A first DWI in Texas is usually a Class B misdemeanor with a range of 72 hours to 180 days in jail and a fine up to $2,000 (Penal Code § 49.04). But the range isn’t what decides your future. What decides it is how the case ends. The best outcome is a dismissal or a not guilty verdict. After that, the line that matters most is between deferred adjudication, which isn’t a conviction and can later be sealed, and a conviction, which can never be erased and is harder and slower to seal. Either one counts as a prior, so the next DWI would be a Class A with a 30-day jail minimum. Which side of that line you land on comes down to the work done on the stop and the tests.
Call (713) 664-4000. You have 15 days to request a hearing on the license suspension, and the clock usually starts the day of the arrest.
What a first DWI can mean
| Situation | Level | Jail range |
|---|---|---|
| Standard first DWI | Class B misdemeanor | 72 hours to 180 days, up to a $2,000 fine |
| Open container in your immediate possession | Class B misdemeanor | 6 days to 180 days |
| Test result of 0.15 or more | Class A misdemeanor | Up to 1 year, up to a $4,000 fine |
| Passenger younger than 15 | State jail felony (§ 49.045) | 180 days to 2 years |
| In a school crossing zone while the reduced limit applies (since September 2025) | State jail felony (§ 49.04(e)) | 180 days to 2 years |
The jail minimums apply to a jail sentence. They don’t apply to probation or deferred adjudication, and a first DWI doesn’t have to mean a day in jail beyond the night of the arrest. On top of the court fine, a conviction brings a state fine of $3,000, or $6,000 if the conviction includes the 0.15 finding. The judge has to waive it if you prove you’re indigent (Transportation Code § 709.001). Our page on whether jail is mandatory for a first DWI goes through each situation.
Deferred adjudication, probation or a conviction
For offenses since September 2019, a first DWI can end in deferred adjudication. It’s off the table if your alcohol concentration was 0.15 or more or you held a commercial license or permit at the time, and a DWI with a child under 15 in the car never qualifies (Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 42A.102(b)(1)). Deferred means pleading guilty or no contest without the judge finding you guilty, finishing a period of supervision and walking away without a conviction. Two years after it’s done, you can ask the court to seal the record with an order of nondisclosure. That requires no earlier conviction or deferred other than a fine-only traffic ticket, no new offense in the meantime, and no crash involving another person, including your own passenger (Gov’t Code § 411.0726). A judge can end deferred early. Regular DWI probation, by contrast, is a conviction, and it can’t be cut short (Art. 42A.701(g)).
Deferred still counts as a prior if you’re ever charged with DWI again (Penal Code § 49.09(g)), and the law requires an ignition interlock on DWI deferred unless the judge waives it after a drug and alcohol evaluation (Art. 42A.408(e-1), (e-2)). And Harris County doesn’t reduce DWIs to reckless driving or other non-DWI offenses. The ways out of a DWI conviction there are winning the case, getting it dismissed, getting deferred, or in a 0.15 case, getting the 0.15 allegation dropped. That takes it back to a Class B, cuts the state fine in half and keeps the door open to sealing a conviction later. Deferred in a 0.15 case turns on what your alcohol concentration actually was, not just what the charge says, which is one more reason we go after the test itself. See our DWI probation page for how supervision works.
Your license
The arrest starts an administrative suspension that runs separately from the criminal case: 90 days for a test over the limit and 180 days for a refusal, if you’ve had no alcohol or drug contact in the past 10 years. You can fight it at an ALR hearing if you ask within 15 days (Transportation Code §§ 524.022, 524.031, 724.035, 724.041). That hearing is also the first chance to question the arresting officer under oath if we subpoena the officer. See our ALR hearing page.
How we defend a first DWI
The stop. The officer needed reasonable suspicion to pull you over. A weave inside your own lane doesn’t always give an officer reasonable suspicion, and being on Washington Avenue at 2 a.m., with nothing else, isn’t enough on its own. If the stop was bad, the evidence from it can be suppressed.
The field sobriety tests. Jay Blass Cohen is a certified instructor in the standardized field sobriety tests and a certified Drug Recognition Expert. He teaches how these tests are supposed to be given, so he recognizes a bad administration on the video: the wrong surface, the wrong instructions, the wrong timing, a stimulus held at the wrong distance.
The breath or blood test. Jay is also an ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist trained in forensic chromatography. We read the breath instrument’s maintenance and calibration records and the blood lab’s raw data, not just the number on the report.
The video. Body camera and dash camera footage often doesn’t match what the officer wrote. When it doesn’t, we make sure the judge or jury sees it.
Results
A Harris County jury found our client not guilty of DWI after a 0.242 breath test, in a case where the client was found asleep in a moving lane of traffic and failed the field sobriety tests. Another Harris County jury acquitted a client found asleep in his car in the roadway, whose blood test showed several prescription drugs. A Harris County client, a city employee found asleep on the side of Beltway 8 with a 0.179 breath test, had his DWI dismissed. And a Harris County jury found a commercial driver not guilty of DWI after a crash in which he failed the field sobriety tests at the scene and at the station. See more of our case results. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Charged with a first DWI in Houston? Call Blass Law
Jay Blass Cohen has defended DWI cases in Houston since 2009 and has never worked for the prosecution. We’ll get the video and the test records before we talk about any plea, and we’ll tell you what the State can actually prove.
Call (713) 664-4000. The 15-day deadline for the license hearing usually starts the day you’re arrested.
Reviewed by Jay Blass Cohen, founder of Blass Law PLLC, ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist, certified Drug Recognition Expert, and SFST instructor, serving Houston since 2009. This article is general information, not legal advice for your situation. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.