Corpus Christi DWI Lawyer

The Attorneys at Grossman Law Offices Can Help You If You’ve Been Charged with Driving While Intoxicated in Corpus Christi

With its proximity to the gulf and the bay, Corpus Christi is a great place to have a good time. However, some people unfortunately have too good of a time and end up being charged with DWIs. If you have been arrested under suspicion of DWI or another drunken driving charge in or near Corpus Christi, then you’re going to need a skilled and well-seasoned Corpus Christi DWI lawyer protecting your rights to see the best possible outcome to your case.

You don’t just need an experienced DWI lawyer, or someone who has been practicing in Nueces County for a while. You need an attorney who both has mastered DWI laws and who is familiar with the processes and procedures of the Nueces County courts. You need a lawyer who is known around the courthouse to ease the sometimes sticky legal process. If you want a lawyer, you can find one who will be willing to take your money and give your case a cursory walk through the court system. However, we do things differently here at Grossman Law Offices. Michael Grossman and his team of associates devote the full brunt of our attention, experience, knowledge and resource to every case, going to extremes to deliver the most favorable resolution permissible under the law.

Before you begin the legal process to fight the charges against you, you must understand that the negative fallout from a DWI conviction can be tremendous. Of course, you realize that you could be fined, lose your license, or sent to prison. However, you might not have considered how a conviction will affect your future and your reputation. Any employer can do a background check, discover the conviction, and decide not to hire you. Without a competent and skilled DWI attorney, you could end up regretting the verdict for the rest of your life. At Grossman Law Offices, our Corpus Christi DWI attorneys have spent the past 20 years helping people accused of various drunken driving charges throughout the state of Texas. By handling hundreds of other cases, we’ve seen almost every possible contingency that a DWI case can involve, and we’ve become intimately familiar with the procedures of the Nueces County courts. If you’d like to confidentially discuss your situation with a DWI expert, call us now for a free consultation at 1-855-427-0000 (toll free). After you’ve told us your story, we can explain what legal options you have available, and how we can help deliver a resolution with which you can live.

Since we’ve helped so many other people accused of DWIs, we’re well aware of the confusion and helplessness you feel right now. Thus, we’ve compiled this informational article in an effort to put you at ease. After all, knowledge is power, and the better informed you are about your legal situation, the better chance you have of obtaining the outcome you desire. Once you read this and are better informed, we hope you can make the right decisions to foster the best possible resolution to your case.

A Different Kind of Criminal

Before delving further into a discussion of the law in general and DWI laws specifically, we want you first to understand that DWI criminals are not like other convicts – they are normal, everyday citizens. Most people arrested for DWI didn’t intend to hurt anyone, completely unlike someone who robs a liquor store, but are normally law-abiding people who made a bad decision after imbibing too much alcohol. When anyone has too much to drink, he or she loses his or her ability to perform normal physical and mental functions and make reasonable decisions. However, the court views DWI criminals just like other criminals and prosecutes them as such. While you likely won’t be sentenced to prison for a first-time DWI unless you were involved in an accident in which someone else is injured, you will be heavily fined, lose your license and put on probation. When you hire a skilled Corpus Christi DWI attorney who is known in the local courts, you put yourself in position to end up with a much lighter penalty than if you had tried to handle your own case or went with a novice lawyer.

Understanding the Ins and Outs of Criminal Law

We can’t go into more depth about DWI laws until we’re certain you understand some fundamentals about American law in general. In the United States, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, also called the Bill of Rights, and the rest of the Constitution provides all American citizens with certain rights. When you are arrested and evidence is gathered against you, every jurisdiction must pay heed to your Constitutionally protected rights. Moreover, to convict you, they must be able to prove your are guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Just like you have rights, so do communities. Villages, towns, cities, and states all have the right to create laws governing their own community standards. For instance, consider the concept of cell phone usage while driving. The Texas State Legislature has made it illegal to text while driving through school zones. Some communities have carried this law a step further and outlawed any use of cell phones while driving through school zones, and in the states of New York or New Jersey it’s illegal to drive at all while talking on a cell phone unless the driver is using a hands-free device. While the Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of speech it doesn’t protect the right to speak on the phone while driving. When someone violates a jurisdiction’s cell phone laws, the individual community has the right to establish the fine. Once ticketed, you must either pay the applicable fine in the prescribed way or go to the court to request a court date to contest the charge.

However, there are certain laws that the federal government has the right to police, like robbing a bank or kidnapping, and there are no geographical limits to the jurisdiction within this country.

