If you were arrested last night or this morning, you’re probably running on no sleep, trying to piece together what happens next, and wondering how bad this actually is. That feeling is completely normal. A first DWI arrest is one of the most disorienting experiences a person can go through, and the hours after it aren’t a good time to be making decisions alone. At Goline & Roland Law Firm, PLLC, we bring over three decades of combined experience in criminal defense and family law, and we work with people in exactly this situation.
What matters most right now is this: a clock started running the moment you were arrested. You have 15 days to request a hearing to contest the suspension of your driver’s license. That deadline doesn’t pause while you recover from the night, and missing it has automatic consequences. Everything else in this post will make more sense once you understand that.
The Two Cases That Start the Moment You Are Arrested
A DWI arrest in Texas doesn’t just open one legal proceeding. It opens two simultaneously, and they run on separate tracks with different rules, different decision-makers, and different consequences.
The first is the criminal case. The Denton County District Attorney’s office decides whether to file charges, and if filed, the case moves through the Denton County Criminal Courts at Law. The second is the administrative license revocation, or ALR, proceeding. This is a civil action handled by the Texas Department of Public Safety and conducted through the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH), not through the Denton County criminal court. Most people don’t realize these are separate systems until they’ve already lost the window to act on one of them.
Under Texas Transportation Code sections 724.041 and 524.031, you have 15 days from the date of your arrest to request an ALR hearing to contest the license suspension. If you don’t request that hearing in time, your license is automatically suspended on day 40 with no further opportunity to contest it. Requesting the hearing doesn’t guarantee you keep your license, but it preserves your right to fight it and gives your attorney an early opportunity to examine the arresting officer under oath before the criminal case has developed much further.
One more thing worth knowing about Denton County specifically: the county runs a No Refusal program during holidays and major events. If you refused a breath or blood test during one of those periods, officers can seek a warrant from an on-call judge and conduct a mandatory blood draw before booking is complete. A refusal doesn’t necessarily mean no chemical evidence.
What a First-Offense DWI Actually Costs in Denton County
The statutory fine gets most of the attention, but it represents only a fraction of the real financial exposure. Understanding the full picture helps explain why fighting the charge matters even on a first offense.
Under Texas Penal Code Section 49.04, a standard first-offense DWI is a Class B misdemeanor. The penalty range is 72 hours to 180 days in county jail and a fine up to $2,000. If your blood alcohol concentration was 0.15 or higher, the charge elevates to a Class A misdemeanor, the maximum jail exposure rises to one year, the fine ceiling doubles to $4,000, and an ignition interlock device (IID) (a breathalyzer wired into your vehicle’s ignition that prevents the car from starting if it detects alcohol) becomes mandatory as a condition of any bond or probation.
Two enhancements that are frequently overlooked:
- Open container: If an open container of alcohol was in your immediate possession at the time of your arrest, the mandatory minimum jail term increases from 72 hours to six days, even on an otherwise standard first offense.
- Child passenger: If a child under 15 was in the vehicle, the charge escalates from a misdemeanor to a state jail felony, which carries 180 days to two years in a state jail facility. Beyond the criminal consequences, this scenario can simultaneously trigger a Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) investigation that directly affects custody and visitation. We handle both criminal defense and family law, so we understand how these two systems interact in ways that a criminal-only defense attorney may not anticipate.
The total financial cost of a first DWI conviction (including attorney fees, court costs, probation supervision fees, the required 12-hour DWI education program, ignition interlock installation and monthly monitoring, SR-22 insurance (a high-risk certificate your insurer must file with the state, which typically raises premiums significantly), and license reinstatement fees) commonly runs between $10,000 and $25,000 over two to three years. The initial fine is often the smallest line item.
How Denton County Prosecutes First-Offense DWI Cases
The Denton County District Attorney’s office operates a dedicated DWI Unit. Prosecutors who handle DWI cases exclusively work closely with police departments in Denton, Lewisville, Flower Mound, and surrounding cities. They’re organized and aggressive on these charges. First-offense misdemeanors are heard in one of the five Denton County Criminal Courts at Law, located at the Denton County Courts Building, 1450 E. McKinney Street, Denton, TX 76209.
