Round Rock DWI Lawyer

If You've Been Arrested for Driving Under the Influence in Round Rock or Georgetown Texas, Call Criminal Defense Attorney Michael Grossman

Given its heavy population of single men and women, the Round Rock and Georgetown area is a very popular spot for people who like to party. As a consequence, police have been known to arrest more than their share of people suspected of driving while intoxicated.

As a matter of fact, the police in Round Rock and Georgetown are infamous for placing a mark on the back bumpers of cars that been parked outside of bars for extended periods, so another officer can spot possible DWI violators and pull him or her over for an allegedly random traffic stop. If you or a loved one has been arrested for a DWI in either Georgetown or Round Rock, then you will need the assistance of a knowledgeable and experienced attorney who can limit the negative repercussions. To secure the most favorable outcome possible, you will need someone who not only has spent enough time in the Travis and Williamson County courts to have developed a familiarity with system, but also someone whose reputation is known and accepted among the prosecutors. It is in your best interests to have someone capable of greasing the squeaky wheel of justice. Granted, any attorney whom you hire will be happy to take payment for his or her services and then just walk you through the legal process, doing nothing more to help you than praying for leniency. At Grossman Law Offices, Michael Grossman and his team of Round Rock and Georgetown DWI attorneys realize that you are not just a paycheck to us. We will treat your case with care because it matters to you, devoting the full brunt of our knowledge, energy, and time to securing the best viable solution to your situation.

A DWI conviction presents a far greater threat than simply the possibility that you will have to pay fines, lose your license, and perhaps even spend time in prison. In addition, a DWI conviction could affect your reputation and your ability to keep the job you have now or make it difficult to find a better position in the future. You need to take this DWI charge against you utterly seriously and secure the council of a skilled DWI lawyer, or you will most definitely regret your inaction later. At Grossman Law Offices, our team of Georgetown and Round Rock DWI attorneys has spent the past two decades helping others who have been accused of DWI in the Round Rock and Georgetown area, the rest of Williamson and Travis Counties, and all over the state of Texas. We have perfected the learning curve so that people like you can benefit. Call us now for a free consultation at 1-855-427-0000 (toll free) to discuss your legal situation confidentially with one of our DWI experts. You can ask questions about your DWI situation, or you could just listen to what we have to say about your different legal options. We will be happy to clarify any legal principles you do not understand, and we will discuss your legal alternatives to determine how we can help you find a workable solution to your case.

First and foremost, we here at Grossman Law Offices understand that an informed defendant is best prepared to deal with his or her legal situation. To help prepare you, we are presenting you with this information article which is designed to clear up the many misconceptions most people have about DWI laws and procedures. Only a knowledgeable defendant can choose the correct path for securing the resolution which he or she desires. We hope you read this article and gain a better understanding of both the generalities of the legal system and the specifics of Texas DWI laws. It is our hope that you feel more at ease with this frightening situation in which you have gotten yourself into after you have read more and gained a better understanding of DWI.

A Different Kind of Criminal

The first thing we want you to understand about DWI law is that the nature of the criminal varies from most other violators of the law. People who commit DWI are simply common everyday citizens who make a critical mistake. These people are not hardened premeditated criminals such as someone who would rob a liquor store. People who are intoxicated actually lack the ability to determine whether or not they are drunk, because on top of impairing physical ability, drinking too much alcohol actually affects a person's ability to make rational decisions. It is a logical but vicious circle that can lead to anyone making the mistake of drinking and driving. Unfortunately, even given this fact, the state still treats anyone who has committed a DWI as if they were a criminal. Everyone who is convicted will have to pay fines and will lose their driver's license; in addition, they could be sent to prison. Without a Round Rock and Georgetown DWI attorney, you will not just likely hear your verdict of "guilty", but you will also see a much stiffer penalty than another person who committed the same offense but chose to find savvy representation.

Understanding Basics of Criminal Law

Obviously, we cannot begin to explain the specifics of DWI laws until you have gained a better understanding of the criminal law in general. Our Constitution lays out certain rights afforded to all citizens of this country, particularly in its first ten amendments known as the Bill of Rights. The state must prove you are guilty no matter what crime with which you have been charged, and the police must conduct the arrest and their investigation in such a way as to respect your rights.

With that being said, any local governing body (be it a state, city, village, county, or town) has the right to rule itself with its own laws, as long as those laws do not conflict with the constitutional rights guaranteed to all the citizens of our country. To give you a better understanding of this concept, let us take a look at the laws governing the use of cell phones. Practically every community in Texas has outlawed the use of cell phones within school zones. Some communities have now banned texting while driving, and other communities have altogether banned the use of hand held cell phones while driving. Until texting is a constitutionally guaranteed right, each community can decide how it wants to address the use of cell phones while driving, and has the right to set its own fines for violating their laws. If you receive a ticket for texting and driving in a locale where it is illegal, then you will have to go to the corresponding court either to pay the applicable fine or to request a court date to fight the ticket.