While you might not realize this, not all courts are alike. Granted, they all serve the same purpose of administering justice, but they all have their unique ways of doing so. This creates a need for a Corpus Christi DWI lawyer with experience in the court in question. Moreover, while this isn’t quite like it was in the Old West, every judge has a different way of running his or her court, giving each court its own personality. To understand this better, think about going to a chain of movie theaters. They all exist for the same purpose – showing movies – but none of the franchises in the chain is exactly the same as another. From one locale to another, the architecture may be different, the number of cinemas to show films can fluctuate, and some may be equipped with 3-D or I-Max theaters and others not. One theater may be spotlessly clean and safe with excellent help, while another could be filthy and dangerous with ushers who don’t do anything more than stand there. This analogy works well to explain the court system, which all have different means of reaching the same end – justice. From one jurisdiction to another, punishments, procedures, and the personality of the court all change, so you need a Corpus Christi DWI attorney with experienced handling cases in Nueces County.

If you are convicted of a DWI or other drunken driving offense, there will be grave consequences – your reputation will be affected forever, you will be out thousands of dollars in fines, you will be stripped of your driver’s license, and you might even be incarcerated. Of course, you are afforded the right to have your day in court, but that’s not always the best means for DWI defendants to resolve their cases. In fact, both the defense and the prosecution often have more incentive to arrange a plea bargain, for both have much to lose with a trial. In your position, you’re already aware of what you have at stake, but the prosecution is also personally invested in this case. Prosecutors who regularly lose cases usually end looking for work as defense attorneys, because they won’t remain prosecutors very long. Unfortunately for the prosecutor, they depend upon the reliability of the evidence to secure a conviction. If the police officer doesn’t perform his or her job adequately or if the prosecutor runs into a defense attorney who can convince the jury to question the validity of the evidence, then the prosecutor’s reputation takes a hit when the defendant gets an acquittal. No matter what the strength of the evidence, the prosecutor is usually willing to agree to a plea bargain to guarantee a victory for the record books.

How an Addison DWI Attorney Can Help You with Your Case

In the United States, justice is definitely not blind. The law approaches sentencing with it’s eyes wide open, providing a great deal of leeway in sentencing for jury’s to take into account the severity of the crime and the continued danger presented to the public by the criminal. The sentence dispensed for someone who is convicted of a DWI will fluctuate in accordance with whether someone was harmed by the drunken driver and whether or not the driver had been convicted of other drunken driving offenses in the past. , a drunken driver can be sentenced to a wide range sentences taking into account. Until the court sees you for who you are, the prosecution will pursue the maximum penalty against you. You need a skilled Corpus Christi lawyer who can convince the court that you pose little threat to the public and just made a lone poor decision.

For 20 years, the Corpus Christi DWI lawyers At Grossman Law Offices have been handling drunken driving offense, so we’ve developed a tried and true method of helping our clients. Before do anything else, we’re going to want to hear your story. In order to best serve your needs, we need to know “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” We simply cannot represent you adequately based upon lies or half truths. After we have your fact, we’ll find out what evidence the prosecution has against you and what sentence they will be pursuing. While all sides in a criminal trial are forced to share evidence during the discovery period, our familiarity within the Corpus Christi courts will make this process go much more smoothly. After meshing the facts you provided with whatever the police officer is claiming, we can plan the right strategy for obtaining the best possible resolution – either heading to court or negotiating a plea agreement. If you are not honest with your attorney, then he or she will be devising the wrong plan of attack, dooming your future. No matter how we proceed with your case, we will make certain that you are kept informed of all changes in your case’s status.

Types of DWI Cases

Given the right set of facts, an experienced Corpus Christi drunken driving lawyer can deliver a not guilty verdict, but we won’t know if that is viable in your case until you’ve called us to discuss your situation. We don’t want you to think, however, that you don’t need to worry about the various types of DWI offenses and the corresponding punishments assigned to them.

Unfortunately, you’re personally aware by now that it’s against the law to operate a motor vehicle in the United States while legally intoxicated. However, do you know how intoxication is defined? In conjunction with drunken driving offenses, the laws in the Lone Star have two different definitions of “intoxicated:” when the driver’s blood alcohol concentration (BAC) exceeds .08 percent, or when the driver has lost “normal mental and physical abilities,” after drinking too much alcohol or using illegal drugs.

By far the more subjective of the two definitions of intoxicated, the latter explanation has come to refer not to what is normal for an average human but was is normal for the specific driver who is suspected of a DWI. You’re probably asking this question before we even point it out. How can the police officer possibly know what is normal for the driver whom he or she has presumably never met?

