Bee Cave DWI Defense
Bee Cave DWI Attorney
Charged with DWI in Bee Cave? Your license deadline starts fast.
I defend DWI cases in Bee Cave. DWI is the only kind of case I take, and I have worked on more than 6,000 since 1998.
Bee Cave sits at the junction of two of the busiest roads west of Austin, which is where most of its DWI cases start.
15-Day License Deadline
Your license after a Bee Cave DWI arrest
The clock starts on the date of the notice of suspension you were handed at arrest, not on your first court date. Nobody at the jail files the request, the court does not file it, and it does not happen automatically. It is a written demand to the Department of Public Safety.
Miss it and the suspension takes effect with nobody reviewing whether the stop was lawful.
Free Consultation
Call 512-469-6056
Bee Cave DWI Defense Attorney
Ken Gibson
I handle every case in this office myself, from the license hearing through trial.
6,000+
DWI Cases Handled
Since 1998
Practicing DWI Defense
DWI Only
Defense Focus
How The Process Works
How Ken handles a DWI case in Bee Cave, Texas
The order matters, because the license deadline arrives long before the criminal case does anything.
Step 1
Free Consultation
You describe what happened. Ken tells you what you are charged with, what the exposure is, and what the immediate deadlines are.
Step 2
The ALR Filing
The hearing request goes to the Department of Public Safety inside the 15 day window, which protects your license and opens an early route to the officer's testimony.
Step 3
Evidence Review
Dash camera, body camera and booking video, the offense report, breath test records or the blood lab packet, and the warrant affidavit if one was used.
Step 4
The License Hearing
The officer can be questioned under oath. Whatever comes out of that is on the record before the criminal case reaches the same issues.
Step 5
Motions and Negotiation
Contested issues get raised in writing. What the case can resolve to depends on what the evidence review actually turned up.
Step 6
Resolution or Trial
Most cases resolve before trial. The ones that do not are tried on the same record that was built from the first week.
Where a Bee Cave DWI case is heard
Bee Cave is in Travis County, so a DWI charge is heard at the Blackwell Thurman Criminal Justice Center on West 11th Street in Austin, with booking at Central Booking on West 10th Street. It is around twenty miles each way.
Bee Cave is small in population but carries traffic well beyond its size, because the roads through it serve the whole western side of the county.
Bee Cave at a glance
County
Travis County
Courthouse
Blackwell Thurman Criminal Justice Center at 509 West 11th Street in Austin
License deadline
15 days from notice, or 20 days from mailing in a blood test case
Where Bee Cave DWI stops happen
West Highway 71 and Ranch Road 620 meet at Bee Cave, and that junction carries traffic from the communities further west heading into Austin. Bee Caves Road runs east from there toward the city. Between them these roads carry most of the western commute.
Highway 71 is a high speed road, and stops there tend to follow an extended period of observed driving. That cuts both ways: a longer observation gives an officer more to describe, and it also gives the dash camera more to record. The retail and restaurant cluster around the Galleria concentrates evening traffic onto the same junction, which is where the later stops usually happen.
For a Bee Cave stop, the report source often turns on where the officer entered the Highway 71, Ranch Road 620 or Galleria-area corridor. Bee Cave Police maintains its city-stop materials, DPS maintains a trooper's records from a state route, and the Travis County Sheriff's Office may be the custodian outside the city boundary. The case still routes to the Travis County courts, but dispatch logs, crash material and available camera files may need separate requests to the agency that created each record.
Bee Cave DWI Defense
Call Ken today for Bee Cave, TX DWI advice.
Tell Ken what happened and he will tell you what you are actually facing, where your case is likely headed, and what needs to happen before the 15-day license deadline passes.
Call 512-469-6056
Free Consultation
Texas DWI charge levels and what they carry
The charge level decides the exposure and which court hears the case. It turns on the alcohol concentration reported, whether anyone under 15 was in the vehicle, whether an open container was within reach, and what is already on your record.