The more serious crimes such as hijacking a plane or kidnapping an individual will go to trial in the federal court system. In federal offenses, justice is not confined by any geographical limitations in this country.

Each court, regardless of its location, will have its own personality which is unique to their region with distinct procedures and rules which must be followed. While every court is set up to dispense justice, every judge has his or her own methods of handling cases, and each jurisdiction reflects both the judge’s personality as well as that of the surrounding community. To understand this concept, think about the restaurant chain IHOP. There are IHOPs from coast-to-coast, and while they are all similar, they are also not exactly the same. The layout of the restaurants will be different, one menu might have regional specialties, the service will not always be consistent, and even the pancakes may not taste exactly the same from one location to another due to the different cooks manning the kitchens. When it comes to DWI, courts are much the same – the procedures which the court follows will change from one community to another and so will the punishments. In order to stand the best chance of obtaining the end result you desire, you will need a Round Rock and Georgetown DWI attorney who is familiar with the courts and the prosecutors who try cases there.

When someone is found guilty of DWI, he or she will be facing the prospects of tremendous financial losses in the way of fines, loss of traveling freedom with the suspension of his or her license, damage to his or her reputation, and even the possibility of completely losing his or her freedom in the form of jail time. While everyone in this country is afforded the right to a jury trial, in most DWI cases, the defendant would be much better off by arranging for a plea bargain with the prosecution. The fact of the matter is that both the defendant and the prosecution in a DWI trial stand to gain substantially by coming to a plea agreement. At this point, you are well aware of what you have to lose in the way of your freedom, your money, and your license to drive. However, the prosecution has something to lose as well, albeit not as much the defendant. Even one loss on his record can get a prosecutor into trouble with his or her district attorney. Should they gain too many defeats, the prosecutor will be looking for a new job, and the district attorney will be looking for a new prosecutor. At least you have the right to secure an attorney of your own choosing to help decide the fate of your case. The prosecutor is stuck with the police officer who made the arrest and is completely dependent upon that officer having done his job correctly. If the police officer made a mistake in his or her methods of pulling a suspect over, in administering the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) test, or violated the rights of the defendant in any other way during the evidence gathering process, then the prosecutor will be desperate to work out a plea agreement to prevent a costly defeat in court. A skilled Georgetown and Round Rock DWI attorney may be able to get a breathalyzer excluded even when it was extracted legally, so the prosecution may be willing to offer a plea bargain even in such cases where the evidence is strongly in his favor. Most prosecutors see it as “a guaranteed win is almost always better than the uncertainty of a jury trial”.

How A Round Rock and Georgetown DWI Attorney Can Help You With Your Case

Many people may complain about the American justice system, but when it comes to the dispensing of punishment, at least the court system has the sense to provide some leeway in punishing violators according to the severity of the crime and the danger presented by the criminal. Thus, in cases involving crimes such as DWI, there is a wide range of possible punishments. For example, if someone has committed intoxication assault, he or she could be sentenced to between two and ten years in prison. Someone who has been convicted of previous DWI offenses may be given the maximum penalty, while someone who is only committing a first offense may be given a shorter prison term. You need an attorney who is capable of making the courts see you for who you are, or the prosecution will seek the maximum penalty against you.

With over twenty years in this business, the Georgetown and Round Rock attorneys at Grossman Law Offices know how to present evidence which will convince the Williamson and Travis County courts that you are someone who just made an honest mistake and pose no continued threat to the community. We will begin helping you by doing nothing more than simply listening to you. We want you to tell us your story about how you got your DWI, and we must insist on your being honest and forthright with us. The only way we can effectively represent you is if we know all of the facts, whether good or bad. Next, we will use the discovery phase to find out what evidence the prosecution has against you and what sentence they will seek. Granted, according to the law, the prosecution must share their evidence with your attorney. However, our familiarity with the prosecutors in our counties will help speed this process along. Once our attorneys can compare the prosecution's version of the facts with your version of reality, we can then begin to plan whether we will work for a plea agreement or what plan of attack we can use if we decide to take the case to court. This is why your honesty is so important, in order to allow us to devise a strategy based upon the facts of your case. We know how important this case is to you, so we also make sure that you are informed about any developments in your case as they arise.