Perhaps you can comprehend now why police focus on securing a BAC test. The ambiguity of the second definition is too great to be relied upon, and law enforcement agencies insist their officers collect more reliable proof. The other reason a BAC test is important is because it helps establish one of the fines owed by the driver. In order to reinstate and keep active a driver’s license that has been suspended for a drunken driving offense, a driver must pay an annual surcharge for three years. For someone who has recorded a BAC while driving greater than .16 percent, this surcharge is $2,000 per year for three years, but it’s only $1,000 per year for someone who had a documented BAC less than .16 percent but still over the legal limit.

If you were arrested for a drunken driving offense with or without a BAC test, the Corpus Christi DWI attorneys at Grossman Law Offices, our Austin DWI attorneys will help you secure the best possible resolution to your case.

Texas DWI Penalties

As we’ve already told you, the sentence applied to a convicted DWI defendant will be based both upon his or her prior DWI history and the harm inflicted upon others by the offense. We’d like to provide you with the following list of the different crimes and punishments:

First-time DWI

When you are convicted of a first DWI offense, it’s a Class B misdemeanor that can be punished with a maximum jail sentence of 180 days, a driver’s license suspension of ranging from 90 days to a year, and a maximum fine of $2,000. If the person's BAC (blood alcohol concentration) is at or above .15%, the charge is automatically bumped up to a Class A misdemeanor.

Second-time DWI

A second DWI conviction upgrades to a Class A misdemeanor, carrying a maximum jail sentence of one year, a fine as high as $4,000, and suspension of the driver’s license for two years.

Third-time DWI

If the driver doesn’t learn his or her lesson, the punishment gets far more severe upon a third DWI conviction. Anyone convicted of this 3rd-degree felony can be sentenced to as long as 10 years in prison, fined as high as $10,000, and stripped of a standard driver’s license for up to two years.

Open Containers

When a driver is pulled over for drunken driving while transporting an open container of alcohol, the driver’s sentence only becomes more severe. Any DWI conviction that was accompanied by an open container conviction will have an added minimum of six days to the jail sentence and an additional fine of $2,000.

Driver’s License Surcharges

As we’ve already alluded earlier, the court ordered fine will not be the only price you have to pay if you plan on driving again after a DWI. In order to get your driver’s license back after it has been suspended, you will need to pay an annual surcharge for three years. If the convicted DWI offender had a BAC between .08 percent and .16 percent, then the surcharge is $1,000 per year. However, that amount rises to $2,000 in the event the driver’s BAC was over .16 percent. These fines can become overwhelming if a driver accumulates more than one DWI in a three-year period, for such a driver will be expected to pay multiple surcharges simultaneously and the surcharges increase each time -- $1,500 for a second DWI and $2,000 for a third. If someone drives irresponsibly on multiple occasions, they could end up paying as much as $5,000 per year.

Intoxication Assault

Once someone is injured in a drunken driving accident, the punishments and fine trend upward very quickly due to the fact that the state wants to place a premium on the safety of the public. Thus, if you are convicted of injuring someone in a drunken driving accident, then that’s a 3rd-degree felony known as intoxication assault, carrying a fine of $10,000 and a jail term ranging from two to 10 years.

Intoxication Manslaughter

There is very little argument about which DWI offense causes the greatest harm and thus receives the stiffest punishments: intoxication manslaughter. When a driver is convicted of killing someone in a drunken driving accident, then he or she has committed a 2nd-degree felony, which can be punished by as long as 20 years in prison and as high as a $10,000 fine.

Community Supervision

While prison sentences are always possible when convicted of any drunken driving offenses, only intoxication assault and intoxication manslaughter carry mandatory jail terms. Most other DWI offense will result only in a community supervision period. For intoxication assault, the convicted DWI offense will be required to spend 30 days in prison, and that mandatory sentence increases to 120 days for intoxication manslaughter. Additionally, someone convicted of intoxication assault is completely barred from probation.

By no means is probation something that you would volunteer to do, but most people consider it a significant upgrade from spending even a few days in prison. When you are put on a community supervision program, the court will give you a number of requirements that you must fulfill for a mandated period of time. You will be required to meet with a probation officer regularly and pay a monthly fee of $50 for the privilege. At first, you will need to meet with the probation officer every month, but as you build a rapport with your probation officer you may be able to submit reports by mail for some months – that will be at the officer’s discretion. Your probation officer will want to confirm that you are meeting the other terms of your probation: abstinence from alcohol and law-breaking, taking alcohol education classes within the required period of time, working all mandated community service time, and paying all fees and fines as scheduled. During your probation, your probation officer may also require you to submit to urine testing to confirm that you are abstaining from drinking. If there were drugs involved with your DWI offense, then the likelihood of your being regularly drug tested while on probation is very high.

