When a person is arrested for a misdemeanor DWI offense in Houston they’ll have to appear in court within 30 days of the arrest. If you immediately retain the representation of another qualified DWI lawyer in Houston, you won’t have to appear in court so soon.
During the interim, your legal representation will engage the Harris County District Attorney on your behalf, and further investigate the charges against you. Also, during this time, our legal team will have prepared the required legal documents that are related to your case, settled on a defense strategy (if needed), and will have forwarded all pertinent information to the Harris County Clerk. Once this is complete, your case will be on the court’s docket and we’ll notify you of your court date.
7 to 11 weeks after your initial court appearance, length of time depending on how backed up the Harris County Criminal Justice Center’s dockets are, our legal team will, again, engage the D.A.’s office for the purpose of finding the best* way to finalize your case.
About 1½ to 3 months afterwards, if your legal team has identified & prove any violations of your Constitutional Rights, they should motion the court for evidence suppression on those grounds. Then, once it’s your lawyer’s turn in court, there will be a couple of options available if fighting the accusations;
- you can stand trial by judge,
- or you can stand trial and be judged by a carefully selected jury** of your peers.
*Best should be taken to mean best for you.
**If the offense is a misdemeanor Houston DWI you’ll be judged by six jurors versus a jury of 12 for felony trials.