Williamson County DWI Defense
Williamson County DWI Attorney
Charged with DWI in Williamson County? Your license deadline starts fast.
I defend DWI cases in Williamson County, and DWI is the only work this office does. Since 1998 I have handled more than 6,000 of them.
If the alleged offense occurred in Williamson County, the case is heard in Georgetown, not in Austin. That includes allegations arising in the Williamson County portions of Round Rock, Cedar Park and Leander, as well as Georgetown, Hutto or Taylor. This surprises people who live twenty minutes from downtown and assumed otherwise.
15-Day License Deadline
Your license after a Williamson County 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
Williamson County 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 Williamson County, 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 Williamson County DWI case is heard
Everything runs through the Williamson County Justice Center at 405 Martin Luther King Street in Georgetown. Adult misdemeanor DWI cases are prosecuted in County Courts at Law 2, 3, and 5.
Felony DWI goes to one of the county's criminal district courts. Williamson also has district courts that handle civil and family matters only, so the list of courts in the county is longer than the list that will ever hear a DWI case.
The Williamson County Attorney's Criminal Division prosecutes adult misdemeanor offenses in County Courts at Law 2, 3, and 5. The Williamson County District Attorney's Office represents the State in felony offenses in Williamson County.
The practical effect of a single courthouse is that scheduling is tighter than in a county with buildings spread across town. Settings tend to move along, which rewards having the evidence review done early rather than asking for time later.
The court assignment does not identify the evidence custodian. Round Rock Police, Georgetown Police, another city department, the Williamson County Sheriff's Office, or DPS ordinarily maintains the report, dispatch history, and available recordings created by that agency. The agency named on the arrest paperwork is the starting point for identifying those records.
Booking and jail materials are separate from the police file, and breath-program or laboratory records may have another custodian. The charging document and court assignment identify where the DWI proceeds; the record creator identifies where its supporting report, video, or test material must be requested.
Williamson County at a glance
Courthouse
Williamson County Justice Center
405 Martin Luther King Street, Georgetown 78626
Jail
Williamson County Jail
306 West 4th Street, Georgetown
Misdemeanor DWI
County Courts at Law 2, 3, and 5
Programs
Williamson County runs a felony DWI court program.
The Williamson County felony DWI court program
Williamson County runs a dedicated felony DWI court program, which is not something most Texas counties have. It is a supervised track for felony level DWI cases rather than an ordinary docket, and it comes with structure: reporting, testing, treatment requirements and regular review.
Whether that is good news depends entirely on the case. For someone facing a third DWI, where the exposure under section 49.09(b)(2) runs from two to ten years, a structured program can be a materially better path than the alternative. For someone whose case has a real evidentiary problem, entering a program means accepting a framework rather than testing whether the State can prove what it says it can.
That is a decision to make with the video and the lab work in front of you, not at the first setting. I would rather know what the breath and blood evidence actually shows before advising anyone to opt into supervision that can run for a year or more.
Booking and magistration in Georgetown
A Williamson County DWI arrest goes to the county jail on West 4th Street in Georgetown. What happens in the first day or two sets the conditions you will live under for months.
How long booking takes
Booking generally runs two to five hours. Magistration follows, usually within twenty four to forty eight hours, before a justice of the peace sitting as magistrate. Bond conditions are set at that appearance.
Interlock as a bond condition
For a charged subsequent offense, or any charge involving a child passenger, intoxication assault or intoxication manslaughter, an ignition interlock is mandatory under article 17.441 and must be installed within thirty days. It is a condition of release, not a sentence.
The clock is already running
The 15 day license deadline starts at arrest, not at your first court date. By the time a first setting arrives in Georgetown, that window has usually closed for anyone who did not act on it.
15 days
to request your ALR hearing
The 15 day ALR deadline on a Texas DWI
Your license is attacked in a separate civil case run by the Department of Public Safety, and it moves faster than anything happening in Georgetown. The request to contest it is due within 15 days of the notice handed to you at arrest. Where the case involves a blood draw there is often no notice at arrest at all, because DPS mails it once results come back, and the deadline becomes 20 days from mailing.
Filing it is the first thing I do. Beyond protecting the license, the hearing puts the arresting officer under oath months before the criminal case gets near the same questions. Full detail is 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, policy, or receipt is not the certificate, and filing it does not by itself restore driving privileges; DPS eligibility controls. The license reinstatement guide explains that handoff.