DWI Plea Bargains vs. Jury Trials and Other Options

As we have just explained, your chances of securing the most advantageous result to your case depend heavily on your attorney being well informed. The only person you harm when you falsely change the facts is yourself. In some situations, your attorney may discover that the prosecution has very weak or very little evidence; you may want to take such a case to court to receive a not guilty verdict. In a best-case scenario, the state will realize that it just does not have enough evidence to prove its case and will drop the charges against you altogether.

However, only a few DWI cases in every thousand see the charges dropped. In chasing down drunken drivers over the course of many years, time-tested methods of gathering evidence have been mastered by most law enforcement agencies, and their police officers have been taught to religiously follow these procedures. Every officer knows to park his vehicle so that its video system will be able to catch the entire interaction with any DWI suspect. The video will capture the driver’s drunken antics as well as how he or she behaves in the field sobriety tests which the officer makes the driver take. Should the driver refuse the field sobriety test or not perform well on the test, then the officer will ask the driver to take a breathalyzer. When you take the natural inclinations of the judge and jurors to frown upon drunk drivers and add to it whatever evidence the state has against you for failing or refusing a BAC test, then you have more than adequate incentive to work out a plea bargain with the prosecutor.

You should rest assured that a plea bargain usually results in a much lighter sentence than if you waste the court's time and the court's money by insisting on a jury trial. If you arrange for a plea agreement, you are far more likely to be granted deferred adjudication. Such a deferred adjudication agreement will allow for the charges to be dropped from your record after completion of your court ordered community supervised probation.

Also, keep in mind: there is very little point in having an attorney if you are not going to be honest and give him or her the chance to give to you the best defense possible.

Types of DWI Cases

Even though it is not easy for the defendant to prevail in a DWI case, it is not impossible to secure an acquittal if you have the combination of the facts coupled with a clever Round Rock and Georgetown DWI attorney on your side. In order for you to get a better understanding of what outcome your situation may warrant, we want to explain a little bit more about the various types of DWI cases.

You have probably heard that it is against the law to operate a motor vehicle while intoxicated anywhere in the United States, unless of course you have been raised under a rock in a dry county. So what does it mean to be intoxicated in the eyes of the law? When it comes to DWI offenses, the term "intoxicated" is defined in two different ways. First, when a driver's BAC has risen above the legal limit of .08 percent, or second, when the driver is so drunk or impaired by drugs or a combination of controlled substances that he or she has apparently lost "normal mental and physical" ability.

The first definition is concrete if you could not tell instinctively, and the second definition is highly debatable in a court of law. Common law has developed to see this second definition as meaning not what is normal for the average person, but what is normal only for the driver who was suspected of a DWI. You are probably wondering about the next logical question before we even ask it: how could any police officer who has never met the driver establish what that driver’s normal behavior should be?

Since the second standard is so vague, you can easily understand why law enforcement agencies have become dependent upon breathalyzers and blood tests as being much more reliable forms of evidence to prove drunken driving. The second standard is not only subjective in nature, but it also allows the driver to escape the full financial responsibility for his or her actions in some cases. If someone tests for a BAC higher than .16 percent, the annual surcharge he or she owes to maintain his or her driver's license is $2000 for three years. However, for a less severe drunken driving charge when the driver has a BAC between .08 percent and .16 percent, the annual surcharge is half that amount – only $1000 for three years.

So whether the foundation of the case against you was built on a BAC test of some kind or simply the police officer’s feeling that you were simply too drunk to care for your own safety or the safety of other drivers and pedestrians around you, the Georgetown and Round Rock drunken driving attorneys at Grossman Law Offices would help you obtain the most desirable solution in the event you have been charged with some form of a DWI offense.

Your Rights in a DWI Case

Hopefully you remembered to stay calm and not panic when you were pulled over by a police officer who suspected you of drunken driving. It does not make any sense to lose your temper, because the police officer is just doing his or her job. Losing your temper will only worsen your situation. The officer will ask you a few questions, and if he or she suspects you of drunken driving due to the answers you give to these questions, the police officer will ask you to step out of your car and undergo some roadside sobriety tests. Since one of the standards for driving while intoxicated is losing your normal mental and physical abilities, you have every right to refuse to take a field sobriety test that under normal circumstances you would not be able to pass. For example, say you were asked to stand on one leg and say the alphabet backwards, but you have a surgically repaired knee. More than likely you could not do this when 100 percent sober, so you have every right to refuse the test.

