Arlington Criminal Defense Lawyers
Direct-to-attorney criminal defense for Arlington arrests and Tarrant County criminal-court matters. Co-founders Reggie and Njeri London handle every retained case personally — from arraignment through trial or appeal — from our Frisco office, 46 miles from Arlington.
L and L Law Group represents clients arrested in Arlington, Texas and clients facing charges in the Tarrant County Criminal Justice Center on the full Texas Penal Code and Health & Safety Code spectrum. Founding partners Reggie London (Texas Bar No. 24043514, former Dallas County Assistant District Attorney) and Njeri London (Texas Bar No. 24043266, admitted TXND, TXED, 5th Circuit) personally handle every Arlington matter. Our office is in Frisco, 46 miles from Arlington (55 minutes). Free 24/7 consultation: (972) 370-5060.
Common Arlington criminal charges we defend
Arlington sits between Dallas and Fort Worth, which leads a lot of people to assume their case could land in either county. It cannot. Census Bureau place-within-county tabulations put all 403,672 Arlington residents, on the 2024 estimate, inside Tarrant County, with no portion of the city in Dallas County. That settles the prosecutor, the sheriff and the diversion menu in one stroke. What it does not settle is where you will physically go, because almost nothing above a fine-only citation stays inside Arlington.
The charge level decides the building, and which clerk holds the file
| Level | Where it is heard | Who holds the record |
|---|---|---|
| Class C, fine-only | Arlington Municipal Court, 101 W. Abram St., (817) 459-6777, which handles citations, fines and fees, warrants and bond postings for city cases | The municipal court clerk, counter hours 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday |
| Class A and Class B misdemeanor | One of Tarrant County's ten County Criminal Courts, which hear all Class A and B misdemeanors filed in the county; Nos. 1 through 5 sit at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center, 401 West Belknap Street, Fort Worth 76196 | Tarrant County Clerk, criminal section, (817) 884-1195 or (817) 884-1066 |
| Felony | One of eleven felony courts, being Criminal District Courts 1 through 4 plus the 213th, 297th, 371st, 372nd, 396th, 432nd and 485th, all housed at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center, 401 W. Belknap, Fort Worth | Tarrant County District Clerk, (817) 884-1342 or (817) 884-1343 |
The practical consequence is a drive. An Arlington felony setting is in downtown Fort Worth, in the same building as the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney at 401 West Belknap, (817) 884-1400. And the records split is not cosmetic: felony files come from the District Clerk, misdemeanor files from the County Clerk, and asking the wrong office costs days on something that should take one call.
Whether a pre-conviction off-ramp exists is decided by biography, not by the charge
This is the part of a Tarrant County case that surprises people. The county's two headline pre-conviction diversion programs are gated on age and history rather than on what you were accused of, and both gates turn on facts that were already fixed on the day of the alleged offense.
The Deferred Prosecution Program is limited supervision for young first-time offenders, available to people who were aged 17 to 26 at the time of the offense. Being over 26 at the time of the offense is a listed disqualifier, so the birthday that counts is the one you had on the offense date, not on the arrest date and not on the date the case was filed. A prior conviction or supervision for a Class B offense or above also disqualifies. One rule catches applicants who otherwise fit: every offense in the same criminal episode has to be eligible, so a companion charge can sink an application built around the main one. The program line is (817) 884-1633.
The First Offender Drug Program is limited supervision for first-time drug offenders the county describes as self-correctors, and it publishes its price and its term up front:
- Felony: $550 for 180 days.
- Misdemeanor: $350 for 90 days.
The fee covers all testing and classes, so the published figure is the figure. The history bar, though, is stricter than the Deferred Prosecution Program's. Deferred Prosecution looks back at convictions and supervision for Class B offenses and above. The drug program excludes anyone with a prior conviction of any kind, anyone with current or past community supervision, and anyone who has had a deferred adjudication, including one that ended in dismissal. Any pending case other than a Class C misdemeanor also disqualifies.
Read the two rule sets side by side and a pattern shows up. Neither program forgives a second thing happening at the same time, and neither treats a favorable ending years ago as a clean slate. That is why eligibility is a first-week question rather than a last-week one: these are pre-conviction programs, and the window for them exists only while the case is still pending.
Tarrant County also runs a Veterans Treatment Court for justice-involved veterans facing prosecution, built to divert them out of the traditional criminal process into rehabilitative alternatives. It is a separate track from the two programs above and worth raising early where it applies.
Custody in Arlington has three doors
Arlington operates its own city jail at 620 W. Division Street, in the same building as police headquarters, at (817) 459-5648. The public entrance is on the west side of that building, facing Cooper Street, which the street address alone does not tell you. A bonding company posting on a city-jail hold will ask for the Arlington PD jail PLC number for bail, which is 1121.
