Ask Deandra – What are the Penalties for a First DWI in Texas?

Hello everyone. This is Deandra Grant, and this is the Ask Deandra video series, where I answer the most commonly searched questions about DWIs in Texas that you find on the internet. This goes hand in hand with my Ask Deandra blog series, and the blog that corresponds with this video is where you will find the link in the description down below.

Today’s question is: what are the penalties for a first offense misdemeanor DWI in Texas? That’s a really good question, but it depends on what your case is filed as. It could be filed as a class A or a class B misdemeanor.

Let’s talk about a B first. A class B misdemeanor carries up to 180 days in the county jail, and you are charged with a class B misdemeanor if the alcohol level that you are alleged to have is under a 0.15, or if the police don’t ask for a sample at all.

On a class B, I mentioned you could go to jail for that. That is true. That crime certainly carries the possibility of up to six months in jail, but the reality is that most first offenders are placed on probation. Depending on the facts of your case, if you’re charged with a class B, you’re looking at anywhere from probably 12 to 24 months of probation if you’re convicted or if you accept a plea bargain in the case.

Conditions of probation can include what’s called DWI class. It’s a class that you have to take about, you know, don’t get any more DWIs. You usually can’t drink while you’re on probation. You have to do some community service. You have to take what’s called the victim impact panel, which is put on by Mothers Against Drunk Driving. You may have to serve some days in jail. That’s very unusual, but every once in a while we encounter a judge that wants that to take place.

You typically do not lose your driver’s license as a result of a DWI conviction on a first offense, as long as you’re placed on probation and as long as you complete your DWI education program within 6 months of being placed on probation. There is a separate video and a separate blog about the ALR process, where you can lose your driver’s license. That’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re just talking about the criminal case itself.

Now, in some circumstances, depending on your criminal history and depending on the facts of your DWI case, you could be placed on what’s called deferred adjudication. Deferred adjudication prevents you from having a conviction for that class B DWI, as long as you complete all the requirements that you’re supposed to complete. So that’s class B.

A class A DWI is what happens when you have a 0.15 or higher blood alcohol concentration, and it’s a higher level misdemeanor. For all intents and purposes, if you’re placed on probation, it’s going to be the same conditions that you would get on a class B DWI. But some of the differences are that on a class A DWI, if you’re placed on probation, the judge is going to order that you install an ignition interlock device as a condition of your probation. Now, it’s very likely that you were ordered to have that device as a condition of bond, because if you bond out on a 0.15 or higher class A DWI, the judge typically is going to order that as a condition of bond. If you end up being placed on probation, you’re going to continue with that interlock requirement. The judge could opt to take it off early. That’s a whole other discussion, but at least at the very beginning, and probably for at least half of it, if not the whole time, you’re going to be ordered to have an ignition interlock device on any car that you drive.

Another difference between a class A and a class B probation is that you cannot get deferred adjudication for a class A DWI. So is it possible that the state might decide or agree to drop the enhancement, drop the 0.15 or greater, knock the case back down to a class B, and allow you to have deferred adjudication as an offer on your case? Yes. And do we do that with some frequency? Yes. But it just depends on the county. There are some counties where that is customary, and there are other counties where it is not at all. So it’s really going to depend on where your case is pending.

Those are the real differences with class A and class B DWI. Regardless of circumstances, most people are going to be looking at probation. And this is assuming that you don’t go to trial. If you go to trial and you get convicted at trial, you’re going to be placed on probation absent some really egregious reason. When you’re placed on probation, you’re going to be ordered to do exactly the same things you were going to do if you agreed to a probation as part of a plea bargain. So typically, the only thing you really risk going to trial, most of the time, is possibly a longer probation, though that’s not always the case.

Some things you can do to help yourself: if you know that you’re not going to trial, what we typically do with our clients is we will have them do a lot of the conditions of probation in advance, and then by the time we’re ready to possibly do a plea on the case, a lot of times we can negotiate down even further, because the client’s already done many of the things they were going to be ordered to do on probation.

I hope you find this helpful. If you have any further questions or want more detailed information, read the blog post that goes along with this video. Thanks a lot, and have a great day.