Before you decide to take this tactic, however, you should be aware that the police officer will only respond by suggesting that you take some other form of roadside sobriety test. Should you refuse all of the field sobriety examinations, then most police officers will demand you take a breathalyzer test. Due to the questionable reliability of a breathalyzer test, you do have the right to decline to take this test as

well, but there are immediate and serious negative consequences, as you may already know. Not only will the police officer put handcuffs on you the moment you decline the breathalyzer, but before you are even put in the cruiser and hauled off to the station, your driver's license will also be suspended. In many cases, if you refuse to take the blood test as well, the officer will attempt to get a warrant and have your blood tested against your will. Of course, most DWI offenses do not occur during business hours, so often it is hard to find a judge in order to produce the warrant.

Of particular importance, you should keep in mind that this tendency changes on certain holiday weekends. When New Year's Eve, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, or Labor Day roll around and an uncommonly high number of people crack open their bottles, certain judges will pre-authorize warrants which allow officers to have blood extracted for BAC testing without getting the consent of the suspect. Should you get pulled over on New Year's Day on your way back from a televised football game party, the chances are strong that your BAC is going to be tested. This is of particular importance to those people who use drugs in addition to alcohol. A breathalyzer test is not capable of detecting this violation of the law, but a blood test will, putting the driver into more trouble than he or she would have been had the driver simply relented to the breathalyzer.

Whether it was a blood test or a breathalyzer which you failed, or you were arrested for refusing to take any test at all, you definitely need an experienced and savvy Round Rock and Georgetown DWI attorney such as those at Grossman Law Offices to safeguard your rights and help make sure you get the best resolution possible for your situation. If the police officer did not follow proper procedures while gathering evidence against you, do not worry; we know how to convince the court to ignore that evidence.

Blood Alcohol Level in Texas DWI Cases

If you have received some form of drunken driving violation, then you probably already know more than you would like about blood alcohol concentration already. As we have discussed previously, when driving a car, the legal level of intoxication is .08 percent BAC. But do you understand that this means the fluid in your bloodstream is .08 percent alcohol? The reason why the federal government has lobbied so heavily to have every state in the union to recognize .08 percent BAC as the established standard for DWI is that scientific studies have found that this is the level at which are normal and physical abilities become impaired, which is, of course, the more vague definition of intoxication. BAC levels can be estimated using three methods:

• Measuring the amount of grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.
• Measuring the amount of grams of alcohol per 210 liters of breath.
• Measuring the amount of grams of alcohol per 67 milliliters of urine.

After reaching a level of intoxication, not even Stephen Hawking could calculate his own blood alcohol level as he continued to drink. More than likely the accepted forms of measuring BAC are more accurate that doing one's own math, but they are still quite flawed. In order to make their calculations, all of these methods rely upon formulas that are based on the norms for human beings in general and not off of your specific body chemistry. Because of this, you could come up with different BAC results when you take one test or another, and could be considered to be intoxicated when you are not, or legally sober when you are not. Even if you have not taken a BAC test, a police officer can still arrest you for suspected DWI. However, a prosecutor will have a tough time proving this case in court based merely upon the officer's assertion that your normal mental and physical abilities were impaired.

Breathalyzer Inaccuracies

The reliability of the BAC test comes even more into question when time passes between the crime and the examination. To secure a conviction, the state will need to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the defendant was not only intoxicated but also that he or she was drunk while actually behind the wheel. In most cases, a BAC test is not administered right away, and in many cases, the BAC test may not be given until an hour after the police officer pulled the driver over under the suspicion of a DWI. In the greater scheme of things, one hour may not seem like a terribly long time. But when it comes to measuring BAC, one hour might as well be an eternity. As time passes, so does the alcohol through the defendant’s system. The rate of absorption into the blood and removal from the body systems fluctuates depending upon the victim’s weight, how much he or she had eaten before drinking, and the speed of consumption, the types of alcohol consumed, and whether or not the driver had also been taking over the counter or illicit drugs. A BAC test could be unreliable both in favor of the defendant and of the prosecution. If the driver was intoxicated at the time of the traffic stop that had stopped drinking some time before getting into the car, then it is possible that he or she could process enough of the alcohol which was in his or her system out of the bloodstream in time to test below a BAC of .08 percent. By the same token, the driver may have been below a BAC of .08 percent when stopped and yet he or she had a belly full of recently consumed liquor. In this case, in the hour between being pulled over and being ministered a BAC test, the alcohol is consumed, causing the driver’s BAC to shoot past the intoxication point it was at before the test was given.

If the amount of time which elapsed between your traffic stop and your BAC test should call the accuracy of your test into question, then you need the help of a seasoned and experienced Round Rock DWI attorney to ensure that this evidence is excluded from your trial.