County-level custody is a different city entirely. The Tarrant County Corrections Center at 100 N. Lamar in Fort Worth, (817) 884-3000, is the central receiving point for a five-facility system with capacity for roughly 5,000 inmates and about 1,000 TCOLE-certified detention officers and deputies. Everyone entering the county system is booked there, photographed and enrolled by iris scan. The bureau takes in approximately 35,000 people a year and moves about 600 inmates to various courts each week, which is the logistics behind how jail dockets in Fort Worth are scheduled.
The third door is the campus. The University of Texas at Arlington runs its own police department covering UTA inside Arlington city limits, at (817) 272-3003. An offense on campus may be worked by UTA police rather than by the Arlington Police Department at 620 W. Division Street, (817) 459-5700, which changes who wrote the report and who you request it from.
Charge level, age on the offense date, and which agency made the arrest shape an Arlington case before anyone argues about the facts. You can review the full range of charges we defend, and we will tell you which Fort Worth courtroom the file is headed to and which gates are still open.
Arlington criminal defense FAQs
Arlington sits between Dallas and Fort Worth. Which county will my case file in?
Tarrant County, every time. Census Bureau place-within-county tabulations put all 403,672 Arlington residents, on the 2024 estimate, inside Tarrant County, with no portion of the city falling in Dallas County. So Arlington has none of the split-city problem that complicates some DFW suburbs. One prosecutor, the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney at 401 West Belknap in Fort Worth, (817) 884-1400. One sheriff, one set of courts, one diversion menu. The open question in an Arlington case is never which county, it is which building inside Tarrant County, and that follows the level of the charge.
My son was arrested in Arlington. Is he at the city jail or in Fort Worth?
Check Arlington first. The city operates its own jail at 620 W. Division Street, in the same building as police headquarters, at (817) 459-5648. The public entrance is on the west side of that building, facing Cooper Street, which the street address alone does not tell you. County-level custody is a separate place: the Tarrant County Corrections Center at 100 N. Lamar in Fort Worth, (817) 884-3000, where the county centrally receives, books, photographs and iris-scans everyone entering its five-facility system. Confirm by phone which one is holding him before anyone drives anywhere with bond money.
A bondsman asked me for Arlington's PLC number. What is that?
It is the identifier a bonding company needs in order to post a bond on a hold at the Arlington city jail, and Arlington publishes it: the Arlington PD jail PLC number for bail is 1121. It is a small piece of paperwork that stalls families at the worst possible moment, because the bondsman cannot move without it and nobody hands it to you at the time of the arrest. Have it ready along with the jail's own line, (817) 459-5648, and the 620 W. Division Street address, and the call goes much faster.
I was 26 when this happened but I am 27 now. Am I out of the Deferred Prosecution Program?
The published gate is age at the time of the offense, not age today. Tarrant County's Deferred Prosecution Program is available to offenders who were 17 to 26 years old at the time of the offense, and the listed disqualifier is being over 26 at the time of the offense. A birthday that arrives while the case is pending therefore does not, by itself, close the door the program describes. Because the program screens applicants against several other criteria as well, anyone in that position should call it directly at (817) 884-1633 rather than assume the answer either way.
An old case of mine was dismissed after deferred adjudication. Does that still count against me in Tarrant County?
For one of the two programs, yes. The First Offender Drug Program excludes anyone with a prior conviction, and separately excludes anyone with current or past community supervision or deferred adjudication, so a case that ended in dismissal after deferred adjudication still disqualifies. The Deferred Prosecution Program draws its history line somewhere else, at a prior conviction or supervision for a Class B offense or above. Two programs in the same courthouse, two different definitions of a clean record. Our Texas expunction and record-clearing page covers why the way a case ends still matters years later.
What does the Tarrant County First Offender Drug Program cost?
The county publishes both the price and the term, and they differ by level: $550 for 180 days on a felony, and $350 for 90 days on a misdemeanor. The fee covers all testing and classes, so it is not a deposit against charges that arrive later. Eligibility is narrower than the price makes it sound. An applicant cannot have a prior conviction, cannot have current or past community supervision or deferred adjudication, and cannot have any pending case other than a Class C misdemeanor. A single second open case is enough on its own to end the application.
More Arlington questions
Why is my Arlington case set in downtown Fort Worth?
Because Arlington has no felony or Class A and B misdemeanor courts of its own. Felony cases from Arlington are filed in Tarrant County's eleven felony courts, being Criminal District Courts 1 through 4 plus the 213th, 297th, 371st, 372nd, 396th, 432nd and 485th, and all eleven are housed at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center, 401 W. Belknap in Fort Worth. County Criminal Courts Nos. 1 through 5 sit in that same building at 401 West Belknap Street, 76196. Only fine-only city matters stay in Arlington, at the municipal court on W. Abram Street.
