DWI, Drugs, Assault, Probation Revocation, Sexual Offenses, Theft, Juvenile Defense. Felony and Misdemeanor Offenses in State and Federal Court
Driving While Intoxicated, DWI and Your Drivers License Forney, Texas DWI Defense Lawyer.
Sexual Offenses, Drug Offenses, Assault and Violent Crimes, Theft, Truancy/School Related Criminal Charges.
If you are on this list that means a grand jury has indicted you and you need a lawyer NOW. Being indicted doesn’t mean you are guilty. It’s easy to indict people it Texas, but it does mean the State is serious about making you a felon and sending you to prison. So hire a lawyer ASAP.
A Dallas judge is looking to move assault-family violence (AFV) cases to trial faster. Moving cases faster is always a popular idea, the public loves it, it sounds good and is a common refrain from judicial candidates (“this court is backlogged, I’ll fix it!).
I used to prosecute family violence cases, and I’ve defended them for over a decade now. The truth is that many family violence arrests are for situations that aren’t going to result in a guilty verdict. The police arrive and both parties say the other started the fight, both have similar injuries. The police have to make an arrest, so they usually arrest the guy on weak evidence, and the lawyers get to sort it out on the back end.
Being investigated or arrested for a criminal offense is stressful and produces a great deal of anxiety. Every defendant or suspect wants their case finished post haste, but they also have a competing goal, which is to get the best result in their case (who doesn’t want a dismissal right?). It can take weeks or months or even years (looking at you Van Zandt County) for a criminal case to be filed (from the date of offense).
Often there will be some inexplicable delay in the case. For example, a detective could sit on a case and not forward it to the DA’s office, the DA’s office could lose the file in intake, or the forensics may take forever to get back from DPS. Those things are all great for the defense. Why? A few reasons.
Memories fade
I used to take court appointments, and my first job out of law school was as a public defender. I’ve seen court appointed lawyers do amazing work and I’ve seen lawyers who dabble in criminal defense by getting on the wheel completely fuck up their client’s life. Lawyers are expensive, good lawyers more so, great lawyers with local experience most of all. Most people don’t save money for a criminal defense lawyer. That would be weird unless you are a legit drug dealer in which case that’s just a smart business move.
Lawyers are expensive, good lawyers more so, great experienced lawyers most of all. Most people don’t save money for a criminal defense lawyer. That would be weird unless you are a legit drug dealer in which case that’s just a smart business move. So when you get arrested in Texas, you are looking at the real possibility of shelling out thousands for a quality defense. If you don’t have that kind of cash lying around, applying for a court-appointed lawyer is your best move.
Ok, so now you’ve got a court appointed lawyer and you don’t know if you should stay with them or not? What to do?
Happy Thanksgiving! Texans love eating turkeys, but we also love shooting them. If you are going to hunt turkeys in Texas you should take the time to read the Texas Parks and Wildlife Code, because you can get in some trouble if you don’t know what you are doing.
Fortunately most wildlife-related crimes are class C misdemeanors, a few more are class A. To get to the state jail felony level you need to have already been convicted of these things once, and then do them and get caught again.
So whatever you do with your turkey today, don’t do these things, they are class A misdemeanors, but if you get caught twice they can be a felony.
Everybody wants out of jail for the holidays, and the days before Thanksgiving and Xmas see a surge in jail chain activity. I was inspired for a few minutes, but couldn’t finish this, the original poem is really long and there is a lot of ground to cover. But I’ll leave it here and get back to vacationing.
Twas the day before Thanksgiving and all through the jail,
Every inmate was stirring,
One way the criminal justice system breaks defendants into pleading is by wasting their time. Nowhere is this more evident than in making a defendant appear for a misdemeanor announcement PNC (plea negotiation conference), or first setting.
In Kaufman and Rockwall County (think the counties east of Dallas), the judges require defendants to attend all misdemeanor settings. What’s wrong with that? Let’s talk about the first setting in a misdemeanor case.
90% of the time at the first setting I have not received discovery yet. We usually pick this up in court and sign for it at the first setting. Not having discovery means I haven’t reviewed discovery. If I haven’t reviewed the discovery, then I can’t do anything on your case. If I can’t do anything on your case then we have to reset it (also called a pass). Which means you, the defendant is going to sit there for an hour while all this happens. We used to be able to appear for our clients on first settings in Kaufman County, but that’s gone away as a thing.
Getting pulled over sucks, it sucks worse if you have weed in the car. At best you get a warning and just lose a few minutes of your time. At worst, you get arrested for and go to jail facing the prospect of more jail and fines in your future.
The goal of most people who get pulled over with pot in the car is not to get arrested. That’s an ok goal, but doing things that might make the police like you more, also make your case more difficult for me if you do get arrested.
“Do you have any drugs in your vehicle?”
So you’ve caught a felony case in Texas and you are worried about going to prison. I’ve represented enough felony defendants to know that certain factors can make it more likely you aren’t walking out of court on paper.
You’ve been to prison before
Yeah, it’s kind of hard to spin that to the prosecutor “Hey, I know my guy has already been down before, but THIS time, THIS felony is different. We are totally going to kick ass on probation. Let’s do this! Where do we pee?”
Poor communication is one of the main complaints we hear when clients retain our firm after hiring another lawyer. When you are facing a criminal charge you are obviously under a lot of pressure, and you need answers. It’s probably your first time in the system, so you don’t know what to expect. Or you are a seasoned criminal defendant, and you have seen this movie before so you want to make sure certain things are done in your case.
Either way, those issues can only be remedied by talking to your defense lawyer. So why isn’t your defense lawyer talking to you? Let me count the ways.
Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog