Fort Worth Alternative Drug Programs

It is not coded under Texas law, but there are practical alternative sentencing situations in Texas. It can depend greatly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Many jurisdictions have what they call direct court programs, which are basically a type of probation involving counseling and testing, which can result in the case being dismissed and the person being eligible to expunge their records, so there is no record of the arrest or charge. There are also many other creative alternatives that our Fort Worth drug lawyers are familiar with and that we are able to use in our particular jurisdictions in North Texas, but all over Texas, you must check with each county to see if a case can be dismissed.

Can A Drug-Related Charge Be Expunged Or Sealed In Texas?

It is not automatically removed. If you are acquitted of a drug charge and you are entitled to have it expunged from your record, which means, the records are erased, deleted, and destroyed, it does not show up on a background check and you can legally say that it never happened. To accomplish an expunction, a lawsuit has to be filed in the District Court in the county where the arrest happened. There is court cost of approximately $450 to file for an expunction. If a person goes through a trial and is acquitted or found not guilty, then most jurisdictions do not charge any filing fee if the expunction is filed within thirty days of the acquittal.

At any time a person is acquitted or found not guilty, it is important to promptly file the expunction. There is no court cost for filing the expunction when the person is acquitted if filed within 30 days of the acquittal and this can quickly be expunged, erased, deleted, destroyed, and removed from the person’s record as well. The expunction is the best way to get the person back to normal, back to where they were before it happened, so this arrest does not negatively affect the rest of their life.

Penalties For Forging A Drug Prescription In Texas

Forging a prescription, attempting to obtain a prescription drug illegally, without authorization or a valid prescription is a felony offense under Texas Law. That starts out as a state jail felony, the lowest level of a felony, but still a felony offense, a permanent criminal record, and possibly six months up to two years in a state jail facility, which is basically a special prison just for that level of offense. If you have time in that prison, it is day to day. You do not get out early, there is no early release, no two for one credit, and there is no parole. It can be significant time spent in this facility.

If you possess a prescription drug of somebody else’s that is not prescribed for you, then that is a criminal offense depending on the substance. It usually starts out, and depending on the amount of the substance, with a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and up to a $4,000 fine. Depending on the amount and depending on the substance, it can be a felony to possess it.

What Sets Your Firm Apart In Handling Drug Related Cases?

What sets our firm apart is our individualized handling of each case, and our recognition of the severe impact of the record arrest or conviction of a drug offense for any one. Our ability to find creative ways to get the case dismissed our ability to fight in court to use the constitution to get the case thrown out. We get the clients acquitted, get the client found not guilty, and then expunge their record and land them back to the position where they were before this offense and arrest happened, so they have a clean record and their future is not harmed by all of this.