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Your Georgetown Criminal Defense Attorney
The court that hears a Georgetown criminal case depends on Williamson County’s own structure: District Court for felonies, County Court at Law for Class A and B misdemeanors, Justice or Municipal Court for a fine-only Class C offense. How bail gets set, and how quickly an appointed attorney has to show up, are both covered further down this page. None of this is unique to Georgetown; the same three-tier structure applies across Texas, though the specific court a case lands in still depends on Williamson County.
How Bail Actually Gets Set After an Arrest in Georgetown
Texas’s Damon Allen Act (Senate Bill 6, 2021) rewrote how bail gets set: a magistrate can no longer rely on a fixed bail schedule and instead has to individually weigh the nature of the offense, the defendant’s actual ability to pay, the safety of any victim, law enforcement, and the community, and the defendant’s criminal history, including any prior failures to appear. Texas Constitution Article I, Section 11 still guarantees a right to bail for virtually every offense except a capital one where the proof is evident, and a personal bond, meaning release without posting money subject to conditions, is evaluated under those same Damon Allen Act factors rather than a separate standard. Before any of this happens, Article 15.17 of the Code of Criminal Procedure requires a magistration hearing within 48 hours of arrest, the point where the charges are formally read, the right to counsel is explained, and a magistrate first sets bail conditions. Because Williamson County’s population exceeds 250,000, the Fair Defense Act (Code of Criminal Procedure Article 1.051) requires a court to appoint counsel for an indigent defendant within 1 working day of the request, not the longer 3-day window smaller counties get.
Penalties Under Texas Law: What a Conviction Actually Means
The classification a charge receives under Penal Code Chapter 12, spanning a fine-only Class C misdemeanor up through a first-degree felony’s 5-to-99-year range, determines both which court hears it and what a conviction can actually carry. A state jail felony, the lowest felony tier at 180 days to 2 years, is still served in a state jail facility rather than county jail or prison, and still carries a felony record even at that lower end of the range. 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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Three of the Most Common Charges We See in Williamson County
Assault under Penal Code §22.01 covers a wide range of conduct: a threat or offensive contact alone can be a Class C misdemeanor, while causing actual bodily injury is typically a Class A misdemeanor, but the charge escalates to a felony when the alleged victim is a public servant, a family member, or someone in another protected category. Theft under Penal Code §31.03 is graded entirely by dollar value: under $100 is a Class C misdemeanor, $100 to under $750 is Class B, and $750 to under $2,500 is Class A; above that, it becomes a felony, from a state jail felony ($2,500 to under $30,000) up through a first-degree felony at $300,000 or more. Texas grades drug possession by weight, not a flat charge: a Penalty Group 1 substance (§481.115), with cocaine and methamphetamine as common examples, is a state jail felony under 1 gram, escalating to a third-degree felony at 1 to under 4 grams and a second-degree felony at 4 to under 200 grams. Marijuana runs on its own separate scale under §481.121, starting at a Class B misdemeanor under 2 ounces.
Expunction and Nondisclosure Aren't the Same Thing Under Texas Law
Government Code §411.072 makes a nondisclosure order automatic for certain qualifying deferred adjudications after a 180-day wait, while §411.0725 requires a petition for felonies and other misdemeanors not covered by §411.072, two different mechanisms depending on the offense. 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.
Williamson County's Courts and Jail
Williamson County’s District Courts and its four County Courts at Law are both housed at the Williamson County Justice Center at 405 MLK Street in Georgetown, the county seat, with the Round Rock Jail serving as the county’s primary detention facility for arrests made anywhere in the county, including Round Rock itself.
Closest service areas: the Round Rock criminal defense resource, criminal defense attorneys serving Killeen.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can bail be denied entirely in Texas?
Yes, in narrow circumstances: Texas Constitution Article I, Section 11(a) allows bail to be denied for certain repeat felony offenders, a felony committed while already on bail, or a violent or sexual offense committed while on bail or parole.
How quickly will I actually get a court-appointed lawyer?
Williamson County falls above the Fair Defense Act’s 250,000-population line, so the appointment clock is 1 working day, the faster of the two statutory tiers.
Does a prior conviction affect how a new charge is sentenced in Texas?
Yes, Penal Code Chapter 12’s habitual/repeat-offender enhancements can raise a charge’s punishment range by a full degree or more for a second or subsequent felony, on top of whatever the current charge alone would carry.
When does a theft charge become a felony in Texas?
At $2,500 or more in alleged value; below that, theft under Penal Code §31.03 is a misdemeanor (Class C under $100, Class B under $750, Class A under $2,500), and at $2,500 it becomes a state jail felony, escalating from there by value.
Does a DWI arrest affect a driver’s license before the criminal case is decided?
Yes, under Transportation Code §724.041, a driver has only 15 days from notice to request an Administrative License Revocation hearing, a civil process that runs independently of the criminal case.
Is there a waiting period before petitioning for a nondisclosure order?
Yes, and it varies by offense: some misdemeanors qualify immediately after successfully completing deferred adjudication, while others (and most felonies) require a 2 or 5-year waiting period under Government Code Chapter 411 before the petition can be filed.
The Clock Is Already Running
Whether it’s a misdemeanor in County Court at Law or a felony in District Court, a Georgetown case moves forward with or without a defense strategy in place, which is exactly why getting one started early matters.
