Collin County Criminal Defense Attorney

Charge categories handled in Collin County

The Collin County Criminal District Attorney’s Office prosecutes the full Texas charge spectrum filed from Collin County arrests. Each major category has its own defense framework, statutory analysis, and procedural workflow:

• DWI (Tex. Penal Code § 49.04) — Class B (BAC < 0.15) or Class A (BAC ≥ 0.15) first offense; second-offense Class A; felony DWI on third or DWI-with-child enhancement. ALR hearing required within 15 days under Tex. Transp. Code § 524.031.
• Drug possession (Tex. Health & Safety Code § 481) — Penalty Group classification drives punishment range. Possession with intent to distribute under § 481.112 elevates one class.
• Assault and family violence (Tex. Penal Code § 22.01) — Class A misdemeanor; Class A family-violence assault adds a federal firearms ban under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9). Continuous family violence under § 25.11 is a third-degree felony.
• Theft (Tex. Penal Code § 31.03) — aggregated under § 31.09, value tiers from Class C (under $100) to first-degree felony ($300,000+).
• Weapons offenses (Tex. Penal Code Ch. 46) — UCW under § 46.02, felon-in-possession under federal § 922(g)(1), prohibited weapons under § 46.05.
• Sex offenses (Tex. Penal Code Ch. 21-22) — sexual assault is a second-degree felony; aggravated sexual assault is a first-degree; both trigger Tex. Code Crim. Proc. ch. 62 registration.

Whatever the category, the case is filed the same way — through the Collin County Criminal District Attorney’s Office and into a McKinney courtroom — but the defense diverges sharply by charge. A first-offense possession case and an aggravated-assault case share almost none of the same pressure points, deadlines, or diversion options, which is why we scope the representation to the specific statute and offense level from the first consultation rather than treating “a Collin County criminal case” as one undifferentiated thing.

The Collin County criminal court infrastructure

Collin County criminal cases are filed and tried at the Russell A. Steindam Courts Building, 2100 Bloomdale Road, in McKinney. The county seats 15 state district courts, which carry felony criminal matters alongside civil and family dockets, and 7 county courts at law, which handle misdemeanors, Class C appeals, mental-health, and probate — every one of them convening at the same Bloomdale Road complex. Pretrial detention before bond is posted is at the Collin County Detention Facility, 4300 Community Avenue, McKinney, which the Collin County Sheriff’s Office operates while also serving capias warrants across the county.

The Collin County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, at 2100 Bloomdale Road, Suite 100, is the prosecuting authority for state-court criminal matters in the county. Collin County has no separate county attorney handling criminal cases — the Criminal District Attorney prosecutes the entire caseload, routing felonies to its felony-trial resources and misdemeanors to its misdemeanor docket. Each carries its own intake practice, plea-evaluation framework, and trial-preparation tempo, and knowing how a given unit charges and negotiates is part of preparing any Collin County defense.

The defense workflow for a Collin County case

Once you retain the firm, the case proceeds on a defined workflow:

1. Bond and pretrial release. If you are in custody, we file an emergency bond motion under Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 17.15 in the trial court. We coordinate with the bondsman or pursue a PR bond where eligible. We respond to any pending capias warrant.
2. Discovery demand. Within 14 days of arraignment, we file the Michael Morton Act discovery demand under Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 39.14. We obtain the offense report, body-cam video, in-car video, lab reports, dispatch tape, and prior-call records.
3. Investigation and motion practice. We review the discovery for Fourth Amendment suppression issues, chain-of-custody breaks, Brady-and-Giglio disclosure issues, and procedural defects. We draft motions to suppress, motions in limine, and motions to dismiss as the record supports.
4. Plea negotiation. We engage the Collin County Criminal District Attorney’s Office on plea options — pretrial diversion (where the county runs such a program), deferred adjudication, charge reduction, or favorable sentencing. Negotiation tempo varies by county and division.
5. Trial preparation or disposition. If the case resolves by plea, we document the plea agreement and represent you at the plea hearing. If the case proceeds to trial, we prepare voir dire, opening statement, cross-examination outlines, defense case-in-chief, and closing argument.
6. Post-disposition relief. If the case ends favorably, we calendar the expunction or non-disclosure petition. If a sentence is imposed, we file notice of appeal within 30 days under Tex. R. App. P. 26.2(a) where appellate review is appropriate.