Drivers who have been convicted of more than one DWI in the last 10 years will be ordered to outfit their cars with interlock devices, but this is not a concern for first-time DWI convicts. An interlock device attaches to the ignition system, and the car will not start unless the driver supplies an alcohol-free breath sample by blowing into the device. If the driver has a measurable amount of alcohol on his or her breath, the car locks down and will not restart for two hours. Moreover, the probation officer will be notified of the failed ignition, and the driver cannot legally drive any vehicle that is not outfitted with an interlock device. Even if the driver complies with probation and never fails an interlock device, they’ll still be embarrassed when friends or co-workers watch them blow into their ignition and reminded of the painful BAC test that got them into this trouble.

Only rarely can a DWI be expunged from your record, so anyone found guilty will carry around the conviction forever. Even in the rare event that a drunken driving conviction can be expunged from the driver’s record, the DPS still keeps a record of the offense, negatively affecting insurance rates for years to come.

With your future at stake, you must secure the assistance of a knowledgeable and seasoned Corpus Christi DWI attorney who can help you attain the best possible outcome to your legal situation. At Grossman Law Offices, we’ve dealt with some many different types of DWI cases in the past two decades that we will know what to do in your case no matter what the circumstances. If the details simply won’t merit a full acquittal, then we can still help you limit the damage to your life, your future, and your reputation.

DWI Plea Bargains vs. Jury Trials and Other Options

Unless our Corpus Christi drunken driving attorneys know all of the details of your case, we can’t begin to devise a plan of attack. This is why it’s absolutely essential you are honest with your attorney. If your lawyer is basing his or her trial strategy upon false facts, then that is a recipe for disaster in a court of law. In some cases, we will come to the conclusion that the traffic stop was not just, or your rights were violated in some way calling the validity of the evidence into question. In that event, we will want to go to court and force an acquittal. If the evidence is completely insufficient, we’re often capable of convincing the prosecution to drop the charges.

However, don’t get too excited. In only the rarest occasions does the prosecution drop its charges, for most police officers in this state do an excellent job of gathering evidence by following the time-tested procedures developed by Texas law enforcement agencies. Most of the time, their evidence-gathering techniques are infallible. They know how to position their vehicles to allow its video system to record the entire traffic stop. They will question the suspect and see if there is reason to suspect he or she may be intoxicated. If so, the office will ask for a field sobriety test. If the driver does poorly or refuses the roadside sobriety test, the office will ask the driver to perform a breathalyzer test. Refusing the breathalyzer test results in an arrest, but so does failing one. Even though breathalyzer test results are questionable and can be challenged in court, it may be in your best interest to negotiate a plea bargain if you’ve failed one. If you failed a blood test, then you very well should be thinking seriously about a plea agreement. Even though it’s possibly to fight these in courts, you must overcome the naturally harsh attitude most people take toward drunken drivers.

When you attempt to beat these charges in court and fail, the jury will likely give you a much harsher sentence than the prosecutor would have allowed for a plea agreement. In order to get the state to allow you deferred adjudication, a shorter probation period, and less fines, then you must enter into a plea bargain situation.

Blood Alcohol Concentration in Texas DWI Cases

Before you ever looked up this website or were even pulled over under suspicion of a DWI, you probably already knew that a blood alcohol concentration of .08 percent is the legal level of intoxication in the state of Texas and all other states in the nation. However, why has this level been chosen? Is it just some arbitrary limit? No, BAC measures the amount of alcohol in the blood stream, and .08 percent BAC has been scientifically proven to be the point at which both physical and mental ability becomes impaired. Texas law enforcement officers use one of three methods for determining BAC:

1. Detecting the amount of grams of alcohol per 210 liters of breath.
2. Detecting the amount of grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.
3. Detecting the amount of grams of alcohol per 67 milliliters of urine.

Once someone has been drinking heavily, it’s virtually impossible for him or her to keep an accurate track of whether or not he or she has reached the legal level of intoxication. Without a doubt, BAC tests are more reliable than trying to perform a mathematical equation to calculate your BAC by taking into account your weight and the drinks consumed. However, no BAC test is going to be 100 percent accurate all of the time because they all base their formulas on what is normal for an average person. When tested by one method, a person of a certain body chemistry could have a higher or lower BAC than if he or she tested by another method. Also, it’s important to keep in mind that a police officer doesn’t need a BAC test to arrest a suspect for DWI. While not making for a very strong case in court, a suspect can technically be arrested based upon a police officer’s belief that the person no longer has normal mental and physical abilities due to overconsumption of alcohol and/or drugs.

