Mimi Coffey | Attorney at Law

I remember when a bond for a first time DWI was $500. Now, in Tarrant County a person accused of a first time DWI, with no other criminal history, stays in jail for up to 3 days as the system "processes" their income level to set an appropriate bond (where many will do a government pretrial bond) . People are being shipped from small municipalities to the central Tarrant County jail before this is done.  The law allows magistrates up to 72 hours to set a bond and unfortunately, this is about how long it is taking.  Moreover, once a person bonds out many are required to report to pretrial services. Here, they are paying fees and taking drug tests before they are even convicted. I have a current Parker County client who has not had a DWI in 21 years and the magistrate ordered that he have a $500 a month SCRAM bracelet (measures your sweat for alcohol),plus an interlock on any vehicle he drives. He must also report to pretrial services in Parker County once a week. His case is