That sequence is standard, but the timing is local. In Collin County the reset calendar in the McKinney courts, the Criminal District Attorney’s plea-evaluation practice, and the availability of a program like the County Court at Law No. 7 DWI/Drug Court all shape when each step happens and what leverage exists at it. A workflow that looks identical on paper from county to county still plays out on Collin County’s own docket rhythm, and that rhythm is what we plan the defense around.

Engagement and fee structure

The firm operates on a flat-fee structure for criminal-defense engagements. At the free initial consultation (30-45 minutes, conducted by one of the founding partners), we assess the case posture, identify the time-sensitive deadlines, and quote a flat fee in writing if we are the right firm for the matter. The flat fee covers the entire defense through final disposition or trial in chief on the underlying charge.

We do not bill criminal-defense matters hourly because the State controls the case pace and hourly billing creates the wrong incentives. Appeals, post-conviction relief, and unrelated ancillary matters are scoped separately.

Free Collin County consultation

Direct to attorney 24/7. Flat-fee representation, scoped in writing at the consult.

What a Collin County criminal-defense attorney actually does

Selecting a defense attorney is not the same as hiring a notary or filing a routine form — it is delegating critical strategic judgment about charges, plea options, pretrial motions, evidence challenges, and (if warranted) trial preparation. A Collin County criminal-defense attorney typically begins by reviewing the offense report, body-worn camera and dashcam recordings, McKinney PD or Sheriff's intake records, and the laboratory analysis for any tested substances. Where stops or searches are at issue, counsel examines the precise basis for the encounter (traffic infraction, community caretaker function, anonymous tip corroboration, consent) and the chain of evidence justifying each escalation.

In a Collin County case that early review is grounded in local records: the offense report and body-worn and dashcam video from a Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Allen, or Wylie officer or a sheriff’s deputy, the magistrate’s probable-cause and bond paperwork from the McKinney intake, and any lab analysis routed through the county. Reading those documents against one another — before the first substantive court setting — is where a defense either finds the stop, search, or testing problem that reshapes the case or confirms that the real fight will be at sentencing.

Motion practice in Collin County courts

Effective defense in Collin County turns substantially on motion practice. Common motions include: motion to suppress (Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 38.23 and Fourth Amendment), motion in limine on identifying-witness or prior-conviction evidence, motion to disclose confidential informant identity, motion to compel additional discovery (under Michael Morton Act, Article 39.14), motion for change of venue if pretrial publicity is significant, and motion to dismiss for speedy-trial violation under Article 32A.02. Each motion is evaluated against the specific factual record and the judge's customary disposition. Counsel familiar with the McKinney courts will know, for example, which judges entertain extensive evidentiary suppression hearings versus which prefer to defer issues to trial.

Discovery in Collin County runs through the Michael Morton Act, which in practice means demanding the complete file from the Criminal District Attorney’s Office — reports, video, dispatch audio, lab bench notes, and any prior-statement material — and then litigating what is missing. Whether a suppression issue is worth a full hearing depends as much on which of the McKinney courts holds the case as on the underlying law, so we calibrate the motion strategy to the specific court and judge rather than filing the same boilerplate everywhere.

Sentencing, probation, and post-disposition relief

Most cases in Collin County resolve by plea, and at that stage the defense attorney’s value shifts from trial-readiness to sentencing advocacy: reviewing and objecting to the presentence report, assembling mitigation specific to the defendant — steady employment, family responsibilities in the county, treatment commitments, restitution efforts — and negotiating with the prosecutor for charge concessions, deferred adjudication, or community-supervision conditions calibrated to genuine rehabilitation rather than maximal control. Where the charge involves intoxication or drugs, part of that advocacy is arguing for the County Court at Law No. 7 DWI/Drug Court in place of a straight sentence. After judgment, counsel handles probation-condition modifications under Article 42A.701, early-termination motions, expunction or non-disclosure petitions when available, and, in qualifying cases, writ-of-habeas-corpus litigation for fundamental defects in the conviction.

L and L Law Group represents clients across Collin County in felony and misdemeanor matters, with substantial caseload concentration in DWI, drug, assault, theft, sex-offense, and weapons cases. Our practice runs through both benches at the McKinney courthouse — the county’s 15 district courts on the felony side and its 7 county courts at law on the misdemeanor side — along with the justice-of-the-peace and municipal courts that handle Class C matters in the cities where citations issue.

Because the firm’s Frisco office sits inside Collin County, a McKinney setting is a short drive rather than a cross-metro trip, which lets us appear quickly for early hearings, bond matters, and resets. For a defendant weighing how a charge out of Plano, Frisco, Allen, McKinney, or Wylie will actually be handled, that combination of local court familiarity and physical proximity is a practical part of the representation.