Breathalyzer Inaccuracies

Creating an even bigger problem for the accuracy of BAC testing, there’s usually quite a long amount of time between the point at which a driver is stopped and the point at which he or she undertakes a BAC test. This delay can often be between 45 and 90 minutes, depending upon the situation. However, to be found guilty, you must be proven to have been intoxicated while you were driving – not an hour later.

In the greater scheme of things, an hour might not seem very important, but when it comes to BAC testing, it could be critical. During the interim, the body is at work, processing this alcohol. The rate which the alcohol enters and then passes through the system depends upon a number of factors: the driver’s weight, the amount of food he or she ate before drinking, the different types of alcohol consumed, and whether or not the driver compounded the effects of the alcohol by using drugs. While it might be bizarre to initially conceive, the delay before a BAC can throw off the suspect’s results both in his or her favor or the prosecution’s. Let us explain. You could be pulled over with a BAC of .09 percent, but you request a blood test. You stopped drinking well before driving home, so in the amount of time it takes you to be taken to the police station, your BAC drops to .07 percent, leading to no DWI charges being filed against you. However, you could have had a BAC of .07 percent when you were stopped, but still had alcohol sloshing around in your stomach. As the hour passed before being given a BAC test, your stomach digested the booze, causing your BAC to rise to .08 percent. In one instance, you can get off Scott free when you were intoxicated at the time of the stop, and in the other, you are charged with a DWI despite being technically sober while you were driving.

When you consult with a clever, trial-tested Corpus Christi DWI attorney, he or she can determine whether or not the elapsed time before your BAC test could be called into question. At Grossman Law Offices, we will make certain the jury is informed of any suspect BAC results.

Texas DWI Testing Procedures

Unfortunately, the amount of time that elapses before a BAC test is administered is not the only drawback with these tests. Blood tests are far and away the most accurate form of BAC testing, and they allow for the blood to be stored and retested to confirm the reliability of the tests. On the other hand, blood tests cannot safely be administered in the field, so they often have the longest amount of time elapsed before testing, brining the test’s reliability into question. Of course, breathalyzers are far less accurate, but they are portable and can be given in the field with ease by any law enforcement officer.

Sadly, the state of Texas’ choice of breathalyzers, the Intoxilyzer 5000, doesn’t detract from the concerns regarding the viability of these machines. The Intoxilyzer estimates BAC by using an infrared light detection system, but its computer technology is 30 years old. Anyone who has attempted to use a computer that is older than 10 years can see the problem with relying on the Intoxilyzer 5000.

Those concerns are soon confirmed with stories of the Intoxilyzer 5000 mistaking common substances on the breath, like mouthwash, for alcohol. Although, the biggest point of contention with the Intoxilyzer 5000 comes with the way it relies upon the average blood to breath ratio of 2,100/1 in order to make its calculations. It’s possible for a human being to have a blood to breath ratio differing from the norm by as much as 1,000 parts either up or down. An abnormally high blood to breath ratio will result in an inaccurately low BAC test and vice versa for an abnormally low blood to breath ratio.

Magnifying concerns with the Intoxilyzer 5000, the manufacturing company refuses to guarantee the findings of its machine, and only law enforcement agencies are permitted to test its accuracy.

What’s truly frustrating about the Intoxilyzer’s credibility is that it could easily be assuaged if the machine were used to its full capability. The Intoxilyzer is equipped with the ability to store any breath samples, allowing for a more accurate test, called a gas chromatographer to be performed at a later time. Despite the improved accuracy that this test would give to the BAC testing, the Texas Department of Public Safety does not require law enforcement officers to store the breath samples, nor does it require the performance of a gas chromatography test. Should the DPS do so, then it would only be allowing for the chance that BAC tests will be revealed to be faulty, causing cases to be overturned.

If you have failed a BAC test, leading to your arrest on a DWI charge, then don’t automatically assume your case is doomed. One of our skilled Corpus Christi DWI lawyers at Grossman Law Offices may still be able to question the reliability of your BAC test.

Your Rights in a DWI Case

If you’re stopped by a police officer who suspects you’ve been drinking, don’t get angry or panic – whether or not you’ve been drinking. The law enforcement officer who stopped your car is just doing what he or she has been trained to do. Be polite and remain calm, because losing your cool or your temper is only going to make things worse. You will be asked a line of questioning as the police officer attempts to determine whether or not you are sober or intoxicated. If you admit to drinking or appear intoxicated when answering the questions, then you will be asked to take a roadside sobriety test. However, you’re not forced to take these tests because they’re designed to determine when a person ha lost his or her normal mental and physical abilities. Should you have reason to believe you could not normally pass the field sobriety test, then you are permitted to decline taking the test. Someone with dyslexia, for instance, will not be able to say the alphabet backward while standing on one foot, so he or she has every right to refuse to do so.