Texas DWI Testing Procedures

What makes the weaknesses of the current BAC testing difficult to handle is that blood tests are far more accurate than breathalyzers, even though blood tests allow for the sample to easily be kept for later retesting. However, since it is impractical to expect police officers to administer blood tests on the side of the road, there is always a lengthy period of time before these blood tests can be administered. As we have explained, delays in testing will affect the reliability of the test. While they are lacking the reliability of blood tests, breathalyzers have still become the chosen BAC test of Texas law enforcement agencies because they are portable and can be administered anywhere.

Law enforcement agencies in Texas prefer the Intoxilyzer 5000 which uses an infrared light detection system to estimate BAC by the amount of alcohol on the breath; unfortunately, this machine is based on woefully out of date 30-year-old technology. You do not still rely upon an electric typewriter to do your word processing, but Texas is still using similarly outdated technology for breathalyzers.

While this is not a common occurrence, instances have been known to occur in which the Intoxilyzer 5000 mistakes harmless substances for alcohol. The flawed method by which it measures BAC is a much more common glitch with this system. All of the Intoxilyzer's formulas to calculate BAC use the average blood to breath ratio of 2100/1. The problem with this system is that a person can have a blood to

breath ratio that differs from this average by as much as 1000 parts in either direction. Someone with an abnormally high blood to breath ratio would score a BAC far below what it actually was in reality, and someone with an abnormally low blood to breath ratio would have an abnormally high BAC.

Compounding these concerns, the manufacturer of the Intoxilyzer 5000 will not guarantee its reliability, and law enforcement agencies only will allow their officers to test using these machines.

On the other hand, if the Texas Department of Public safety altered its regulations, then the Intoxilyzer 5000 could be a much more accurate and reliable machine. There is a test called a gas chromatographer that is much more reliable than the breathalyzer. The Intoxilyzer 5000 has the ability to preserve breath samples until the more accurate gas chromatographer test can be administered. But in spite of these obvious advantages, the DPS refuses to mandate that law enforcement agencies preserve the breath samples and then conduct the gas chromatographer, realizing that if they did so, BAC tests that otherwise would have delivered convictions might be revealed to be incorrect, leading to acquittals.

Texas DWI Penalties

As we also mentioned earlier, Texas courts provide a significant amount of leeway when sentencing DWI offenders. The gravity of the punishment is determined by the defendant’s previous DWI history and the damage caused by the crime. Here is a list of some of the crimes with the according range of penalties and punitive measures:

• First Offense DWI: A first time DWI is a class B Misdemeanor. The court can sentence anyone convicted to a maximum of 180 days in jail, a $2000 fine, and a driver's license suspension of between 90 days and one year. If the person’s BAC is at or above .15 percent, the charge is automatically bumped up to a class A Misdemeanor.
• Second Offense DWI: When someone has been convicted of a second DWI offense, the crime is classified as a class A Misdemeanor, which is punishable with a maximum prison term of one year and a fine not to exceed $4000. In addition, the driver’s license could be revoked up to two years.
• Third Offense DWI: Upon receiving the third conviction, a drunken driver has committed a third-degree felony. He or she can be sent to prison for up to 10 years, fined up to $10,000 and will lose his or her license for as long as two years.
• Open Containers: The act of having an open container holding an alcoholic beverage in it in the vehicle when pulled over for drunken driving, a person guilty of DWI must have a minimum of six days added to his or her prison sentence and a maximum of $2000 added to his or her fines.
• Driver’s License Surcharges: Once you have merely paid the court ordered fines and fees, the fines are still not over. Should you want to drive again after your driver’s license revocation ends, you will need to pay a pricey surcharge for the next three years. If your BAC was less than .16 percent then the surcharge is $1000 per year. However, extremely intoxicated people with BACs over .16 percent at the time of their arrest must pay $2000 annually for three years. For second convictions, the surcharge is raised to $1500 for three years, and the price climbs another $500 per year for a third DWI. These fees can be particularly overwhelming when the crimes overlap, because the offender must pay them simultaneously. It is not unheard of for someone who has been convicted of multiple DWIs to have to pay upwards of $5000 per year just to maintain a driver’s license.
• Intoxication Assault: Punishments get far more severe for the more harm that is done by the drunken driver, since DWI penalties are designed with the public well-being in mind. When a drunken driver gets into an accident that resulted in someone else being injured, the driver has committed a third-degree felony and could be sentenced between two and 10 years in prison and be fined as much as $10,000.
• Intoxication Manslaughter: Quite frankly, there is no comparison – intoxication manslaughter is the most severe crime related to drunken driving. When someone dies in a car accident involving a driver who is intoxicated, then the drunken driver can be charged with this second degree felony and sentenced to as long as 20 years in prison as well as be fined as much as $10,000.
• Community Supervision: While all of these crimes can involve prison time, intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault are the only crimes that come with mandatory terms actually spent in prison – 30 days for intoxication assault and 120 days for intoxication manslaughter. Intoxication assault with a deadly weapon has no possibility of probation at all. Most people who are found guilty for most of these other DWI crimes plea-bargain into probation.

