San Antonio DWI lawyer

This site measured how people search for this. In San Antonio the phrase with DWI in it is searched more often than the one with DUI, which matches the law: Texas charges driving while intoxicated under Penal Code section 49.04, and for an adult driver that is the offense. The lesser charge Texas actually calls DUI applies only to drivers under 21.

What is specific to San Antonio is how Bexar County runs the case. One office prosecutes it whatever its level. A jailed defendant may see a courtroom inside the jail. A lawyer is present at the bond hearing. And the county publishes, in dollars, what the supervision of an interlock bond condition costs. Each of those is set out below from the county’s own pages.

Where a San Antonio DWI is heard

Bexar County states that it has fifteen statutory County Courts at Law, one Auxiliary Jail Court and two Family Violence Impact courts. Two of the fifteen handle civil cases full time; the remaining thirteen hear misdemeanor criminal cases where the punishment may be a fine of up to $4,000 or a jail sentence of up to a year. A first DWI is a Class B misdemeanor (Class A at 0.15 or more) and a second is Class A, so both belong there. A felony DWI goes to one of the ten criminal District Courts.

Most of these courts sit in the Cadena-Reeves Justice Center at 300 Dolorosa, on different floors: the 144th District Court on the 2nd, the 437th on the 3rd, County Court 5 on the 4th. Not all of them, though — the county lists County Courts 3 and 10 in the basement of the Bexar County Courthouse at 100 Dolorosa. The Bexar County Courthouse is also and the Criminal Law Magistrate Court sits in its basement — a court that carries out judicial work for the District Courts, including competency cases. It is not the Central Magistration that follows an arrest, which is on North Comal.

San Antonio Municipal Court, at 401 South Frio Street, is separate again. The city states that it has jurisdiction over fine-only, Class C misdemeanors, and lists traffic violations and public intoxication among its most common citations. A DWI is not fine-only, so it is never heard there; a ticket from the same stop can be.

Before you go to the Justice Center

The Sheriff’s Office announced that from March 2, 2026 pets are no longer permitted in any building of the Courts and Judicial Services Complex; only service animals as defined under the ADA are allowed. Smart glasses may be worn in courtrooms but must not be used to record.

Magistration, bond conditions and the first fifteen days

After an arrest in Bexar County the person is brought to the Central Magistrate Office, at 200 North Comal in the South Tower, where a judge explains the charges and sets bond. The District Attorney describes what happens alongside that: an assistant district attorney reviews the police report and decides whether there is enough evidence to accept the case, and recommends the type and amount of bond and any conditions. Since January 2019, the office says, the accused is represented by a public defender at that appearance.

One condition that can follow a DWI arrest is an ignition interlock. For a second or subsequent DWI, Code of Criminal Procedure article 17.441 requires the magistrate to order one unless the magistrate finds that it would not be in the interest of justice. Bexar County Pretrial Services supervises that order, and states what it involves: report on the assigned date with proof of installation and the $10 monthly supervision fee; if you do not own a vehicle, file an affidavit of non-ownership, which carries a $10 fee, and the office recommends an alternative level of supervision to the court.

The license case runs beside all of this. A failed or refused test produces a notice of suspension, and from that date you have 15 days to ask DPS in writing for an Administrative License Revocation hearing. Neither the magistrate nor the public defender at the bond hearing files that request. If it is not filed, the suspension begins on the fortieth day after notice.

One prosecutor, and the DWI Court

The penalty ranges are statewide and are on the Texas DWI laws page. Bexar County’s part is who carries the case and what it offers repeat offenders.

The prosecutor. The Criminal District Attorney’s Misdemeanor Trial Division prosecutes Class A and Class B misdemeanors, and calls DWI among the most serious of them; for those courts, it says, two prosecutors are typically assigned to each County Court at Law. Its Felony Criminal Trial Division prosecutes felony cases filed in Bexar County. A DWI that turns into a felony — a third offense, or one of the offenses in Penal Code sections 49.045, 49.07 and 49.08 — stays with the same office. In Austin it would change offices.

The DWI Court. Bexar County runs a Treatment Recovery Accountability Court, TRAC-D, for DWI. The county lists who is eligible:

• 18 years of age or older;
• on probation for a DWI subsequent offense;
• a diagnosis of alcohol use disorder, moderate or severe;
• resides in Bexar County, and assessed as high risk and high need.

It lists who is not: anyone with a current or pending violent offense or felony charge, anyone living outside the county, and anyone already in another problem-solving court. The judge meets participants on a specialised docket every other week, and a program fee takes the place of fines, court costs and probation fees. The county’s own explanation for the program is blunt: it says DWI cases are overwhelming its courts.

DWI cases around San Antonio

For a DWI charged in Bexar County the prosecutor does not change with the charge level. What changes is the courtroom, with the level and with whether the defendant is in custody. A Class C ticket from the same stop is the exception: it goes to the city’s own court, which lists its own Prosecutor’s Office.

The first three rows are prosecuted by the same office, the Criminal District Attorney. The Municipal Court lists its own Prosecutor’s Office for the Class C side.

This page does not place suburbs across the Bexar County line into other counties: the city’s planning pages that were read do not say where those lines fall, and the county printed on the citation is the answer in any case.

The other Texas cities on this site show how different the same state can be: Austin splits prosecution between two offices, Dallas has suburbs across county lines, one of them in three counties, and Houston’s page is about one downtown courthouse and the booking center.

Common questions about San Antonio DWI cases