Refusing the roadside sobriety test, on the other hand, doesn’t get the driver out of taking one, but will only result in a request to take another form of test. If the driver repeatedly declines to take roadside tests, then he or she will look very guilty on the videotape. Moreover, the officer will eventually ask the driver to take a breathalyzer test after repeated refusals. Since the accuracy of breathalyzer tests is so poor, anyone can refuse to take one, but this will result in the driver’ immediate arrest and suspension of his or her driver’s license. Once the suspected drunken driver has been taken to the police station, he or she can opt for a more reliable blood test. If the suspect declines this blood test, then the officer will attempt to get a warrant to take the blood against the driver’s will. Due to the timing of most DWI offenses, though, warrants often take so much time to get that the driver is no longer intoxicated at the time the test is administered.

Of importance, some jurisdictions won’t always need to waste time trying to acquire a warrant for a BAC. When it comes to holiday weekends when drinking is more common like New Year’s Eve, Independence Day, Labor Day, Christmas, and Thanksgiving judges in many Texas counties sign warrants preauthorizing police officers to extract blood from DWI suspects. All an officer needs to do is add the suspect’s specifics, and the warrant is perfectly legal. When stopped under suspicion of drunken driving while passing through one of these jurisdictions, you will have your blood tested no matter what you think about it. For someone who has been using drugs in addition to alcohol, a blood test will confirm this; whereas, it would go undetected on a breathalyzer.

Regardless of why a police officer in Nueces County decided you needed to be charged with a DWI – a refused BAC test or a failed one – only a skilled and experienced Corpus Christi DWI attorney gives you the best chance of fighting the charges. If there is any question at all about the validity of the evidence gathered against you, our Corpus Christi drunken driving attorneys at Grossman Law Offices will make certain the jury never sees it.

More on Texas Intoxication Assault and Manslaughter Charges

For more than obvious reasons, most people view intoxication assault and intoxication manslaughter in an extremely negative light. In order to win an acquittal, the defendant is working uphill to begin. On top of that, the prosecution doesn’t need to show any ill intentions by the defendant, only that he or she was drunk and somebody was hurt or killed in an accident involving the intoxicated driver. Making it ever easier for the prosecution to secure a conviction, police are permitted to conduct blood tests on anyone suspected of intoxicated assault or intoxicated manslaughter. As we’ve already informed you, the price to pay for these crimes is very steep. Anyone convicted of intoxication assault is guaranteed at least 30 days in prison and as many as 10 years, while someone found guilty of intoxication manslaughter will spend at least 120 days in prison and perhaps as long as 20 years. Maximum fines for both offenses are $10,000.

Perhaps you’ve heard of the old saying, “a person who represents himself in court has a fool for a client.” This is never truer than when you are facing the prospect of 20 years in prison and a black mark on your record and reputation forever. Only a Corpus Christi DWI lawyer who has spent years in the Nueces County courts litigating drunken driving cases can give you the help you need.

Minors Under 21 DWI & DUI

When the driver in question is under the age of 21, he or she is considered a minor, altering the laws regarding drunken driving a great deal. While Americans are generally considered to be adults at 18, this is not the case with any laws involving alcohol in which 21 is the legal drinking age. Barred from imbibing any alcohol whatsoever, these minors cannot be caught behind the wheel with so much as a drop of alcohol in their systems or they can be charged with Driving Under the Influence (DUI). If you were woken up late at night because your teenager received a DUI, or if you received one yourself, then you need the assistance of a Corpus Christi DWI lawyers whom you can trust.

While facing greater restrictions in what they can drink, minors still have the same results when being questioned during a DUI stop as an adult does during DWI questioning. They can refuse to take roadside sobriety of breathalyzers, and just like adults they must pay a price for doing so. Since driving is considered a privilege and not a right by the state of Texas, minors can lose their driver’s licenses for refusing a breathalyzer test – a maximum of 120 days for a first-time offense and 240 days for a second. Failing a breathalyzer for a first-time DUI, conversely, only results in a driver’s license suspension of 60 days. Minors have little to gain by refusing a breathalyzer. While an adult can hope his or her BAC drops below the level of intoxication before a blood test is administered, minors who have been drinking are going to test positive for having at least some amount of alcohol in circulation. By agreeing to take a breathalyzer on a first offense, a minor could be cutting a potential license suspension in half. This is not true for repeat offenders, however, the license will be suspended for a full year following a failed breath test for a second DUI conviction.

