DWI Penalties From One to Ten

Tad’s One-to-Ten List for DWI Cases

1. Your first Houston DWI: An experience that is scary, frustrating, humiliating and expensive. Read more about DWI penalties but, this is not a situation that you have to undertake alone. A good Houston DWI lawyer can help you through the entire process, from beginning to end.
2. Okay, you’ve got your second DWI. Like I need to tell you, but you should have known better! Don’t worry, it’s still just a class “A” misdemeanor, but it is imperative that you hire an excellent attorney in Houston with experience fighting DWI related allegations to help you out of this one.
3. This is not a situation that you want to be in. A third DWI is a 3rd degree felony, punishable by heavy fines and jail time. Not just a few days in county, but with the big boys up in Huntsville. Don’t get to this point under any circumstances, or else you will find yourself in a cell with a 300-pound guy names “Peaches”.
4. Understand that, if you are arrested for DWI in Houston, you will spend 4-6 hours in the drunk-tank before they will let you out, even if you have posted bail. The drunk tank is filled with other folks charged with alcohol-related offenses, and if that doesn’t sober you up, then nothing will.
5. If you are applying for a job and you have a DWI conviction on your record, it will only take your prospective employer about five minutes to run a background check and discover your conviction. First off, don’t lie about the conviction to a prospective employer, and most importantly: DON’T GET THE DWI IN THE FIRST PLACE! If you are stopped, follow our advice, and be sure to hire a good Houston DWI lawyer.
6. Six months: That’s how long your license will be suspended of you refuse a breath/blood/chemical test after an arrest for DWI in Houston. This is not a subjective time span; this is an automatic suspension that you will have to serve, that is unless your Houston DWI/DUI defense attorney requests an automatic license revocation hearing so that he or she can fight your license suspension. REMEMBER, you only have 14 days (after your arrest) to save your driving status!
7. Though there is some false information out there to the contrary, 7 out of 10 people arrested for DWI in Houston do not receive a guilty verdict, either through acquittal or dismissal. However, don’t let these numbers give you a false sense of security. Texas law enforcement officials are getting better and better at their techniques, and this number will surely go down as the months go on.
8. If you are over the age of 21, the State of Texas considers you legally intoxicated in your blood alcohol concentration is above 0.08%. However, if you are a minor and you are arrested with any detectable amount of alcohol in your system, you will be arrested immediately under the charge of Driving Under the Influence (DUI). This “zero tolerance” law is designed to curb the use of alcohol among minors in Houston, with mixed results thus far. Read more about Minors and Alcohol.
9. Nine-hours of hard labor on a Saturday and/or Sunday. That’s what you can expect from the community service stipulation that comes with a Texas DWI conviction. Some people think that they can just go down to some nice office and shuffle papers for a few hours; but in reality, most community service placements involve long, hot hours out in the Texas heat on your only days off from work.
10. Ten Digits: That’s all you have to dial in order for all of these penalties to be a bad dream. If you want serious representation for your Clear Lake or Houston DWI case, call The Law Offices of Tad Nelson & Associates immediately at 713-802-1631!