7 Mistakes to Avoid if You Were Arrested For a Crime in Texas
A Guide to navigate Your Criminal Defense Case to Protect Your Rights, Options and Path Forward
What to Do Right After a Criminal Arrest
If you or someone you care about has been arrested in Texas, the most important thing you can do right now is speak with an attorney before making any decisions about what to say to law enforcement, whether to cooperate, or what to do about bond conditions. Those early decisions shape the entire case, and most of them cannot be undone later.
Until you have a lawyer, three rules cover almost everything. Do not discuss the facts of the case with anyone but your attorney, including family, and including anyone on a recorded jail phone line. Write down everything you remember while it is still fresh: times, locations, who was present, what was said, what an officer did and in what order. And preserve anything that could turn out to be evidence, which now means photographs, messages, receipts, dashcam and doorbell footage, and the names of anyone who saw what happened.
This guide walks through the seven mistakes we see most often in the first days after an arrest, and what to do instead.