Fort Worth Criminal Defense Lawyers
Direct-to-attorney criminal defense for Fort Worth 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, 50 miles from Fort Worth.
L and L Law Group represents clients arrested in Fort Worth, 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 Fort Worth matter. Our office is in Frisco, 50 miles from Fort Worth (60 minutes). Free 24/7 consultation: (972) 370-5060.
Common Fort Worth criminal charges we defend
Fort Worth passed a million residents in 2024, and its city limits cross five county lines. That combination produces a case volume and a filing puzzle you simply do not get in the suburbs north of here. Two facts decide how your case moves: which county the offense actually occurred in, and whether the charge is fine-only or jailable. Get either wrong and you spend a morning waiting in the wrong building.
A Fort Worth address does not settle the county
Census place-part estimates for 2024 break the city's population out across the counties it touches: 987,436 residents in Tarrant County, 19,083 in Denton County, 1,587 in Parker County, and none in the Johnson and Wise portions, where the city limits extend without resident population. In practice, a stop in the far north of the city can be a Denton County case, and one to the west can be a Parker County case. Different courthouse, different District Attorney, different diversion menu, different bond practice. The first thing we do on a new Fort Worth file is confirm the offense location from the report rather than trusting the mailing address on the citation.
One building for every county criminal court
For the large majority of cases that do stay in Tarrant County, the destination is the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center at 401 W. Belknap. All eleven felony district courts and all ten County Criminal Courts sit there, distributed across the fifth through eighth floors, and the Criminal District Attorney's Office is in the same building. Tarrant's felony bench also carries a naming quirk worth knowing: four of the courts are titled Criminal District Court, numbered one through four, alongside seven numbered district courts, the 213th, 297th, 371st, 372nd, 396th, 432nd, and 485th. Denton and Collin counties number their felony courts only.
Fine-only matters are elsewhere. The A.D. Marshall Municipal Court Building at 1000 Throckmorton St. hears city ordinance and code violations, parking and traffic violations, and school attendance violations. It runs a walk-in docket rather than individually scheduled settings: sign-in begins at 8 a.m., court opens at 8:30, the morning session runs to 11:30, and the afternoon session runs from 1:30 to 4:30. The city's own warning is that once the morning docket is full you can wait for the 1:30 docket or return another day. A virtual court option is also offered. Budget a day, not a lunch break.
Custody after a Fort Worth arrest
Police Administration is at the Bob Bolen Public Safety Complex, 505 W. Felix St., about four miles south of the downtown courts. County-level charges are booked into the Tarrant County Sheriff's detention system, whose Detention Bureau describes a system of five facilities. The Corrections Center is listed at 100 N. Lamar, and the Lon Evans Corrections Center is referenced separately as a maximum-security building inside that system. Because it is a multi-facility operation, confirm which building someone is in before driving downtown. Magistration and the statutory warnings are governed by Article 15.17 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and the factors a magistrate applies in setting bail are listed in Article 17.15.
The charges that fill these dockets
The ten county criminal courts see mostly DWI under Penal Code Section 49.04, assault causing bodily injury under Section 22.01, theft under Section 31.03, marijuana possession under Health and Safety Code Section 481.121, and unlawful carrying of a weapon under Penal Code Section 46.02. Upstairs, the felony courts see aggravated assault under Section 22.02, possession of a controlled substance under Health and Safety Code Section 481.115, evading arrest with a vehicle under Penal Code Section 38.04, and theft at the upper tiers of Section 31.03, where the grade climbs with the alleged loss. Punishment ranges for all of them are fixed by Chapter 12 of the Penal Code. Our criminal defense practice areas page covers each charge in depth.
Texas Christian University runs its own police department on Lubbock Street. TCU states that its officers are commissioned by authority of the state of Texas and the university's Board of Trustees to provide police service to property owned or controlled by the university, with full police powers of arrest for offenses committed on that property. A case that starts with a private university's officers still ends up in the same downtown courtrooms as everything else.
