DFW Family Violence Defense Attorney

You’re Not the First Person to Find Yourself Here at 2 a.m.

If you’re reading this in the middle of the night after an argument turned into an arrest, take a breath. A family violence charge in Texas is frightening — the squad car, the booking photo, the no-contact order, the phone calls you can’t make — but it is not the end of your case. It is the beginning. The next 72 hours matter more than you may realize, and we’ve walked thousands of clients through exactly this stretch of confusion.

The stakes are higher than most people understand. A Texas family violence assault conviction carries a permanent firearm prohibition under federal law, eliminates your eligibility for non-disclosure under Government Code § 411.0727, can be enhanced to a felony if you ever face a similar accusation again, and is treated as a deportable offense for non-citizens. A “simple” misdemeanor plea today can quietly close doors for the rest of your life — and most prosecutors will not explain those collateral consequences before asking you to sign.

L and L Law Group, PLLC is a Frisco-based criminal defense firm built for exactly this moment. We defend family violence assault cases under Texas Penal Code §§ 22.01 and 22.02 across Collin, Dallas, Denton, Tarrant, Rockwall, Kaufman, Ellis, Johnson, and Hunt counties. One of our founding attorneys spent years on the prosecution side at the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, which means we know how the State builds these cases — and where the cases routinely break down.

What Texas Law Treats as Family Violence Assault

Family violence is not a separate crime in Texas — it is a finding attached to an underlying assault charge. The substantive offense lives in Texas Penal Code § 22.01 (assault) or § 22.02 (aggravated assault). The relationship between you and the alleged victim — a current or former spouse, a parent or child, anyone you live with, anyone you currently or previously dated — is what triggers the family-violence enhancement under Family Code § 71.004.

Penalties scale based on conduct and history:

• Class A misdemeanor (first-offense bodily injury): up to 1 year in county jail and a $4,000 fine.
• Third-degree felony: 2 to 10 years in TDCJ if you have a prior family violence conviction (§ 22.01(b)(2)(A)) or if the assault involved choking or impeding breath (§ 22.01(b)(2)(B)).
• Continuous Violence Against the Family under § 25.11: third-degree felony when two or more family violence assaults occur within a 12-month window — the prior incidents do not have to have been charged.
• Aggravated assault against a family member with a deadly weapon (§ 22.02(b)(1)): first-degree felony, 5 to 99 years or life.

The Texas Process from Arrest to Resolution

Most Collin and Dallas County family violence arrests follow the same general path. After booking, the magistrate sets bond and almost always issues a Magistrate’s Order of Emergency Protection under Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 17.292. The MOEP can prohibit any contact with the complainant, exclude you from a shared home, and bar firearm possession for 31 to 91 days — sometimes longer. Violating it under Penal Code § 25.07 is a separate crime.

From there, the case moves to the District Attorney’s Family Violence Unit. The DA reviews 911 audio, body-worn camera video, photographs, statements, and any history between the parties. The case is then formally charged or sent to a grand jury (for felonies). Pretrial appearances follow, often spanning months. Resolution typically comes through dismissal, deferred prosecution agreements, plea to a lesser non-family-violence offense, deferred adjudication, jury trial, or in some cases acquittal at bench trial.

Real Defenses in Texas Family Violence Cases

Family violence cases are routinely defended — not by denying that something happened, but by examining what actually happened and applying the law correctly. Defenses we use regularly:

• Self-defense and defense of others under Penal Code Chapter 9. Texas law explicitly permits the use of force, and in some circumstances deadly force, to protect yourself or another from an aggressor.
• Mutual combat and consent under § 22.06 in cases where both parties agreed to physical contact short of serious bodily injury.
• Lack of bodily injury. The State must prove pain or physical impairment. Photographs taken hours later, with no medical record and inconsistent statements, may not satisfy that burden.
• False or exaggerated allegations, common in custody disputes, post-breakup retaliation, and immigration manipulation.
• Suppression motions when statements were taken in violation of Miranda v. Arizona, when the warrantless arrest exceeded the scope of Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 14.03, or when the residence was searched without consent.
• Cross-examination of the outcry witness under Article 38.072 — the procedural rules are technical and frequently violated.

What L and L Law Group Does Differently

We treat the first 72 hours as the most important window in any family violence case. We push for the lightest sustainable bond conditions at the magistrate hearing, intervene with the DA’s Family Violence Unit before charging decisions are final, and start the defense investigation immediately — canvassing for surveillance, recovering text and 911 audio under the Texas Public Information Act, and locating witnesses while memories are fresh. Where appropriate, we work with our clients to file an Affidavit of Non-Prosecution properly and on the timeline that prosecutors take seriously.

We appear daily in the courts that matter for our clients: the Collin County Criminal Courts Building in McKinney, the Frank Crowley Courts Building in Dallas, the Denton County Courts Complex, and the Tarrant County Family Justice Center in Fort Worth. Local relationships and a clear understanding of each county’s family-violence prosecutorial culture — Collin’s policy preferences, Dallas’s diversion programs, Denton’s pretrial review process — meaningfully shape what is achievable for our clients.

Texas Criminal Defense — Official Guidance

Our Five-Step Defense Process

1. 01

   Same-day call. Bond and MOEP triage.

   A licensed attorney answers your first call — not an intake assistant. We dispatch counsel to the magistrate hearing where possible, secure release on the lowest sustainable bond conditions, and begin the work to narrow or modify the Magistrate’s Order of Emergency Protection.

2. 02

   Evidence preservation and investigation.

   Body-worn camera, 911 audio, photographs, neighbor statements, ring/doorbell video, and your phone records are pulled before they expire. We document any defensive injuries, gather text and call history, and identify witnesses the police never interviewed.

3. 03

   Pre-charging intervention with the DA.

   Before the charge is formally filed, we present mitigation, defense facts, and any Affidavit of Non-Prosecution to the District Attorney’s Family Violence Unit. Many cases resolve at this stage — declined, reduced, or routed to deferred prosecution — before they ever reach a courtroom.

4. 04

   Aggressive pretrial motion practice.

   Motions to suppress unlawfully obtained statements, exclude prejudicial 404(b) extraneous-offense evidence, attack outcry-witness designations under Article 38.072, and challenge probable cause for warrantless arrest. Many cases are won on motion before any jury is seated.

5. 05

   Trial-ready resolution.

   Whether the goal is dismissal, plea to a non-family-violence offense (preserving firearm rights), deferred adjudication structured to allow non-disclosure, or jury trial, we prepare every case as if it is going to verdict. Prosecutors notice. Outcomes follow.

Texas Family Violence Assault — FAQ

Family Violence Assault — Intake Form & Emergency Cheatsheet

Two ways to share your case details with us. Fastest: submit our confidential online intake — an attorney reviews and replies within 24 hours. Or download the printable PDF and email it back to info@landllawgroup.com.