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Serving Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, Denton, Rockwall & Kaufman Counties
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Dallas
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Dallas

Dallas Criminal Law

Dallas Criminal Defense Attorney

Serious charges call for a serious defense. We represent clients in the misdemeanor and felony courts of Dallas County — and in the deadlines that start running the day of the arrest.
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Call (469) 972-8473
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Overview

Criminal Law Attorney Serving Dallas, Texas

A Dallas criminal defense attorney represents people accused of offenses prosecuted in Dallas County, from Class C citations through first-degree felonies. Texas criminal matters run on three tracks that move at the same time and are decided by different bodies. The criminal case determines guilt and punishment and is heard in the County Criminal Courts for misdemeanors or the Criminal District Courts for felonies. The administrative case — in a DWI, the license suspension — is decided by an administrative law judge at the State Office of Administrative Hearings, separately from the criminal case and on a much shorter clock. The collateral consequences — immigration status, professional licensing, firearm rights, housing, employment, and family court exposure — often outlast the sentence, and are frequently what a defendant is actually trying to protect.

Texas criminal offenses and their punishment ranges are defined by the Texas Penal Code. The procedure — arrest, magistration, bond, discovery, pleas, trial, and record relief — is governed by the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. A DWI is Penal Code §49.04; the deadline to save your license is Transportation Code §524.031.
A dramatic scene illustrating a legal consultation or police interrogation inside a correctional facility, showing a defense attorney reviewing documents with an inmate.

Most people meet the Dallas County criminal system at the Frank Crowley Courts Building, 133 N. Riverfront Boulevard. Eleven County Criminal Courts hear Class A and B misdemeanors on the third and fourth floors; seventeen Criminal District Courts hear felonies above them. Two County Courts of Criminal Appeals hear appeals from justice and municipal courts. Which court your case lands in is set at filing, and it changes the timeline, the prosecutor you deal with, and the range of resolutions realistically on the table.

The first 48 hours matter more than most people expect. After booking, a magistrate sets bond and bond conditions — Dallas County staffs seven full-time criminal magistrates who arraign everyone booked into the county jail system. Bond conditions imposed at that hearing (no-contact orders, ignition interlock, GPS, travel restrictions) tend to stay in place for the life of the case, and they are far easier to shape at the outset than to modify later.

Felony and misdemeanor cases diverge after that. A felony goes to a Dallas County grand jury before it goes anywhere else; if an indictment is returned, the case is assigned to a Criminal District Court. A misdemeanor is filed by information and moves directly into settings in a County Criminal Court. In both, the work that changes outcomes happens between settings — obtaining and actually reviewing the State’s evidence, testing how it was collected, and deciding whether the case is one to negotiate or one to try.

Our Dallas criminal law team represents clients across Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, Denton, Rockwall, and Kaufman Counties, bringing plain-language guidance to a process that can otherwise feel overwhelming.

Key Facts

Key Facts About Criminal Cases in Dallas County

  • Where Dallas County criminal cases are heard: Felony cases are heard by the Criminal District Courts and misdemeanors by the County Criminal Courts, both housed in the Frank Crowley Courts Building at 133 N. Riverfront Blvd, Dallas, TX 75207. Dallas County has 11 County Criminal Courts for Class A and B misdemeanors, 17 Criminal District Courts for felonies, and 2 County Courts of Criminal Appeals.

  • Deferred adjudication is not a conviction — but it is not a dismissal either: A judge may defer a finding of guilt and place a defendant on community supervision. Complete it and the case is dismissed without a conviction. Violate a condition and the judge may impose any sentence in the full original punishment range — not the probated term.

  • Most felonies carry a three-year limitations period; some carry none: The catch-all limitations period is three years for felonies not otherwise listed and two years for misdemeanors. Many serious felonies carry five, seven, ten or twenty years, and there is no limitations period at all for offenses including murder and certain sexual offenses.

  • DWI record sealing runs on its own statute, not the general one: The standard deferred-adjudication nondisclosure provision expressly excludes offenses under Penal Code §49.04 and §49.06. DWI has separate pathways created by HB 3016 in 2017 and expanded by HB 3582 in 2019. Before 2017, no DWI could be sealed at all.

  • Texas replaced its expunction chapter in 2025: HB 4504 repealed Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 55 and replaced it with Chapter 55A, effective January 1, 2025. The eligibility categories carried over largely unchanged; the article numbers did not. Guidance still citing Article 55.01 is citing a repealed provision.

  • A first-offense DWI can be a felony based only on where you were driving: A first DWI is normally a Class B misdemeanor with a 72-hour minimum. With an open container it stays Class B but the minimum rises to six days. At a tested concentration of 0.15 or more it becomes a Class A misdemeanor. And a DWI in an active school crossing zone is a state jail felony on a first offense, under a provision effective September 1, 2025.

