McKinney DWI Lawyer

At the Collin County courts in McKinney, at the Russell A. Steindam Courts Building at 2100 Bloomdale Road. A first or second DWI goes to one of the County Courts at Law and a felony DWI goes to a District Court. Your court assignment appears on your bond paperwork, and our Collin County court guide covers the building.

No. The Collin County District Attorney prosecutes arrests from the whole county on the same terms, so being arrested in the county seat does not change how your file is treated. Familiarity with these courts, these prosecutors, and the DPS lab that produces the blood result is the advantage that exists.

Someone who regularly appears in the Collin County courts, since that is where your case is and where every other Collin DWI is too. Ask how they handle a blood case, because Collin County does not offer the obstruction reduction that resolves DWIs elsewhere, which means the science decides more cases here. Start with the defenses that actually work.

15 days from the notice of suspension to request an ALR hearing, or the suspension is automatic. Inside the window, call today. Past it, an occupational license may keep you driving.

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.

Deandra Grant Law has no McKinney office. Our Allen office serves Collin County and is fifteen minutes from the courts in McKinney where your case is heard. The first consultation works by phone or video, so you can get advice the same day.

It depends on the charge and whether the case is headed to trial, and we are direct about numbers at the first call. The consultation is free and we offer payment plans. Our fee guide explains what a DWI defense should and should not cost, and How Much Does a DWI Cost in Texas? covers the fines and fees a conviction adds.

Usually not the first time. A first DWI is a Class B misdemeanor, or Class A if your alcohol concentration was 0.15 or higher, and a second DWI is a Class A misdemeanor. It becomes a felony with a third offense (third-degree felony, two to ten years), any DWI with a passenger under 15 (state jail felony), intoxication assault (third-degree felony), or intoxication manslaughter (second-degree felony). Our felony DWI guide covers each level.

0.08 for most drivers, 0.04 for anyone holding a commercial driver license, and any detectable amount for a driver under 21. The number is not the whole story: Texas also defines intoxication as losing the normal use of your mental or physical faculties, so a driver under 0.08 can still be charged, and a 0.08 result can still be challenged on how the sample was taken and tested. See what 0.08 actually means.

The administrative suspension comes first. A failed breath or blood test brings 90 days for a first offense, and a refusal brings 180 days. A prior alcohol-related contact in the last ten years raises those to one year and two years. A conviction can add its own suspension of 90 days to a year. Requesting the ALR hearing within 15 days of the notice of suspension is the only way to contest the first one, and an occupational license can keep you driving in the meantime. See our license guide.

The statute allows it: a first-offense DWI carries 72 hours to 180 days in the county jail, and up to a year if the result was 0.15 or higher. In practice a first offense in Collin County more often ends in a dismissal, a reduction, deferred adjudication where you qualify, or probation, and the jail exposure is what the defense is built to remove. The time you already spent in the Collin County Detention Facility after the arrest counts against any sentence.

Call us before you do anything else, because two clocks are already running. The 15-day window to request an ALR hearing starts when you receive the notice of suspension, and your bond conditions take effect the moment you are released. Write down everything you remember about the stop while it is fresh, keep the paperwork you were handed, and do not discuss the case with anyone but your lawyer. The consultation is free.