After booking into the Denton County Jail at 127 N. Woodrow Lane (a process that typically takes four to twelve hours), the case moves toward your first court appearance. Most first-offense DWI cases in Texas take four to eight months to resolve. The case progresses through a series of announcement settings where your attorney reviews discovery materials, files pretrial motions, and negotiates with the assigned prosecutor. Knowing which prosecutors take which positions and how each judge rules on suppression motions is the kind of local knowledge that translates directly into case strategy.
The Permanent Record Consequence Most People Miss
For most of Texas history, deferred adjudication wasn’t available for DWI. That changed in 2019. Under current Texas law, deferred adjudication is available for a first-offense Class B DWI (meaning a BAC under 0.15, no prior DWI conviction, and no accident causing injury). It isn’t available for DWI with a BAC of 0.15 or higher, repeat DWI offenses, DWI with a child passenger, or cases involving a commercial driver’s license.
Deferred adjudication is a form of probation where the court withholds a finding of guilt. Complete it successfully and the charge is dismissed rather than resulting in a conviction. But it carries important limits: the deferred DWI can still be used to enhance a future DWI charge, and a mandatory ignition interlock device is required during the supervision period.
Where deferred adjudication isn’t available (or isn’t obtained), a guilty plea or no-contest plea produces a final, permanent conviction. Texas has no lookback window for prior DWI convictions, so a first conviction today counts as a prior offense forever. If you’re ever arrested again, even decades later, that first conviction converts the new charge into a mandatory-jail Class A misdemeanor at minimum. This permanence is the most important reason to contest the charge, even when the evidence feels overwhelming.
If the case is dismissed or results in an acquittal, the arrest may be eligible for expunction, which would remove the record entirely. If a first-time offender completes deferred adjudication (whether on the DWI itself (where eligible) or on a reduced, non-DWI charge through negotiation), a nondisclosure order may later be available to seal the record from most public searches. Neither path is guaranteed to be available, but neither is possible if a plea is entered to a DWI charge that doesn’t qualify for deferred adjudication.
What Defense Options Exist for a First DWI
Even cases with chemical test results have defensible issues. Here are the areas we examine in every first-offense case.
The Traffic Stop
For an officer to lawfully stop your vehicle, they must have had reasonable suspicion that a law was being violated. If that standard wasn’t met, the stop itself was unlawful. When a court finds the stop unconstitutional, all evidence gathered afterward (including field sobriety test results, chemical tests, and officer observations) can be suppressed and may not be used against you.
Field Sobriety Tests
Standardized field sobriety tests (SFSTs) (which include the horizontal gaze nystagmus, walk-and-turn, and one-leg stand) are governed by specific administration protocols. Deviations from those protocols, or conditions like an uneven surface, medical issues, or poor lighting, can undermine the reliability of the results. An officer’s subjective interpretation of those tests is often more contested than people expect.
Breath Test Results
Breath alcohol testing in Texas is regulated by the Texas Breath Alcohol Testing Regulations, which require the operator to remain in the continuous presence of the subject for at least 15 minutes before administering the test. Skipping or shortening that observation window is a documented basis to challenge the result. Calibration records, maintenance logs, and the specific instrument used are all subject to review.
Blood Test Results
Blood draws produce more precise readings than breath tests, but they introduce their own vulnerabilities. Chain-of-custody documentation, storage temperature, the lab’s accreditation status, and handling procedures at each step from the collection site to the lab can all affect reliability. Errors at any stage are worth investigating.
Rising BAC
Alcohol continues absorbing into the bloodstream for 30 to 90 minutes after your last drink. If your BAC was still rising when you were driving and only crossed the legal threshold of 0.08 after you were stopped or arrested, your blood alcohol level at the actual time of driving may have been below the limit. This argument (sometimes called the rising BAC defense) can be supported through pharmacokinetic analysis that documents the absorption timeline.
What to Do Right Now
The 15-day ALR deadline and the permanent nature of a DWI conviction make the days immediately after an arrest the most consequential window in the entire case. The decisions made in that window (whether to request a hearing, whether to contest the stop, what not to say) shape everything that follows.
We offer flexible consultations, including evening and weekend availability, because the days after an arrest don’t follow a standard business schedule. If you were arrested in the Denton area and want to understand where you actually stand, call us at (940) 400-0475.