Deferred prosecution, and the deadline that ends cases early
Tarrant County's Deferred Prosecution Program is one of the oldest prosecutor-run diversion programs in Texas. The District Attorney's published guidelines date it to summer 1973 under then-District Attorney Tim Curry, and describe it as a limited monitoring program designed to give the young person in trouble for the first time a chance to rehabilitate without the stigma of a criminal conviction. Baseline eligibility is age 17 to 26 at the time of the offense, no prior criminal conviction, and no prior participation in a deferred prosecution or court diversion program. The upper age moved from 24 to 26 in June 2022. A no-billed case does not disqualify participation.
| Track | Focus | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Track A | The traditional track, with strict screening controls | $125, paid as $25 with the application and $100 at orientation |
| Track B | Marijuana and some substance abuse charges | $225, paid as $25 with the application and $200 at orientation |
Both tracks include a background investigation, an orientation interview, and drug testing. Supervision runs four months on a misdemeanor and eight months on a felony, extending to ten months where restitution is owed. The deadline is the part that quietly ends cases before they start. The District Attorney's guidelines, updated February 2025, say the application must be received no later than 90 days from the file date, no exceptions, and the current application form repeats it. A 60-day figure still circulates because the county's criminal courts page carries it, but that text comes from a diversion notice dated July 2015 whose own links point to a county web domain that no longer exists. Ninety days is the figure the District Attorney publishes today. It runs from the file date, not the arrest date and not your first court setting, and those can be weeks apart. If diversion matters to you, it has to be raised in the first conversation, not the fourth.
Fort Worth criminal defense FAQs
Where is criminal court in Fort Worth?
Almost all of it is in one downtown building. The Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center at 401 W. Belknap houses all eleven Tarrant County felony district courts and all ten County Criminal Courts, spread across the fifth through eighth floors, plus the Criminal District Attorney's Office. Fine-only city cases are heard elsewhere, at the A.D. Marshall Municipal Court Building at 1000 Throckmorton St. For a county this size, having every criminal court under one roof is unusual, and it changes how a defense attorney plans a docket day.
How does the Fort Worth municipal court walk-in docket work?
It is first come, first served rather than an individually scheduled setting. Sign-in begins at 8 a.m. and court opens at 8:30, with a morning session running to 11:30 and an afternoon session from 1:30 to 4:30. The city warns that once the morning docket is full, you can wait for the 1:30 docket or return another day. A virtual court option is also offered through the court's main line. Plan on committing a full day rather than an hour off work.
Am I eligible for the Tarrant County deferred prosecution program?
The published guidelines set three baseline requirements: you were between 17 and 26 years old at the time of the offense, you have no prior criminal conviction, and you have not previously participated in a deferred prosecution or court diversion program. The upper age moved from 24 to 26 in June 2022, and a no-billed case does not disqualify participation. Beyond that, admission involves an application, strict screening controls, a background investigation, and an orientation interview, so meeting the baseline is not the same thing as being accepted.
How much does the Tarrant County deferred prosecution program cost?
There are two tracks with different fees. Track A, the traditional track, is $125, paid as $25 with the application and $100 at orientation. Track B, which focuses on marijuana and some substance abuse charges, is $225, paid as $25 with the application and $200 at orientation. Drug testing applies to both. The guidelines also note that the cost of the expunction afterward is not included in the program fee, and that an attorney is required to file that paperwork, so budget for that separately.
How long do I have to apply for deferred prosecution in Tarrant County?
Ninety days from the date the case is filed. The District Attorney's guidelines, updated February 2025, say the application must be received no later than 90 days from the file date, no exceptions. You may still see 60 days on the county's criminal courts page; that text comes from a 2015 notice and predates the current guidelines. The clock runs from filing, not from arrest and not from your first court setting, and those dates can sit weeks apart. Raise diversion in the first conversation with a defense attorney, because missing the window closes the option even where you satisfy every eligibility requirement.
Does completing the Tarrant County program clear my record?
The guidelines state that on successful completion the offender is entitled to an immediate expunction, citing the older article numbers for it. Texas renumbered the expunction statute into Chapter 55A of the Code of Criminal Procedure effective January 1, 2025, so documents drafted before then still reference Chapter 55. Either way the expunction is not automatic: somebody has to file it, the program fee does not cover it, and the guidelines say an attorney is required. Our expunction page explains the filing.
More Fort Worth questions
Which jail is someone taken to after a Fort Worth arrest?
County-level charges go into the Tarrant County Sheriff's detention system downtown. The Tarrant County Corrections Center is listed at 100 N. Lamar, Fort Worth 76196, reachable at 817-884-3000. The Sheriff's Detention Bureau describes a five-facility system and separately references the Lon Evans Corrections Center as a maximum-security building within it. Because it is a multi-facility operation, confirm which building a person is in before driving downtown. Fort Worth Police Administration itself is about four miles south, at the Bob Bolen Public Safety Complex on W. Felix St.