Which court hears a Class A misdemeanor out of Arlington?
One of Tarrant County's ten County Criminal Courts, which hear all Class A and Class B misdemeanors filed in the county. The case is filed with the criminal section of the Tarrant County Clerk, and that is also the office keeping the records for those ten courts. Numbers 1 through 5 sit at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center, 401 West Belknap Street, Fort Worth 76196. If you need a copy of the file, the County Clerk criminal numbers are (817) 884-1195 and (817) 884-1066, not the District Clerk, which holds the felony records instead.
The incident happened on the UTA campus. Does that change anything?
It can change who investigated it. The University of Texas at Arlington operates its own police department covering the UTA campus inside Arlington city limits, reachable at (817) 272-3003, so an offense on campus may be worked by UTA police rather than by the Arlington Police Department at 620 W. Division Street, (817) 459-5700. That affects which agency wrote the report, which agency you request records and body-camera footage from, and who the responding witnesses are. The filing county does not change, since Arlington is wholly in Tarrant County, but the paper trail starts somewhere else.
How do I get a copy of my Arlington case file?
It depends on the level, because Tarrant County splits criminal records between two offices. Felony records are held by the District Clerk, at (817) 884-1342 or (817) 884-1343. Misdemeanor records are held by the County Clerk, at (817) 884-1195 or (817) 884-1066. Going to the wrong one is a common way to lose a week on something that should take a phone call. Class C citation matters from Arlington are not in either place: those stay with the Arlington Municipal Court, (817) 459-6777, whose counter hours run 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
There is a warrant out of Arlington Municipal Court. What happens now?
The Arlington Municipal Court handles citations, fines and fees, warrants and bond postings for city cases, and it publishes a weekly warrant list, so a city warrant is not something that quietly sits there. The court is at 101 W. Abram St. and the clerk line is (817) 459-6777, with customer service and payment hours of 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Keep in mind that a city warrant and a county case are separate problems that can run at the same time, and resolving one does nothing at all to the other.
I picked up two charges the same night. Does that affect diversion in Tarrant County?
It can end it. The Deferred Prosecution Program requires that every offense in the same criminal episode be eligible, so one companion charge can disqualify an application built around the main one. The First Offender Drug Program reaches the same result from a different angle, treating any pending case other than a Class C misdemeanor as a disqualifier. Neither program forgives a second thing happening at once. If one of the charges is a Texas DWI, the eligibility question has to be worked against each program's published gates rather than assumed from the charge.
Arrested in Arlington?
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Call (972) 370-5060Where an Arlington entertainment-district arrest is actually heard
The thing that surprises people charged in Arlington is that nothing about a serious case is decided in Arlington. The city sits squarely in Tarrant County, so felonies and Class A and B misdemeanors are filed by the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney and heard at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center over in Fort Worth, the county seat, with anyone held before trial booked into the Tarrant County Jail. An arrest near AT&T Stadium does not mean a downtown-Arlington court date — it means a file that travels west to Fort Worth. Knowing that routing up front shapes where we appear, where bond is set, and how the first hearings unfold.
That county track is separate from what the city itself runs. Arlington Municipal Court handles Class C misdemeanors only — traffic citations, city-ordinance violations, and other fine-only matters that never carry jail time. The two systems are easy to confuse because both say "Arlington," yet they sit at opposite ends of the severity scale. A speeding ticket from a stop on Cooper Street stays municipal; a DWI or an assault from the same night does not. Our team sorts which track a charge belongs on early, because the venue dictates the deadlines, the prosecuting office, and the realistic range of outcomes we are working toward.
Geography drives a lot of the caseload here. Arlington is wedged between Dallas and Fort Worth and laced with high-volume corridors — I-30 and I-20 running east-west, SH-360 along the eastern edge, and US-287 cutting through — where traffic stops and impaired-driving investigations cluster, especially after dark. The entertainment district stacks the deck further: AT&T Stadium, Globe Life Field, and Six Flags pull enormous event-day crowds, and the surrounding blocks see concentrated DWI and public-intoxication enforcement when games and concerts let out. A case born in that crush often hinges on the stop, the field-sobriety details, and the timeline of the night.
For someone arrested in Arlington, the practical takeaways are concrete. Expect the serious matter to be handled in Fort Worth, not locally, and plan for the drive and the Tarrant County calendar. If the arrest came out of a stadium-district event or a stop on I-30 or SH-360, the early facts — why the vehicle was stopped, what officers observed, how the testing was done — tend to matter most. We build the defense around those specifics from the start.
About the Authors
Criminal Charges We Defend in Arlington
L&L Law Group represents clients throughout Arlington and Tarrant County against the full range of Texas criminal charges. These are the charges our defense team handles most often — or call (972) 370-5060 for a free, confidential consultation.