Williamson County DWI Defense
Call Ken today for Williamson County, 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 which court hears them
Charge level decides whether your case sits in a county court at law or a district court, so it is worth being precise about where yours falls. Most are a first offense Class B.
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 |
The school crossing zone line is new and it catches people. Since September 1, 2025 a DWI committed in an active school zone is a state jail felony under section 49.04(e), with no injury and no child passenger needed. In a county with as many school zones as this one, that is not a hypothetical.
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. That provision took effect September 1, 2025.
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 or nondisclosure may apply depends on the actual disposition. An ALR record is separate from the criminal disposition.
For the longer statewide explanation of why the row applies only in a designated school crossing zone while the reduced speed limit is in effect, see DWI in a Texas school crossing zone.
Which cities route to Georgetown
Allegations arising in the Williamson County portions of Round Rock, Cedar Park and Leander, and those arising in Georgetown, Hutto, Taylor and Liberty Hill, proceed at the Justice Center in Georgetown. So do north Austin allegations inside the Williamson County line, which is where most of the confusion happens.
An Austin mailing address does not mean a Travis County case. The county line runs through neighborhoods north of the river, and two houses on the same road can answer in different courthouses thirty miles apart. If you are north of Austin and unsure, that is worth settling before anything else.
A separate Class C citation or city-level matter from Round Rock may appear in municipal court, but a DWI allegation arising in Williamson County proceeds in the Williamson County courts in Georgetown.
Cities I serve in Williamson County
Round Rock DWI attorney · Cedar Park DWI attorney · Leander DWI attorney · Georgetown DWI attorney · Hutto DWI attorney · Taylor DWI attorney
Also Liberty Hill, the Williamson County portion of Pflugerville, and north Austin addresses inside the county line.
Routes to Austin instead
Most of Austin · the Travis County portions of Round Rock, Cedar Park, Leander and Pflugerville · Manor · Del Valle · Lakeway · Bee Cave
Round Rock, Cedar Park, Leander and Pflugerville each cross the county line. The location of the alleged offense, not the city name alone, decides whether the case proceeds in Georgetown or Austin.
Choosing a DWI attorney for a Williamson County case
Ask how much of the practice is DWI. A general criminal defense office takes a handful of these a year alongside everything else. I have worked on more than 6,000 since 1998 and I take nothing else, which is why I can tell you early whether a felony DWI court program is worth considering in your case or whether the evidence deserves testing first.
Ask who appears for you. I file the license request, review the video, argue the motions and stand next to you in Georgetown. You are not handed to an associate after the first meeting.
Ask when the video gets looked at. Dash camera, body camera and booking video are the only record made at the time. Everything that follows, including whether a program makes sense, depends on what that review turns up.
Related pages
Williamson County DWI questions
I was arrested in Round Rock. Where is my case heard?
If the alleged offense occurred in Williamson County, the case proceeds at the Williamson County Justice Center, 405 Martin Luther King Street in Georgetown. A misdemeanor DWI is filed in Williamson County Courts at Law 2, 3, and 5, and a felony DWI is filed in a Williamson County district court. A Round Rock allegation arising in Travis County proceeds in the Travis County courts in Austin. A separate Class C citation or city-level matter may appear in municipal court, but municipal court does not hear the DWI charge.
I have an Austin address. Why is my case in Georgetown?
Because the county line, not the mailing address, decides it. North Austin neighborhoods inside Williamson County answer in Georgetown. Two homes on the same street can end up in different courthouses.
What is the felony DWI court program?
A supervised track Williamson County runs for felony level DWI cases, with reporting, testing, treatment requirements and regular review. Whether it is the right move depends on what the evidence shows, which is why I want the video and lab work reviewed before anyone opts in.
How many county courts at law hear DWI here?
Three: County Courts at Law 2, 3, and 5.
How long do I have to protect my license?
15 days from the notice of suspension given at arrest. In a blood test case DPS usually mails the notice when results return, and the deadline is 20 days from mailing. The request goes to DPS and is separate from the criminal case.
Can a Williamson County DWI be cleared from my record later?
It depends on how the case ends. A DWI has been eligible for an order of nondisclosure since 2017, but only for someone with no prior conviction or deferred adjudication for anything beyond a fine only traffic offense, and a conviction with an alcohol concentration of 0.15 or higher is excluded. Expunction is a separate remedy. See clearing a DWI from your record.