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A Fort Worth arrest doesn’t automatically mean a felony courtroom: Tarrant County’s District Court handles felonies, but a Class A or B misdemeanor stays in County Court at Law, and a fine-only Class C goes to Justice or Municipal Court instead. What actually happens between arrest and that first court date, including bail and the right to counsel and how quickly either has to happen, is covered further down this page. That distinction isn’t a technicality: it decides which court has jurisdiction, what the punishment range looks like, and how the case proceeds from the first hearing forward.
Bail, Personal Bonds, and the Right to Counsel
Under Article 17.15 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, as amended by the Damon Allen Act, bail can’t be used as ‘an instrument of oppression’: a magistrate has to consider the specific offense, the defendant’s ability to pay, public safety, and criminal history before setting an amount or granting a personal bond. A surety bond through a licensed bail bondsman, typically at a set percentage of the total bail amount, remains the most common way most defendants actually post bail once an amount is set. Article 15.17 of the Code of Criminal Procedure puts a hard 48-hour clock on this: every arrested person has to appear before a magistrate within that window, be told the specific charges against them, have their right to an attorney explained, and have bail conditions set. The Fair Defense Act ties the counsel-appointment deadline to county population, and Tarrant County clears the 250,000 threshold, which means the 1-working-day appointment deadline applies rather than the 3-day deadline a smaller county would have. Certain repeat or violent offenders can have bail denied outright under Article I, Section 11(a) of the Texas Constitution, a narrower exception than the general bail-setting process most cases go through.
Sentencing Ranges in Fort Worth, Texas Criminal Cases
Under Penal Code Chapter 12, a state jail felony carries 180 days to 2 years in state jail; a third-degree felony carries 2 to 10 years; a second-degree felony carries 2 to 20 years; and a first-degree felony carries 5 to 99 years or life, and each felony tier also carries up to a $10,000 fine. Below the felony tiers, a Class A misdemeanor tops out at a year in county jail and a $4,000 fine, Class B at 180 days and $2,000, and Class C is fine-only, up to $500, with no jail time at all. Separate from the criminal case, a DWI arrest triggers a civil, administrative consequence: under Transportation Code §724.041, a driver has only 15 calendar days from notice to request a hearing on the license suspension, or the suspension takes effect automatically 40 days after notice. That administrative process runs on its own clock under Texas’s implied-consent law and proceeds independently of whatever happens in the criminal case itself.
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Assault, Theft, and Drug Charges Under Texas Law
A simple assault charge under §22.01 isn’t always the same offense: threatening someone or making offensive contact can be a fine-only Class C misdemeanor, while causing bodily injury is usually charged as a Class A misdemeanor, and certain victim categories, such as a public servant, a family member, or someone in a dating relationship, can push it to a felony instead. Texas doesn’t charge every theft the same way: §31.03 scales the classification directly to the value taken, from a Class C misdemeanor under $100 through a state jail felony at $2,500, and on up to a first-degree felony once the value reaches $300,000. A drug possession charge’s severity turns on the specific substance’s penalty group and the weight alleged: Penalty Group 1 substances under §481.115 start at a state jail felony below 1 gram and climb from there, while marijuana, classified separately under §481.121 and not folded into the Penalty Group ladder, starts as a Class B misdemeanor under 2 ounces and doesn’t reach felony territory until 4 ounces.
Clearing a Record: Expunction vs. Nondisclosure
Which record-clearing process applies turns on how the case resolved: no conviction at all points toward expunction under Chapter 55A, with its waiting periods scaled by offense severity (180 days for a Class C misdemeanor, 1 year for a Class A or B, 3 years for a felony); a successfully completed deferred adjudication points toward a nondisclosure order under Government Code Chapter 411 instead, which seals rather than destroys the record. Getting the wrong process started, filing for expunction on a case that actually needs a nondisclosure petition, or the reverse, can waste real time, since the two statutes serve genuinely different situations.
Tarrant County's Courts and Jail
Tarrant County takes a different approach than Dallas’s split-building setup: the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center at 401 West Belknap Street in Fort Worth houses all 11 District Courts with criminal jurisdiction, all 10 County Criminal Courts, the Criminal District Attorney’s Office, and the District Clerk’s Office in one building, a genuine one-stop courthouse rather than separate booking and courtroom facilities in different parts of downtown.
The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office is organized into five divisions (Criminal, Civil, Investigation, Operations, and the Chief of Staff’s office), with more than 135 attorneys in the Criminal Division alone reviewing an estimated 45,000 to 50,000 felony and misdemeanor cases every year. The Tarrant County Jail, at 501 West 10th Street in Fort Worth, is one of the largest county jails in Texas by capacity, and it’s the same countywide system an arrest anywhere in Tarrant County, including Arlington, a separate city from the county seat, feeds into, not a separate Arlington-specific facility.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How is bail set after an arrest in Tarrant County?
A magistrate has to individually weigh the offense, the defendant’s ability to pay, public safety, and criminal history under the Damon Allen Act (CCP Art. 17.15), not apply a fixed bail schedule.
Is there a real difference in appointment speed between counties?
Yes, the Fair Defense Act (CCP Art. 1.051) sets a 1-working-day deadline in counties of 250,000 or more, which includes Tarrant County, versus 3 working days in a smaller county.
What’s the practical difference between probation and deferred adjudication in Texas?
Regular probation still results in a final conviction on the record even if completed successfully; deferred adjudication avoids a final conviction altogether if probation is completed, which is why it’s often eligible for a nondisclosure order later and regular probation generally isn’t.
What turns a simple assault into aggravated assault?
Causing serious bodily injury or using or exhibiting a deadly weapon during the assault: either one moves the charge from Penal Code §22.01 to §22.02’s aggravated assault, a second-degree felony (or first-degree in certain family or dating-violence contexts).
What happens if I don’t request an ALR hearing in time?
The 15-day window under Transportation Code §724.041 isn’t extendable; missing it results in an automatic license suspension taking effect on day 40 after the arrest, regardless of how the underlying criminal DWI case turns out.
Can a conviction ever be expunged in Texas?
No, expunction under Chapter 55A is not available for a conviction, including one where probation was successfully completed; a nondisclosure order is the applicable process for a successfully completed deferred adjudication instead.
Every Decision From Here Matters
A criminal charge in Fort Worth runs on real deadlines from day one, not a flexible timeline that waits for anyone to catch up.
