Frisco DWI Lawyer

A DWI arrest in Frisco raises two questions before any court date is set. The first is which county has your case, because Frisco sits across the Collin-Denton county line and the answer decides your courthouse, your prosecutor, and your judge. The second is the clock: the 15-day window to request the hearing that protects your driver's license usually opens the night of the arrest. Kent Starr has defended DWI cases on both sides of that county line since 1997.

Which court handles a Frisco DWI?

A DWI from the east side of Frisco is prosecuted by the Collin County District Attorney and heard at the courthouse complex in McKinney. A DWI from the west side is prosecuted in Denton County. Frisco Municipal Court handles only Class C matters, so a DWI never stays there.

The county line is not a technicality. The prosecutors are different, the judges are different, and so are the bail patterns and the pretrial diversion options. A case that might be divertible in one county may not be in the other. The first useful conversation in a Frisco DWI case is usually sorting out which system you are in and what that system tends to do with a case like yours. Kent has worked in both for thirty years, and his office sits in McKinney, the Collin County seat, where the east-side cases are heard.

Event nights change how Frisco DWI arrests happen

Frisco's DWI docket has a rhythm the surrounding cities do not match. The Star on Cowboys Way, Toyota Stadium, and the Comerica Center put tens of thousands of people on the same few corridors on game and concert nights, and enforcement scales up with them. In the hours after a major event, Frisco PD, DPS, and the county sheriffs run elevated patrols on the Dallas North Tollway, the Sam Rayburn Tollway, Preston Road, and Main Street.

That pattern matters for the defense. Event-night stops are often built on thin observations, a lane drift in heavy exit traffic, a wide turn leaving a parking structure, and the field-sobriety testing that follows happens on road shoulders with crowds, headlights, and noise. Kent handles these cases regularly and knows how the stop video, the field-sobriety conditions, and the breath or blood evidence tend to develop under cross-examination. The earlier that review starts, the more there is to work with.

The 15-day ALR deadline comes before your first court date

The criminal case is only one of the two tracks a Texas DWI starts. The other is the Administrative License Revocation process, and it moves faster. If you refused testing or failed a breath test, the officer serves the notice of suspension on the spot, and you have 15 days from that notice to request an ALR hearing. In blood-draw cases the notice often arrives by mail weeks later, and the 15 days run from when that notice is served. Either way, miss the window and the suspension takes effect on schedule, months before the criminal case resolves.

Kent represents drivers in ALR hearings, and the hearing does double duty: it is the fight for your license, and it can put the arresting officer under oath early, on the record, before the criminal case is decided. If a suspension does take effect, an occupational license can keep you legally driving to work while the case is pending.

What a Frisco DWI charge actually carries

Most Frisco DWI arrests are first offenses, and a first DWI in Texas is a misdemeanor, not a felony:

First DWI. A Class B misdemeanor, or a Class A misdemeanor when the blood alcohol concentration is 0.15 or higher.

Second DWI. A Class A misdemeanor, with harder bond conditions and an ignition-interlock fight at the front of the case.

Third DWI or more. A third-degree felony under Texas Penal Code §49.09, carrying two to ten years.

Child passenger under 15. A state jail felony under §49.045, even on a first arrest.

Injury or death. Intoxication assault and intoxication manslaughter are felonies with their own ranges.

Every tier turns on evidence that can be contested: whether the stop was lawful to begin with, how the field-sobriety tests were administered and scored, whether the breath instrument was maintained and operated correctly, and whether the blood draw and lab work hold up. The DWI defense practice page walks through that evidence review in detail, including when a DWI is and is not a felony.

One lawyer, both counties

Kent Starr runs Starr Law, P.C. as a solo practice. The lawyer you hire at the free consultation is the lawyer who requests the ALR hearing, reads the discovery, argues the motions, and tries the case if it goes that far. He has practiced in the Collin and Denton county courts since 1997, speaks Spanish and Portuguese in addition to English, and works from 5900 S Lake Forest Dr, Suite 200 in McKinney, the county seat where Collin-side Frisco cases are heard.

DWI is one charge among many that come out of a Frisco arrest. For the full local picture, the firm's Frisco criminal defense page covers the rest of the city's case mix, and the Collin County criminal defense guide explains how county cases move from booking through trial in McKinney.

If you or someone you love was arrested for DWI in Frisco, on an event night or any other, call (214) 982-1408 for a free, confidential consultation with Kent. In most cases the 15-day license clock started the night of the arrest.

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Every case is evaluated on its own facts.

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