal Building, 1205 Texas Avenue, Lubbock. Serves the South Plains.

Abilene Division — 341 Pine Street, Abilene.

San Angelo Division — 33 East Twohig Avenue, San Angelo.

Wichita Falls Division — 1000 Lamar Street, Wichita Falls.

Which division will hear your case

Assignment generally follows where the offense occurred, and secondarily where the defendant resides. In a multi-county conspiracy the government has meaningful latitude, and the division chosen is not always the one closest to the defendant.

This is worth attention early. A defendant living in Denton who is charged in the Amarillo Division faces a six-hour drive for every hearing, and the practical burden on family attendance, employment, and pretrial supervision is real. Where the facts genuinely support it, the venue and division question is litigable.

Judges and case assignment

The district has authorized district judgeships supplemented by senior judges and magistrate judges. Assignment within a division is generally random, but the pool is narrow — in the smaller divisions there may be only one or two district judges, which means the identity of your judge is effectively determined by the division.

That has consequences a defense lawyer should be candid about. Judges differ substantially in how they handle detention, how receptive they are to variance arguments, whether they grant evidentiary hearings on suppression motions, and how they treat Guidelines objections. Experience in front of the specific judge is worth real money in a federal case.

The United States Attorney's Office

Prosecutions here are brought by the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas, headquartered in Dallas with staffed branch offices serving the outlying divisions. Charging priorities and plea practices are set district-wide, which is why an outcome that is achievable in this district may not be achievable on identical facts in another.

The office prosecutes a broad mix — healthcare and financial fraud out of the Metroplex, firearms and narcotics cases across all divisions, and public corruption. If you have received a target letter on this office's letterhead, the investigation is well advanced.

What happens at your first appearance

You will appear before a magistrate judge, who advises you of the charges, addresses counsel, and takes up release or detention. Pretrial Services will have interviewed you beforehand — that interview is not privileged and is not the place to discuss the offense.

If the government seeks detention, a hearing follows within days. Read our bond and detention guide before that hearing, not after it: for many drug and firearm charges the statute presumes detention, and the preparation window is measured in days.

Before you go to the courthouse

Courthouse practicalities change, and they are set locally rather than nationally — electronic device policies in particular vary by district and by judge, and they are revised more often than published guides keep up with. Before a first appearance, confirm the current rules with the Clerk of Court for your division, and arrive substantially earlier than you think you need to.

Bring government-issued photo identification. Expect airport-style screening. If you are represented, your lawyer should tell you exactly where to meet, what to bring, and what to leave in the car — and if nobody has told you that, ask before the morning of.

Who from our office appears here

Our federal practice is led by Of Counsel James Lee Bright, who has more than 25 years of federal trial experience and is admitted in the Northern, Eastern, Southern, and Western Districts of Texas, the District of Columbia, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.

If you are facing federal charges in this district, call (214) 225-7117 for a free, confidential consultation.