A striking architectural photograph of the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Dallas, showing its tall brick facade and glass atrium under a bright afternoon sky.

Criminal District Courts

Frank Crowley Courts Building

Nearly every criminal case in Dallas County is heard at the Frank Crowley Courts Building, 133 N. Riverfront Boulevard, Dallas, TX 75207, just west of downtown along the Trinity levee and next to the Lew Sterrett Justice Center. Misdemeanors are heard in the County Criminal Courts on the lower court floors; felonies are heard in the Criminal District Courts above them. If you have a setting, this is almost certainly where you are going.

The criminal floors of the Frank Crowley Courts Building are organized from the ground level up:

First Floor: Contains security screening and the main lobby directory. Everyone entering the building undergoes screening, and the directory lists each court by its assigned number.

Second Floor: Houses the County Clerk’s Criminal Courts Division in Room A-1, which manages misdemeanor records and is open weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (reachable at 214-653-7099). Felony records are held separately by the District Clerk.

Third & Fourth Floors: Home to the eleven County Criminal Courts handling Class A and B misdemeanors, as well as the two County Courts of Criminal Appeals that hear cases appealed from municipal and justice courts.

Fifth through Seventh Floors: Dedicated to the seventeen Criminal District Courts, each holding original jurisdiction over Dallas County felony cases.

How It Works

How Our Criminal Law Process Works

The First 48 Hours

Bond and bond conditions are set at magistration, usually within 24 to 48 hours of booking. We work to shape those conditions before they harden, and — where a DWI is involved — file the ALR hearing request inside the 15-day window.

Case Evaluation

We review the arrest, charges, and evidence — including bodycam and lab reports — within days of being retained, then identify which parts of the State's case depend on procedure that can be challenged.

Pretrial Strategy

We negotiate with the Dallas County District Attorney's Office and file motions to suppress or dismiss where the evidence supports it — challenging the stop, the search, the warrant, or the reliability of the testing.

Trial-Ready Defense

If a fair resolution isn't offered, we prepare to take your case before a Dallas County jury. Cases that are visibly ready for trial are also the cases that draw the best offers.

Clearing the Record

A case that ends well is not automatically a record that reads well. Depending on the outcome, we pursue expunction under Chapter 55A of the Code of Criminal Procedure or an order of nondisclosure under Government Code Subchapter E-1.

What We Handle

Criminal Law Matters We Handle in Dallas

DWI & Intoxication Offenses

First offense through felony repeat, DWI with a child passenger under §49.045, and the ALR license case that runs alongside the charge.

Drug Charges

Possession, possession with intent, and controlled-substance cases under the Texas Health and Safety Code — where the search itself is often the case.

Assault & Family Violence

Misdemeanor and felony assault under Penal Code §22.01, including cases carrying an affirmative finding of family violence. Protective orders and the custody consequences are handled on our Family Law page.

Theft & Property Offenses

Theft, burglary, criminal mischief and fraud, where the value alleged sets the offense level — and is frequently contestable.

Weapons Charges

Unlawful carry, felon-in-possession, and prohibited-place allegations — including charges added on top of an underlying offense.

Probation & Deferred Violations

Motions to revoke and motions to adjudicate, where the full original punishment range is back on the table and the hearing standard is lower than at trial.

Expunction & Nondisclosure

Clearing or sealing a record after the case ends, under Chapter 55A of the Code of Criminal Procedure or Government Code Subchapter E-1.

Handled on another page

Animal cruelty charges under Penal Code Chapter 42

See Animal Law

Civil injury claim arising from the same crash as a DWI

See Personal Injury

Your Legal Team

Attorneys Who Handle Criminal Law in Dallas

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Deborah Coleman

Senior Trial Attorney
Attorneys, Leadership
Criminal LawFamily Law
29+ years of litigation experience across family law and criminal defense to Dallas County families who need a seasoned courtroom advocate. Licensed since 1995, Deborah has spent three decades in Dallas courtrooms — building the kind of experience that only comes from trying cases year after year.
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Deborah Coleman

The Dallas office has 7 attorneys, backed by 170+ legal professionals firmwide across Texas — including the criminal defense and personal injury attorneys who handle the charge and claim sides of animal cases. Meet the Dallas team or meet the full legal team.

