How long does an expunction take in Texas? Well, first off, we need to talk about being eligible for the expunction because it can take a while to be eligible for an expunction. Now, if a person gets arrested for some type of criminal offense in Texas and that case gets dismissed, or the person is found not guilty, they can be eligible for an expunction. 

Now, if the case gets dismissed, typically they may have to wait for the statute of limitations to expire before they can file an expunction. That depends on what the charge was. So, if it was a typical low-level misdemeanor, then the statute of limitations may be two years.

For many felonies, the statute of limitations is three years. But, for a lot of other felonies, the statute of limitations can be much longer. It gets kind of technical here, and it depends a lot on the different type of felony charges. There can be some with a statute of limitations of up to 10 years. Some, such as murder, have no statute of limitations at all. 

So, first off, if the person is eligible, then we have to wait for the statute of limitations to expire. Now, there are some situations where a person can be eligible for an expunction right away. A person is found not guilty, they’re eligible to do the expunction right away. 

Some types of dismissals resulting from a program that’s approved by the court, maybe. There’s lots of different programs depending on the jurisdiction or the city that may be available to deal with. Say, a drug charge or some other type of offense. But with some of these programs, completion of the program with a dismissal at that point allows the person to proceed with doing the expunction right away without having to wait for the statute of limitations to expire.

Now, we’re at the point where the person is eligible to file the expunction, the statute of limitations is expired, or they were found not guilty, or they completed the program that allows them to file right away. Now, this is going to depend on the jurisdiction or the county. Some counties take longer to process an expunction than others. But, generally it’s gonna take three to six months.

First off, the person has to file an expunction and then all the agencies identified in the expunction have a certain amount of time to reply to the expunction. Then, we have to go through the court process, and depending on the county, that may be a very quick process of getting it done in a month or two. Or it may take several months or more to go through that process to get to the point where the judge grants the expunction.

Then, there is a short period of time before the judgment of expunction becomes final. And then it takes a short time for all those records of arrest to be erased, deleted, and destroyed. But once you get that expulsion granted, and you go through that process, and those records get erased, deleted, and destroyed, then you’re legally entitled to say that that offense never happened.

Summary 

In Texas, getting an expunction, which clears your criminal record, can take some time. First, you must be eligible, usually because your case was dismissed or you were found not guilty. Then, you might have to wait for a certain period, depending on the type of offense. Once it is granted, your records are erased, and you can legally say the offense never happened.

What happens when you get caught with drugs in Texas? Well, that’s gonna depend a lot on the drug and the location, say the city. So, if it’s a small amount of marijuana, you might not have anything happen to you at all. You might be released without any charges. You might be given just a traffic ticket level offense, a Class C misdemeanor ticket, punishable by fine only up to $500.

Or depending on the city, if they have a more strict attitude, you may get arrested and prosecuted for an offense that carries up to six months in jail or more. Now, it depends a lot on the drug. So if you have any amount of drugs, such as cocaine or heroin or methamphetamine, I feel it’s pretty safe to say that, regardless of where in Texas, if you get caught with any amount of that, you’re getting arrested and you’re getting prosecuted.

And for any amount of a controlled substance, such as cocaine, heroin, or methamphetamine, those types of drugs, it’s a felony for any amount of it. Now, if it’s just marijuana, then depending on the amount, it may only be a misdemeanor.

So, but typically anywhere in Texas, if it’s a controlled substance, like we were talking about, you’re gonna get arrested and you’re gonna get prosecuted for a felony. If it’s just marijuana, it’s just a very small amount, then depending where you are in Texas, you may get released. And nothing happened to you at all. Or you may get prosecuted for an offense that carries up to six months or you’re in jail or more. So it depends a lot on where it happens and it depends a lot on what the drug is.

Summary 

In Texas, the consequences you are caught with drugs depends on the type of drug and where you are caught. For a small amount of marijuana, you might not get charged or a fine. But if you are caught with serious drugs like cocaine, heroin, or meth, you will likely be arrested. You will be charged with a felony, no matter how much you have.

Marijuana offenses may result in varying outcomes, from release to potential misdemeanor charges. This depends on the amount and location within Texas. Ultimately, the severity of the consequences hinges on both the drug involved and the specific jurisdiction.

What is the criminal process in Texas like? Well, as a general rule, once a person gets arrested and accused of a crime, then soon after that, there’ll be a case filed with a court. Whatever jurisdiction it is, misdemeanor or felony level. Then, they’ll be given an initial court date.

Usually, at that initial court date, the person is informing the court of whether or not they’ve hired an attorney. And the court may inquire if a person has not, whether or not they may be entitled to a court appointed attorney. Then, depending on the court and the county, there’s probably going to be a series of court dates that progresses from that point on.

Many courts will have a progressive schedule of court dates that may involve a first court date, where the prosecutor and the defense attorney get together and talk about what their positions are. Maybe they are given an opportunity to negotiate and possibly reach a plea bargain.

Then, if they don’t reach a plea bargain, then there may be another court date, where the prosecution is responsible for turning over all the evidence they have at that point. Then there may be a court date where the judge inquires about what the status of the case is?Are the two parties going to reach an agreement? Or do they need to set it for a jury trial? Then, there may be a jury trial date that’s set where the case actually goes to a jury trial.

