30+ years defending South Texans against DWI charges with specialized training few attorneys possess.
Phillip W. Goff defends people charged with DWI throughout South Texas. This page covers the state-wide rules that apply to every Texas DWI case — the penalty ranges, the 15-day deadline that decides whether you keep your license, and how the breath and blood tests against you can be challenged. If you were arrested in a specific county, start with your county page for the local courthouse, arresting agencies, and what to expect.
People from every walk of life are arrested for DWI — teachers, nurses, business owners, even judges, prosecutors, and police. An arrest is almost always based on the opinion of a single person: the officer who made the stop. An arrest is not a conviction, and a conviction requires the State to meet a far higher burden of proof.
For more than 30 years, Phillip W. Goff has defended South Texans against DWI. He is a member of the National College for DUI Defense, the DUI Defense Lawyers Association, and Texas DWI Lawyers, and a certified instructor of NHTSA Standardized Field Sobriety Testing — he completed the same training as the police and is qualified to teach it. That matters, because field sobriety tests are used in nearly every DWI case and are the evidence most often challenged at trial.
Texas DWI penalties escalate quickly with prior offenses and aggravating facts. These are the statutory ranges; the punishment in any individual case depends on the evidence, your record, and the county.
72 hours to 180 days in county jail, a fine of $0–$2,000, or both.
30 days to 1 year in county jail, a fine of $0–$4,000, or both. More on a second-offense DWI →
2 to 10 years in prison, a fine of $0–$10,000, or both. More on felony DWI →
6 months to 2 years in a state jail, a fine of $0–$10,000, or both. More on DWI with a child passenger →
2 to 10 years in prison, a fine of $0–$10,000, or both. More on intoxication assault →
2 to 20 years in prison, a fine of $0–$10,000, or both. More on intoxication manslaughter →
Numerous enhancements are possible, as is stacking of sentences.
This is the deadline people miss — and it costs them their license. Every DWI arrest in Texas creates at least two separate cases: the criminal case, and the ALR (Administrative License Revocation) case. The criminal case is the one people expect. The ALR case is a civil, administrative matter heard at the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH), and most people don't realize it exists until it's too late.
At arrest you should receive paperwork — historically two yellow sheets, though agencies increasingly print them on plain white paper. Those sheets start a 15-day clock. If you do not request an ALR hearing within 15 days of your arrest, your driver license is automatically suspended on the 40th day. Requesting the hearing preserves your license while the case is pending and gives your attorney an early, sworn look at the officer's account. Too many lawyers tell clients not to bother with ALR; that usually means they haven't had success with it.
A breath result looks authoritative to a jury, but it rests on machine assumptions and human procedures, and each one can be challenged. The device Texas uses for evidence is the Intoxilyzer 9000, and it doesn't measure the alcohol in your blood directly — it estimates it from your breath, using assumptions about a "standard" person. These cases are won in the details:
Because Phillip is a certified instructor of the field-sobriety tests the police use, these aren't abstract objections. For the full picture, read our complete Breath Test Defense guide.
A blood draw feels like hard science, but a blood result can be fought from many angles — and you don't need a science degree to understand how. The lab runs your blood through gas chromatography to produce a number, and that number depends on how the blood was drawn, preserved, stored, and analyzed:
Learn how it works and where it breaks down in our complete Blood Test Defense guide, plus The Truth About Crime Lab Testing.
A misdemeanor DWI usually carries relatively low bail — often a few hundred dollars — but commonly comes with conditions, such as an ignition interlock on any vehicle you drive. Felony DWI charges (intoxication assault, intoxication manslaughter, or DWI with a child passenger) can carry much higher bail, and 2025 legislative changes can affect bail for felony offenses, especially for those with prior records.
A DWI conviction is a lifelong criminal record in Texas. Worse, Texas has an unlimited "lookback" period — a later DWI is enhanced no matter how long ago the prior conviction occurred.
Any charge can be dismissed. Prosecutors decide what gets dismissed and what goes to trial, weighing the strength of the evidence, witness availability and credibility, the circumstances of the arrest, your record, and the skill of the defense. Beating a DWI starts with the willingness to contest it.
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