What Are The DUI, DWI, & Drunk Driving Laws, Penalties, & Punishments In Texas?
Understanding the penalties, punishments, and severity of DWI, DUI, and drunk driving charges are often sufficient enough to prevent people from committing those offenses. DWI is quite a severe charge and can be classified under either a felony or misdemeanor depending on the prevailing circumstances.
The legal penalties for drunk driving and driving under the influence in Texas differ significantly depending on whether the person is a first-time DUI offender or has prior DWI or DUI convictions, or whether the DWI/DUI results in an accident that causes injury or even death, or when there is a blood or breath test of .15 or higher.
The Texas DWI law in 2017 is such that consequences, costs, and penalties are more severe even for those facing first offense DUI, DWI, or drunk driving arrests. DWIs are commonly charged as misdemeanors unless the person is a repeat offender or there was a serious accident that caused injuries or significant damage to the property whereby the charges might be scaled up to a felony.
One important thing to note is that the consequences of a DWI conviction will last for many years to come and can affect your job and social life. The reason for this being that the conviction will appear on any future background checks since it is permanently embedded in your criminal record for the rest of your life.
Considering the gravity of a DWI conviction and how it has the potential to affect your life, it is important to find an experienced Texas DWI lawyer to examine the circumstances surrounding your arrest online through our website so that we are able to defend your rights as a driver effectively.
Once an experienced Texas DWI lawyer has carefully reviewed your arrest details to identify the best defense strategies based on the events that transpired, he or she will discuss with you the best strategy for challenging and beating those charges in court.
Knowing the exact thing to do when fighting a DWI charge requires extensive knowledge of the current DWI laws, acquired skills, as well as actual courtroom experience if you ever want your best shot at successfully defending any DUI/DWI related case.
The best Texas lawyers acquire their skills through an extensive track record of helping their clients fight all kinds of DWI charges including 1st, 2nd offense, test refusal, drugs, marijuana, and even prescription medication.
Once a skilled, Texas DWI attorney has reviewed your arrest details, he or she will have the necessary information to determine whether the arrest and charges were made in a lawful manner or not.
Once these important arrest details have been examined for defense purposes, the lawyer can then use all resources at their disposal to fight the DWI case to the best outcome possible including strategies to avoid getting the license suspended or an ignition interlock device to help you get back your life on track.
Regardless of what the arresting officer might have told the driver the odor of alcohol, bloodshot or watery eyes, a flushed face, slurred speech, or a high Breathalyzer result is not necessarily concrete proof that a person was driving under the influence or over the legal limit of .08 BAC. Breath test devices have been known to have several issues leading to false readings even in blood test cases. It is actually possible to challenge the results from such ‘convincing’ tests.
A DWI arrest can happen to anybody and at any time while driving and considering just how strict the new penalties and laws currently are in Texas such as the requirement to install an expensive ignition interlock device, the new laws have also yielded potential new strategies that experienced lawyers are adopting for challenging and winning these DWI cases for their clients.