While probation is definitely preferable to a jail sentence, still it is not something you would aspire to do. A person sentenced to probation is given a certain amount of time in which his or her behavior will be monitored by a probation officer who is appointed by the community. The probation officer's job is to make sure that you follow all of the parameters of your probation. In Travis and Williamson counties, you must pay $50 per month as a supervision fee, and that is only the beginning of the requirements you must fulfill. You will also be required to meet with a probation officer every month at the beginning of your probationary period. If you fulfill all of your probationary mandates and build trust, then your probation officer may permit you to report once every couple of months in person, and mail in probationary reports when you do not have to appear in person. Some other things you will be expected to do in order to comply with your probation may include: abstaining from drinking any alcohol, fulfilling a prescribed amount of community service hours, pay all court fees and fines on time, not committing any crimes other than perhaps a traffic violation, and attending alcohol education classes. As another condition, you could be asked to take a urine test to confirm that you have not had anything to drink, although you will not be asked to do so every month. If your DWI incident also involved drug use or possession, then you will be more likely to be tested and will probably be tested more often.

The state will not install an interlock device on your car when you are convicted of a first DWI offense. However, multiple DWI convictions within 10 years will likely lead to this device being installed on your car’s ignition. The interlock device forces the driver to blow into it to confirm that he or she is sober before the car will start. If the driver has been drinking then the car will not start, and the device will not operate for another two hours before the driver can blow into it again. Moreover, the driver’s probation officer will be informed of the failed interlock test. Even when someone who has been convicted of multiple DWIs manages to remain sober and successfully start the interlock mechanism every time he or she tries, it is still an embarrassing situation. It is a painful reminder of the difficult situation in which the driver has gotten him or herself.

Unfortunately, only very rarely can DWI convictions be expunged from someone's record, so if you have been convicted of a DWI then you will never be able to escape what you have done. Even when it is possible to expunge a DWI, the conviction still remains on your driver’s license record, causing your insurance premiums to skyrocket for the next 10 years.

If you have been arrested for a DWI, then you need a Round Rock and Georgetown DWI attorney to protect your rights or you are taking unnecessary chances with your future. Over the course of the past two decades, the attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have handled all different types of DWI cases in Williamson and Travis counties. We have the knowledge, expertise, and skill to help you no matter what the conditions of your arrest.

Minors Under 21 DWI and DUI

The laws regarding driving and alcohol are completely different for someone who has not reached the legal drinking age of 21. Speaking for most laws, the age of 18 is the point at which a person becomes a legal adult; however, this is not the case when it comes to drinking and driving, where anyone under the age of 21 is considered a minor. No person under 21 years of age is permitted to legally drive a car after drinking any alcohol. A minor doing so is guilty of Driving Under the Influence (DUI).

Despite what you might think, driving is a privilege, not a right. If the breathalyzer discovers any level of alcohol in a minor’s system, then he or she will have his or her license suspended for 60 days. Even though they are minors, those under 21 still have legal rights when they are stopped under suspicion of DUI just as any other person does. Minors are not compelled to take roadside sobriety tests, but just like for adults, there is a price to pay for not doing so. Minors who are found to have had alcohol in their system when refusing a breathalyzer after drunken driving will have their license revoked for 120 days upon the first DUI and 240 days for a second DUI. In other words, if you are under 21 and have been drinking, then it might be a wise decision to agree to a breathalyzer test. This is not the same as the situation with a DWI where it is possible to lower your BAC with time; even an hour later, a blood test will still detect some alcohol in your system. You will be facing a second DUI conviction because a positive blood test will result in your driver's license being suspended for a year.

However, this is just the tip of the punishment iceberg, because any minor whom the court determines to be an alcoholic may lose his or her license permanently until he or she becomes a legal adult. In addition, such a minor or someone under 21 who is determined to have a drug problem which contributes to his or her tendency to accumulate DUIs may also be sent to court mandated rehabilitation.

While DUI is the most common drunken driving charge for minors, they can also be convicted of DWIs if they are found to have had a BAC over .08 percent when they were found behind the wheel. Minors who are 17 or older will face the same sentences as adults convicted of a DWI – a maximum sentence of 180 days in jail and a fine of $2000, plus any applicable surcharges required to reinstate their driver’s licenses. Minors who are younger than age 17 could be sent into juvenile detention for a DWI.