In order to deal with habitual offenders, the courts have the discretion of stripping a driver’s license from a minor who is suspected of being an alcoholic until this minor turns 21. In rare cases where drugs and/or alcohol appear to be serious problems, the court can even mandate rehabilitation.

Of course, minors can also receive DWIs if they are found to be driving with a BAC above .08 percent. While not considered an adult in order to drink, any minor who is older than 17 is treated like an adult in court and could be jailed for a maximum of 180 days or fined as much as $2,000 for a first DWI conviction. Any minor under 17 can be incarcerated in juvenile detention for a DWI conviction.

First-time DUI

Though not nearly as severe as a DWI, a first-time DUI is still serious, classified as a Class C misdemeanor. There is no jail time for a conviction, but the minor will have to work 20-40 hours of community service and take alcohol and DWI awareness classes that his or her parents might be required to attend, as well. The minor’s parents will definitely have to accompany him or her to the trial for every appearance. Being the first offense, an initial DUI does offer the advantage of being the one of the only drunken driving offenses that can be completing expunged from the record. By completing the allotted community supervision period, a minor who has been given deferred adjudication can then apply to have the conviction removed from his or her record upon his or her 21st birthday.

Second-time DUI

The major difference between a second DUI and a first is that the second can no longer be expunged from the minor’s record. Additionally, community services hours are increased to 60 hours, and the driver’s license suspension is extended. Though not permitted to expunge the arrest, minors are still eligible for deferred adjudication for a second DUI conviction.

Third-time DUI

Once a minor has been convicted of a third DUI, deferred adjudication is no longer an option. This Class B misdemeanor can be punished with up to 180 days in jail and a fine of $500-$2,000 if the minor is 17-years-old or older. However, probation is far more likely.

If someone in your family hadn’t already made some bad decisions, then you wouldn’t be reading this paragraph right now. Don’t compound the problem you or your teenager has gotten into by foolishly attempting to handle your own case or by hiring an inexperienced lawyer whom you can’t trust. Only a Corpus Christi DWI attorney who’s mastered the drunken driving laws and the nuances of the Nueces County courts can deliver the results you need.

Texas DWI & Child Endangerment

While an adult’s decisions are impaired by alcohol, he or she still controls his or her fate when he or she decides to get in a car while intoxicated. Children, on the other hand, must go where their parents or guardians tell them to go. Since they cannot protect themselves against drunken driving adults, the state goes out of its way to aggressively pursue and punish people who drive drunk with children in the car. In fact, the state of Texas calls this crime DWI with a minor in the vehicle and treats this state felony like a form of child endangerment, punishing convicted offenders almost as severely as for intoxication assault – a fine of as much as $10,000 and a maximum prison sentence of two years. Police are given more leeway by their superiors to arrest people suspected of DWI with a minor without even conducting a BAC test for the sole purpose of protecting the children from harm. Often times, DWI with a minor comes with a far greater punishment than what is dole out by the criminal court. Single parents could end up losing custody to an ex-husband or wife, and it’s possible child protective services could get involved and implode your family.

With the future of your family at stake, you need to trust your case to trial-tested and skilled Corpus Christi DWI attorney who has experience in the Nueces County courts. You will need to find an attorney who can call the judgment of the police officer or the accuracy of the BAC test into question. At Grossman Law Offices, we may be able to hold your family together by proving that your children were out of harms way at the time of your arrest.

ALR Hearing After a DWI

Like you’ve already learned, a driver’s license will be revoked after he or she rejects a breathalyzer test. The arresting officer will literally confiscate the license on the spot, issuing a 40-day provisional license to the driver until the matter can be settled in court.

In the next few weeks, the driver will receive notification by mail that his or her license has been revoked, and this then gives the driver 15 days to officially ask for an Administrative License Revocation Hearing (or an ALR hearing). At this hearing, the driver’s lawyer can contest the suspension and try to reinstate the license.

Due to the over-crowded court system, the 40-day provisional period usually subsides before the ALR hearing can be scheduled, so the temporary license is automatically good until the ALR hearing takes place. If you win the ALR hearing, then your license is reinstated. Someone who loses the ALR hearing has 30 days in which to file an appeal, during which the provisional license is again extended – this time for 90 days. Winning at trial also ends the license suspension.

You shouldn’t throw up your hands and surrender if your driver’s license has been suspended due to a DWI or DUI. Our crafty Austin DWI lawyers at Grossman Law Offices can likely do something to improve your situation.