Texas recognizes two independent ways to allege intoxication under Penal Code section 49.01(2): not having the normal use of mental or physical faculties because of alcohol, drugs, a combination of substances, or another substance; or having an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more. A DWI allegation can therefore be filed below 0.08 under the loss-of-faculties theory.
| Charge | Classification | Jail exposure | Criminal fine |
|---|---|---|---|
| First DWI, Penal Code 49.04 | Class B misdemeanor | 72 hours minimum, up to 180 days | Up to $2,000 |
| First DWI with an open container | Class B misdemeanor | 6 days minimum, up to 180 days | Up to $2,000 |
| Alcohol concentration 0.15 or higher, 49.04(d) | Class A misdemeanor | Up to 1 year | Up to $4,000 |
| Second DWI, 49.09(a) | Class A misdemeanor | 30 days minimum, up to 1 year | Up to $4,000 |
| Third DWI, 49.09(b)(2) | Third degree felony | 2 to 10 years | Up to $10,000 |
| Passenger younger than 15, 49.045 | State jail felony | 180 days to 2 years | Up to $10,000 |
| DWI in an active school crossing zone, 49.04(e) | State jail felony | 180 days to 2 years | Up to $10,000 |
| Intoxication assault causing serious bodily injury, 49.07 | Ordinarily third degree felony | 2 to 10 years | Up to $10,000 |
| Intoxication manslaughter causing death, 49.08 | Ordinarily second degree felony | 2 to 20 years | Up to $10,000 |
Intoxication assault under Penal Code section 49.07 and intoxication manslaughter under section 49.08 are separate Chapter 49 intoxication offenses, rather than classifications of a basic DWI charge.
Since September 1, 2025 a DWI in an active school crossing zone is a state jail felony under section 49.04(e), with no injury and no child passenger required. Details of a first charge are on my first offense DWI page.
For the school-zone row, section 49.04(e) applies only when the alleged operation occurred in a school crossing zone during the time the reduced speed limit applied.
Texas does not use a general ten-year washout that makes a qualifying prior intoxication conviction disappear for enhancement under Penal Code section 49.09. Administrative license rules can use their own lookback periods, so the criminal and license histories must be examined separately.
The criminal fine shown in the table is only one part of the financial consequences. On a final DWI conviction, Transportation Code section 709.001 imposes a separate, single state fine: $3,000 for a first conviction within the applicable 36-month period, $4,500 for a second or later conviction within that period, or $6,000 when a specimen analysis showed an alcohol concentration of 0.15 or more at the time the analysis was performed. Court costs and DPS/license requirements are separate. If the court makes the statute's indigency finding, it must waive the state fine in full.
What happens to the record
A DWI conviction does not automatically disappear after seven or ten years, and a dismissal does not automatically erase every criminal, DPS, or private record. Whether expunction under Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 55A or an order of nondisclosure under Government Code Chapter 411, Subchapter E-1 may apply depends on the actual disposition and other eligibility requirements. An ALR record is separate from the criminal disposition.
15 days
to request your ALR hearing
The 15 day ALR deadline
Your license is a separate civil case run by the Department of Public Safety, and it does not wait for the criminal case. The request to contest it is due within 15 days of the notice given at arrest. Where a blood draw was taken there is often no notice at arrest, because DPS mails it when results return, and the deadline becomes 20 days from mailing.
I file it first in every case. Beyond protecting the license it puts the arresting officer under oath months before the criminal case reaches the same questions. More on my 15 day ALR deadline page.
Depending on the suspension and reinstatement path, DPS may require an insurer to file a Financial Responsibility Insurance Certificate (SR-22). An insurance card or policy is not the certificate, and filing it does not by itself restore driving privileges; DPS eligibility controls. The license reinstatement guide explains that handoff.
More on Texas DWI defense
Bee Cave DWI questions
Where is a Bee Cave DWI heard?
At the Blackwell Thurman Criminal Justice Center in Austin. Bee Cave is in Travis County, so cases route to the Austin courthouse, roughly twenty miles east.
I was stopped on Highway 71. What does that change?
Mostly the evidence. A stop on a high speed road usually follows a longer stretch of observed driving than a stop on a surface street, so there is typically more dash camera footage of the driving that was said to justify it.
How long do I have to protect my license?
15 days from the notice of suspension handed to you at arrest, or 20 days from mailing where DPS sends notice after blood results return. The request goes to DPS and is separate from the criminal case.
What happens to the video from my stop?
Dash-camera, body-camera, and booking video can preserve important parts of the stop and booking process, but they are not the only records that may exist. Dispatch or CAD entries, 911 calls, offense and arrest reports, breath-test records, blood-draw and laboratory records, and third-party video may also be available. Reviewing the available sources together can show where the written report is supported or contradicted.