• First Offense DUI - While it is definitely not as serious as a DWI conviction, a first time DUI must be taken seriously. A first time DUI is a class C Misdemeanor which does not threaten jail time but does include plenty of community service, between 20 to 40 hours’ worth. Plus, the minor must take alcohol awareness classes, and he or she must be accompanied by his or her parents to every court appearance. In some situations, the minor’s parents will also be forced to take classes. On the other hand, minors who are convicted of DUIs for the first time are usually given the opportunity of deferred adjudication instead of a standard probation period. When the driver turns age 21 and has completed the terms of his or her probation, then his or her record is expunged.
• Second Offense DUI - Second DUI convictions differ from the first only in that the driver’s license is suspended longer than mentioned above, and community service hours are extended to 60 hours. Moreover, it is no longer an option to have your record expunged. In a second time DUI, the convicted minor may still enter a deferred adjudication agreement with the state.
• Third Offense DUI - When a third DUI is committed by a minor, the crime is upgraded to a class B Misdemeanor and deferred adjudication is no longer an option. If the minor is older than 17 years of age, this can be punishable with a prison sentence as long as 180 days and a fine of between $500 and $2000. As is the case with adults, however, the convicted minor is likely to be sentenced to probation instead of to prison.

In all likelihood, you would not have found this website and begun reading this article if you or your teenager had not already made a pretty big mistake. Do not make another mistake by foolishly attempting to deal with your legal situation on your own or by hiring an inexperienced lawyer who has no idea of what he is doing. You need a skilled and experienced DWI attorney such as those at Grossman Law Offices to limit the extent of the damage.

ALR Hearing After a DWI

Whether an adult or a minor, anyone refusing to take a breathalyzer test will have his or her license immediately revoked. However, the arresting officer must issue the suspect a provisional driver's license which is good for 40 days in order to give the defendant the chance to challenge the suspension.

Once your license has been suspended for refusing a breathalyzer, you will receive notification by mail. You are then afforded 15 days to submit a request for an Administrative License Revocation Hearing (or an ALR hearing). Should you fail to file the request within the allotted 15 days you waive the right to have an ALR hearing. At this hearing, the attorney representing you can attempt to argue why you should be allowed to keep your driver’s license.

Unfortunately, the Travis and Williamson County courts are fairly clogged with cases, so it is highly unlikely that your ALR hearing will be scheduled before the 40 days allotted on your provisional license run out. When this occurs, the limit of the provisional license can be extended until you have had your ALR hearing. Should you lose your ALR hearing, you will have an additional 30 days to file an appeal, which automatically extends the provisional license for another 90 days. The defendant forces the driver’s license suspension to be lifted by prevailing in the ALR hearing or later at trial.

If your driver's license has been suspended due to a DWI or a DUI, do not assume that your world is coming to an end. Our DWI attorneys at Grossman Law Offices may be able to get that suspension lifted, putting you back behind the wheel.

Occupational Driver's Licenses

Even if you are convicted of a DWI and your driver’s license suspension is upheld, the Georgetown DWI attorneys at Grossman Law Offices can help you recover the right to drive. The state of Texas wants to punish DWI violators, but it also has an understanding that all Texans need to work or get an education, provide for their families, and take care of their children. Even when your driver’s license has been taken away as a result of a drunken driving incident, you can still apply for an Occupational Driver's License (ODL). ODL's are expensive and come with limits on your driving rights, even though they are preferable to not driving at all. In order to drive on an ODL, the convicted DWI violator must keep a driving journal that tracks all of the details of every trip, including the destination and purpose of the trip, the time elapsed on the journey, the mileage of the trip, and the date.

There are two provisions you need to fulfill in order to receive an ODL. On top of coming up with the fee, the court requires you to fill out a special petition that describes in detail the license you need, the nature of your DWI crime, and all of the places to which you will need to drive on the ODL license. You do not want to take the chance that you alienate the court by applying for the ODL incorrectly. Our attorneys at Grossman Law Offices can take one of the problems off of your mind right now by handling your ODL license application and getting you back behind the wheel.

Texas DWI and Child Endangerment

Since parents who get behind the wheel while drunk often stuff their children unwittingly into a car, the Texas Legislature seeks to protect these children by creating stiffer penalties for drunken drivers who endanger children. A DWI with a minor in the vehicle is considered a form of child endangerment in Texas. It is a state felony carrying a maximum prison sentence of two years and a fine as high as $10,000. Law enforcement agencies train their officers to do whatever is necessary to protect the children. Thus, there is a far greater chance a police officer will arrest a person suspected of this offense even without a BAC test. For single parents, this is the far less severe form of punishment. A single parent stands the very real threat of losing custody of his or her children, if not to the ex-spouse then at least to Child Protective Services, after being convicted of a DWI with a minor in the vehicle.