Occupational Driver's Licenses

Even after your license has been suspended and your ARL hearing has been denied, that doesn’t mean you will necessarily be walking everywhere. You can still get back behind the wheel if your lawyer can help you obtain an Occupational Driver’s License. Even the state must admit that public transportation is downright woeful in Corpus Christi. In order to be able to get to work or school or take care of the kids, most people in Nueces County need to be able to drive. Thus, drunken driving convicts who have lost their licenses can apply for an Occupational Driver’s License (ODL), which allows for limited driving. The driver must keep track of every trip in a log, recording the date, time departed, time returned, intended destination, and total miles driven.

Furthermore, an ODL is expensive, and the application process is trying, as it must be done by the parameters the court has supplied. A legal brief must be prepared detailing the crime committed, the need for the ODL, and all of the counties for which the license will be needed. Driving privileges will be confined to the state and usually limited greatly within the state. If you need an ODL, then you can’t risk the possibility that you will incorrectly apply for it, excluding you from receiving the license. You need the help of an experienced Corpus Christi drunken driving attorney to guarantee you get an ODL, so contact Grossman Law Offices.

Differences Between Public Intoxication and DWI

While both DWI and public intoxication (P.I.) involve the use of drugs and/or alcohol, the two crimes share very little in common beyond that – they don’t even have the same definition for the word intoxication. You know the definition of intoxication for DWI – when your BAC is higher than .08 percent or you’ve lost your normal mental and physical faculties. But for P.I., intoxication is deemed to be when a person’s level of inebriation has become a danger to him or herself or others.

When it comes to collecting evidence in a DWI stop, law enforcement officers all follow a time-tested method. But, officers are only trained to merely go with their instincts when determining who deserves to be cited for public intoxication, with that usually coming down to a judgment call.

Since someone committing public intoxication presents far less threat to the people around him or her than a drunken driving who is barreling down the highway in a 3-ton automobile, the law punishes P.I. far less stringently than drunken driving violations. Public intoxication is a fairly minor Class C misdemeanor, carrying only a $500 fine and no prison sentence. Moreover, unless you want to fight the charge, you don’t need an attorney to deal with public intoxication – only money to pay the fine. If you’ve been charged with some kind of DWI offense, then you must have the help of a Corpus Christi DWI attorney with experienced and know-how.

Your Rights When Suspected of a DWI

No matter what form of drunken driving violation with which you have been charged, you always have rights, but driving isn’t one of them. You have right to decline a BAC test, but this will result in the loss of your license. Without this law in place, anyone suspected of drunken driving could avoid prosecution by refusing the test. To the state of Texas, the problems inherent with the BAC tests themselves don’t overcome the necessity to keep our roads safe. The prosecution can even present a refused BAC test as evidence against a driver. On the other hand, failing a BAC test only results in a 90-day license suspension, and a savvy Corpus Christi DWI lawyer may be able to convince the jury to disregard the results of the BAC test due to accuracy concerns.

No matter what you decide to do when stopped under suspicion of a DWI, you’re being watched by the police officer and recorded by the surveillance equipment in his or her cruiser. The more intoxicated you appear, the stronger evidence the prosecution has against you.

Despite your preconceptions, you don’t have the right to attorney while you’re sitting on the side of the road with blue and red lights flashing in your rearview mirror. Criminals only have the “right to attorney” when they’re being interrogated. DWI traffic stops are not considered interrogations. On the other hand, if you fear you may incriminate yourself, you do have the “right to remain silent.” You scan stare blankly back at the police officer and ignore his or her questions. While this limit the evidence for the state, it will also infuriate the officer who will definitely respond by doing whatever he or she can to ensure you are convicted.

Grossman Law Offices Can Help

Twenty years ago, Michael Grossman started Grossman Law Offices, because he wanted to help people in trouble. In the past two decades, our firm has steadily grown, as our Corpus Christi DWI attorneys have accumulated massive hours in court litigating DWI cases, allowing us to become familiar with all types of cases and the procedures of the Nueces County courts. We don’t guarantee victory, because that would be foolhardy before discovering the details of your case. We will guarantee that we will devote our complete knowledge, resources, and attention to every case. We will figure out what the best viable outcome to your case can be, and we will do whatever we can to help you attain that end.

If you’re a teenager who got pulled over after drinking just one margarita, or you’re a mother of three who got pulled over with the kids in the car after having two martinis at dinner, or you refused to take a BAC test, or even if you harmed someone in a drunken accident, then we can help you. Call us now to benefit from the years of experienced of our team of Corpus Christi DWI attorneys at 1-855-427-0000 (toll free). We offer a confidential and complimentary consultation that gives you a chance to explain your story to someone who wants to help and can. You can ask any questions you have, and then we will explain your legal options, answer your queries and tell you how we can be of assistance. You won’t find the best resolution possible with the best lawyer you can find.