Austin DWI Attorney | Texas DWI Legislation Update Part 1

As the 82nd Legislature winds down their special summer session, I thought I would take some time to write about various bills relating to Texas DWI that an Austin DWI Attorney and others. There were a number of DWI related bills considered by the legislature, so I will probably break this up into two posts.

House Bill 189 was passed by the House but not by the Senate. Generally, HB 189 would have allowed a form of deferred adjudication community supervision for first time DWI convictions in Texas.

As the law now stands in Texas, the only types of crimes that a person cannot bet deferred adjudication for are DWI, Flying While Intoxicated, and Boating While Intoxicated related crimes; certain sexual crimes where the defendant has previous convictions; and drug offenses in a drug free zone where the defendant has previously been convicted of a similar crime.

Yes, you can be convicted of murder and still be eligible for deferred adjudication, but not if you are convicted of DWI. You can be convicted of certain sexual offenses and still be eligible for deferred adjudication, but not if you are convicted of DWI.

Maybe this will change in the future, but not at least until the legislature meets again in 2014.House Bill 1507 was not passed by either the House or Senate. HB 1507 would have allowed non-lawyer magistrates in counties with populations under 100,000 to issue search warrants.