With your family’s fate at stake, you need to find the help of a skilled and seasoned Round Rock and Georgetown DWI attorney who has experience in the Williamson and Travis County court systems, one who knows what needs to be done in order to call the accuracy of the BAC test and the judgment of the arresting officer into question. Our team of DWI experts at Grossman Law Offices knows how to prove that no threat was presented to the children in your vehicle, if the circumstances of the case permit it. Should you try to do this yourself, or if you choose the wrong attorney, you could regret doing so forever.

More on Texas Intoxication Assault and Manslaughter Charges

The same as a conviction for a DWI with a minor in the vehicle, intoxication assault and intoxication manslaughter convictions are extremely negatively perceived by the public. When it comes to these last

two offenses, the punishment may be very hard, but the burden of proof for the prosecution is very easy. To get a conviction, the state does not have to prove any harmful intent. The state simply has to prove that the driver was intoxicated and the accident caused the injury or death of someone else. Keep in mind, when suspected of intoxication assault or manslaughter, your blood will be taken without your consent. As we mentioned earlier, there are also very stiff consequences when convicted – $10,000 fine for both offenses and between two and twenty years in prison, with at least 30 days mandatory.

There is an old saying, "Anyone who represents himself in court has a fool for a client”. Do not end up as an anecdote that some lawyer uses on his website to convince people to hire him. You must hire a knowledgeable Georgetown and Round Rock DWI attorney with experience in handling DWI cases in Travis and Williamson counties. We know the attorneys at Grossman Law Offices can help you.

Your Rights When Suspected of a DWI

Your rights are protected by the Constitution so long as you are a US citizen when accused of a DWI. It is not as though a drunken driving violation brings the Patriot Act into play! You do have the right to decline a breathalyzer test, but remember it will lead to your driver’s license being taken from you. Because the state of Texas gives you the privilege of driving, it has every right to take this privilege away. As a matter of fact, the punishment for refusing a breathalyzer was instituted to stop drunken drivers from avoiding convictions by simply refusing to take the BAC test. In spite of the concerns over the accuracy of breathalyzers, Texas lawmakers chose to side with the belief that only someone with something to hide would refuse to take such a test. A breathalyzer test refusal can be presented as evidence against you at trial if you are being accused of a second or third DWI. On the other hand, if you take and fail a breathalyzer test, the state will only suspend your driver's license for 90 days.

Whether you agree to or decline a BAC test when you are pulled over, you need to remember that the video recording system in the police officer’s car will be capturing all of your actions and comments. Should you appear intoxicated, this will hurt you in court.

In spite of any false conceptions you may have developed from seeing too many cop shows and movies, you do not have the "right to an attorney" during a traffic stop. You can only demand a lawyer if you are being questioned about a criminal offense. On the other hand, if you know the Miranda Rights by heart, you do have the "right to remain silent". Even while the video recorder in the cruiser is capturing everything which you do and say, you do not have to say anything. You are not required to answer the officer's questions or to volunteer any information. Using this tactic will surely end with you being arrested, but it may also cripple the state's case because they will lack any evidence of your guilt.

Grossman Law Offices Can Help

For the past two decades, the Round Rock and Georgetown attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have been helping people who were wrongly accused of DWI go free, and helping others who have been justly arrested for drunken driving offenses to limit the extent of their punishment. Over the course of this time, we have learned virtually everything there is to know about Texas DWI law and we have mastered the court procedures specific to Williamson and Travis Counties.

Even if we were familiar with the specific details of your situation, we could not guarantee you will go free. Nobody can. We can only pledge our devotion to doing whatever is in our power in the legal sense to help you secure the best viable result for your case. We have the ability and the knowledge to help anyone who has been accused of a DWI. People who decline to take breathalyzer tests, minors who get DUIs after one beer, adult who hurt innocent victims in auto accidents while well over the legal limit of intoxication, or parents who drank one margarita too many before driving the family home from dinner – we know how to help all of you obtain an outcome with which you can live. We have spent over 20 years accumulating our experience and knowledge, and now you can benefit from the time and effort we have invested. For a free consultation, call us now at 1-855-427-0000 (toll free). You will be given the opportunity to confidentially tell your story to a skilled Georgetown and Round Rock DWI attorney and to ask any questions you may have about your particular case. Once we know the circumstances surrounding your case, we can explain to you how we can help and provide the answers which you seek. The only way to avoid a guilty plea or to limit the discomfort of a conviction is to hire an attorney you can trust. Simply pick up the phone and call us now.