Now, depending on the county or the jurisdiction, there may be a bunch of jury trial court dates before the case actually gets reached because the court may have so many cases actually pending that it takes a while for those case to actually be reached for trial.

Now, in felonies, there may be another part to the process where after the person is arrested and accused of the crime. There may be a process where the cases are pending before the grand jury. Then, nothing else happens until the grand jury returns an indictment. If they do, then there can be a court date and a series of court dates, where that led up to possibly a trial or a resolution by agreement of that case.

But grand juries can also decide not to indict a case. So, we call the grand jury decision either a true bill or a no bill. So, if they decide to indict, we call that a true bill. If they decide not to indict, that’s a no bill. The grand jury just decides whether or not there’s enough evidence that they think the person ought to stand trial.

Some attorneys will tell you that the grand jury is deciding whether or not there’s probable cause. But the law doesn’t state that the grand jury decides whether or not there’s probable cause. The grand jury just decides whether or not they think there’s enough evidence that the person ought to stand trial. They can also decide that they think there’s not enough evidence. Even regardless of the evidence, they don’t think the person should have to stand trial.

The grand jury can decide not to indict the case. And then, that’s like a dismissal, and the case is over. So, that’s just kind of a general overview of the criminal process in Texas.

Summary 

The criminal process in Texas involves a person being arrested and accused of a crime. It also consists of filing a case with a court and awaiting an initial court date. The court may inquire whether the person has hired an attorney and if they are entitled to a court appointed attorney. The case progresses through court dates, including negotiations, plea bargains, and jury trials. In felonies, cases may be pending before the grand jury, which decides whether to indict or not.

What’s considered a threat in Texas? Well, we could be talking about several different things but say if a person is threatened with a gun, then, that could be the offense of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. If a person is threatened with imminent bodily injury, that could be just a Class C-Level offense of assault, punishable by fine only.

If a person is threatened more seriously, like, “I’m going to kick your butt right now,” that could be a terroristic threat, which is kind of interesting because the term of the offense, the name of the offense, has terroristic in it. And that makes us think of modern things such as terrorist. And this is not involving a terrorist at all, but that’s a Class A misdemeanor offense of a terroristic threat. But then, it can get a little more complicated.

For instance, I’ve had a case where a person said, “If you don’t fix the roads, I’m going to kick your butt.” And that was charged as a terroristic threat, but a court found that actually it wasn’t because it was conditional.

So, the thing is, if you’re going to threaten somebody under terroristic threat, it’s got to be right away and not conditioned on something. So, we could be talking about several different things when we’re talking about threats in Texas. But typically, we’re talking about someone being threatened with a weapon, a gun, a knife, or being threatened verbally with imminent bodily injury or a serious bodily injury or something like that.

Summary

In Texas, a threat can be a weapon, gun, knife, or verbal threat with imminent or severe bodily injury. A Class C-level assault or a Class A misdemeanor offense of terroristic threat can be used. However, a conditional threat, such as “I’m going to kick your butt right now,” can be considered a terrorist threat. In Texas, threats can be aggravated, imminent, or severe, depending on the nature of the threat.

Well, this is a pretty frequent question that we get, and a lot of people refer to all DWIs as DUI. In many states, it’s called a DUI, but in Texas, the offense that we’re usually talking about is DWI, driving while intoxicated.

Now, there is an offense of DUI driving under the influence in Texas, but that only applies to people under 21. So if a person under 21 is not supposed to be drinking at all anyway, because of their not being 21 years of age, they could be arrested for and ticketed for years of age. They could be arrested and ticketed for having any amount of alcohol in their system. So they may be under the influence, but they haven’t risen to the level of being intoxicated, that is, not having the normal use of mental or physical faculties because of alcohol. So they may be charged with DUI. 

Now, that’s just a Class C traffic ticket-level offense punishable by a fine of only up to $500 fine. But it carries consequences of possibly being on a person’s record for the rest of their life. It also carries the consequence of possibly causing a suspension of the person’s license for 60 days or more. So it’s very important to try to keep from having a DUI conviction and it’s very important to keep from having the DUI consequence of a suspension of the license.

So if a person under 21 gets ticketed for DUI driving under the influence, they do have a right to an administrative hearing regarding whether or not their license is suspended. These hearings have to be demanded within 15 days of the date the person was ticketed or arrested for DUI. It’s important to not let that time period expire, otherwise, there’ll be an automatic suspension of 60 days. But by demanding that hearing, that keeps the suspension from going into effect. We can often win these hearings so that a person doesn’t have to go through the suspension of their license or pay the $125 reinstatement fee once the suspension period is over.

So it’s very important to not get the DUI, but if you do, to get good representation to demand the hearing, try to prevent the suspension of the license and prevent this from being on your record.

Summary

While many states use DUI, Texas mainly uses DWI (driving while intoxicated). DUI in Texas applies to those under 21 if they have any alcohol in their system. It’s a Class C traffic offense, fined up to $500, with a potential license suspension. Requesting a hearing within 15 days of the ticket prevents an automatic 60-day suspension. Getting legal representation helps avoid DUI consequences like a license suspension and a lifelong record.