Is a Fort Worth address always a Tarrant County case?
No, and this catches people constantly. Fort Worth's city limits cross five county lines. Census place-part estimates for 2024 put 987,436 residents in Tarrant County, 19,083 in Denton County, and 1,587 in Parker County, with none in the Johnson and Wise portions, where the limits extend without resident population. A stop in the far north of the city can be a Denton County case and one to the west can be a Parker County case, meaning a different courthouse, a different District Attorney, and different diversion options.
I was arrested for DWI in Fort Worth. Where does the case go?
A first or second DWI under Penal Code Section 49.04 is a misdemeanor and goes to one of the ten Tarrant County Criminal Courts at 401 W. Belknap. A third offense is a third degree felony under Section 49.09 and goes to one of the eleven felony district courts in that same building. The driver license suspension is a separate administrative case with its own 15-day deadline to request a hearing. Our DWI defense page covers both tracks.
What is the difference between a Criminal District Court and a numbered district court in Tarrant County?
It is a naming convention, not a difference in authority. Tarrant County's felony bench includes four courts titled Criminal District Court, numbered one through four, plus seven numbered district courts: the 213th, 297th, 371st, 372nd, 396th, 432nd, and 485th. That mix is specific to Tarrant. In Denton and Collin counties, the felony courts are numbered only. All eleven Tarrant felony courts sit in the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center, so a case reassigned between them does not change buildings or addresses.
Where does drug testing happen for the Tarrant County diversion program?
The guidelines name three Fort Worth locations run by Community Supervision and Corrections: 200 W Belknap St in the basement, males only, 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; 300 W Belknap St on the fourth floor, females only, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; and the Miller Complex at 3210 Miller Ave, males and females, 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Orientations are held Thursday afternoons in the fourth floor media room. Testing applies to both tracks, so work out the logistics before agreeing to the terms.
What happens if I miss a Fort Worth municipal court date?
Failure to appear is its own offense under Penal Code Section 38.10, separate from whatever you were originally cited for. Texas also allows a court, under Chapter 706 of the Transportation Code, to contract with the state to deny renewal of a driver license over an unresolved failure to appear. Because the downtown docket is walk-in and fills by mid-morning, people who get turned away sometimes treat that as having appeared. It is not. Confirm your next date in writing before leaving the building.
Arrested in Fort Worth?
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Call (972) 370-5060Why Tarrant County cases come home to Fort Worth's Tim Curry center
As the Tarrant County seat, Fort Worth is where much of the county's serious criminal docket lands. Felony charges and Class A and B misdemeanors arising anywhere in Tarrant County are filed by the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney and heard at the Tim Curry Criminal Justice Center downtown. For residents charged in their own city, that means the destination court is right here rather than a county or two away — but it also means the building absorbs cases routed in from across the county, so the people standing in line beside you on a given morning may have been arrested miles outside the city limits.
Scale is the next thing to understand. This is a large city patrolled by several Fort Worth police divisions, and the volume that funnels into the Tim Curry center is correspondingly heavy. Because the criminal courts there are organized into multiple courts, the pace of a case can vary depending on which one holds the file — docket timing, reset patterns, and how quickly pretrial matters move are not uniform across the building. We track those differences court by court rather than treating "Tarrant County" as a single setting, because how a case is handled often depends on where inside the courthouse it sits.
The municipal layer is separate and worth keeping straight. Fort Worth Municipal Court handles only Class C misdemeanors — traffic citations, city-ordinance matters, and other fine-only offenses — and it operates apart from the county courts at the Tim Curry center. A speeding ticket or a low-level ordinance citation stays in the city system; an arrest that escalates to a Class A, Class B, or felony charge moves to the county side. Knowing which track a charge is on from the outset determines where you appear, what is genuinely at stake, and which clock you are working against.
Geography shapes the caseload too. Stops and arrests cluster along I-30, I-35W, Loop 820, US-287, and the Chisholm Trail Parkway, the corridors that carry the city's traffic. The historic Stockyards district and its nightlife add their own pattern of weekend and event-driven matters. For anyone charged in Fort Worth, the practical first questions are which court inside the Tim Curry center holds the case and whether the charge belongs to the city or the county — and that is where our team starts.
About the Authors
Criminal Charges We Defend in Fort Worth
L&L Law Group represents clients throughout Fort Worth 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.