Criminal Defense Attorneys Blog

For bond conditions and protective orders, a "no contact" conditions means absolutely no contact. Fortunately, some courts are re-wording such conditions to only cover "harmful or injurious" contact instead of all contact. But, when your bond conditions cover all contact, this includes electronic contact. In other words, no texting, phone calls, emails or direct messages (DMs) on social media. Unfortunately, some courts even include "tagging" a person in a photo…

Though it seems like nonsense, regular assault is not a lesser included offense of assault by strangulation. This means that a person charged with a felony assault impeding breath or circulation cannot have a trial instruction a regular assault as a lesser included offense. The courts reasoning for this is that strangulation is a very specific type of bodily injury, so it requires different, additional facts for proof. In other…

DWI Probation Sometimes Includes Days in Jail as a Condition of Probation For certain DWI convictions, the law requires days of jail as a condition of probation. The good news is that a First Time misdemeanor DWI conviction does not have this requirement. The jail time as a condition of probation only comes into effect on a second or more DWI Conviction, or for Intoxication Assault or Intoxication Manslaughter conviction.…

Mimi Coffey, premier DWI lawyer Felony DWIs are serious business that often require some DWI damage control. A Felony DWI in Texas is either a third or more DWI arrest or an arrest for DWI with a child passenger. Keep in mind that a DWI with child passenger is a State Jail Felony *even if it is a first time DWI*. Judges only see a name on a docket sheet…