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Answers, Directly

Criminal Law FAQ

It depends on the outcome. Dismissals and acquittals are often eligible for expunction under Chapter 55A of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure; deferred adjudication cases may instead qualify for an order of nondisclosure, which seals the record from public view rather than destroying it.
Convictions are generally not eligible for expunction. The two remedies are different: expunction requires agencies to destroy or return the record, while nondisclosure seals it from most private employers and landlords but leaves it visible to law enforcement, the courts, and certain licensing agencies. Texas repealed the old Chapter 55 and replaced it with Chapter 55A effective January 1, 2025, so older guides citing Article 55.01 are pointing at a repealed provision. We can review your case history to identify what relief, if any, is available.
Get counsel involved before magistration if possible, say nothing about the facts to anyone including on jail calls, and — if there was a breath or blood test — start the 15-day ALR clock.
Jail calls are recorded and routinely used by the State. Bond conditions set at magistration are much easier to shape at the outset than to modify later. Preserve what will disappear: dashcam and bodycam retention windows are finite, and private surveillance footage from a bar, a parking lot, or a doorbell camera is often overwritten within days unless someone asks for it in writing.
Sometimes, but through a DWI-specific statute. The general deferred-adjudication sealing provision expressly excludes DWI; separate pathways in Government Code Subchapter E-1 apply instead.
Those pathways were created by HB 3016 in 2017 and expanded by HB 3582 in 2019 — before that, no DWI could be sealed under any circumstances. Eligibility generally requires a first offense, a misdemeanor DWI rather than intoxication assault or manslaughter, a tested concentration below 0.15, no accident involving injury to another person, and no other convictions or deferred adjudications beyond fine-only traffic offenses. The waiting period is shorter where an ignition interlock was installed for a qualifying period. Because eligibility turns on the tested concentration, challenging the test result affects not just the charge level but whether the record can ever be sealed.
Criminal defense is quoted as a flat fee based on the charge level, the court, and whether the case is likely to be tried — not hourly. You will be told the fee, what it covers, and what it does not, before you sign anything.
A misdemeanor resolved in a County Criminal Court and a felony tried to a jury are different pieces of work and are not priced the same. Fees for trial, an ALR hearing, an appeal, and post-disposition record clearing are typically separate engagements.
Not without counsel. A pre-charge call usually means the case is still being built, and a voluntary statement is often the piece that completes it.
Declining to speak is not evidence of guilt and cannot be used that way. The pre-charge window is also the point of maximum leverage: counsel can present exculpatory material to the detective or the intake prosecutor before a filing decision is made, and cases are sometimes never filed as a result. That opportunity closes once charges are accepted.
With regular probation you are convicted and the sentence is suspended. With deferred adjudication the judge withholds the finding of guilt — complete it and the case is dismissed without a conviction.
The trade-off is the downside. If you violate straight probation, the judge can impose the sentence originally assessed. If you violate deferred adjudication, the judge can impose anything within the full original punishment range. Deferred also requires a plea of guilty or no contest, and it can still be used against you later. For DWI it is narrower still: deferred is limited to first offenses without aggravating facts, requires an ignition interlock, and a later DWI arrest resurrects the first as a prior.
Two years for most misdemeanors and three years for felonies not otherwise listed, but many serious felonies carry five, seven, ten or twenty years, and some carry no limitations period at all.
The clock generally starts on the date of the alleged offense, and it pauses once an indictment or information is filed. For certain offenses against children it starts on the victim’s eighteenth birthday. An arrest without a filing does not mean the case is over — Dallas County cases are sometimes filed months after the arrest, which is exactly when people have stopped preparing.
At the Frank Crowley Courts Building, 133 N. Riverfront Blvd. Misdemeanors go to one of eleven County Criminal Courts; felonies go to one of seventeen Criminal District Courts on the floors above them.
Your court number is on your bond paperwork or court notice, and which court you draw affects your timeline, the prosecutors assigned, and how that court tends to handle your charge type. Floor bands, parking, screening rules and what to bring are covered in our guide to the Frank Crowley Courts Building above.
It depends on the outcome. Cases that end in dismissal or acquittal are often eligible for expungement, while certain deferred-adjudication cases may later qualify for a petition for nondisclosure that seals the record from public view.
Convictions are generally not eligible for expungement in Texas. We can review your specific case history to identify what post-conviction relief, if any, may be available.
Not automatically — but if you refuse or fail a breath or blood test, the Texas Department of Public Safety can move to suspend your license through an administrative process separate from the criminal case.
You generally have only 15 days from the date of a notice of suspension to request an Administrative License Revocation (ALR) hearing to fight the suspension, so time matters.

Client Reviews

What Dallas-Area Clients Say

"I was facing my first DWI charge and terrified of losing my driver's license and job. The defense team scrutinized the traffic stop details and found clear protocol violations. Thanks to their relentless work, the judge dismissed the entire case before trial."

— Robert K., Houston, TX

Read more client reviews →

Talk to a Dallas Criminal Law Attorney

The clock started at the arrest, not at the charge

Evidence expires, filing decisions get made, and the ALR window closes at 15 days. A consultation costs less than the delay.

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Call (469) 972-8473
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