Although drinking is illegal for young men and women under the age of 21, the reality is quite different. Often, kids are drinking and getting drunk as early as their middle school years – and you can be sure that drinking is a problem on campuses around the country, including our own state of Texas, where the average age range of students is 17 to 21.
If your child is facing charges for underage drinking and driving, it’s crucial to understand their legal rights and options. Contact Houston DWI attorney David A. Breston at (713) 804-6492 or fill out our online form for a free consultation.
Texas law treats DUI (Driving Under the Influence) and DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) as two separate charges with different thresholds and penalties.
While DUI is intended to enforce Texas’s zero-tolerance law for minors, a driver under 21 can face both charges if their BAC is over the legal limit or if the circumstances are especially serious.
According to Texas law, the presence of any amount of alcohol in a minor’s bloodstream is a legal offense and the individual is subject to a number of court actions. For instance, the minor may be required to relinquish their driver’s license for up to 2 months. In addition, he or she may be subject to fines of up to $500 for a first offense.
Additional punitive measures may include forced participation in an alcohol education class and upwards of forty hours of community service such as speaking to other teens about the dangers of drinking and driving or simply visiting individuals who sustained grievous injuries as a result of a DWI.
An underage DWI attorney in Houston can help you understand how Texas’s zero-tolerance law applies and what penalties you or your child may face.
If arrested for a DUI, the minor is looking at jail time, which could be serious. He or she could be sentenced to six days at the least and as much as 6 months in more serious cases. Of course, this also depends on what level of punishment the crime warrants in the eyes of the judge.
Finally, there are other extenuating circumstances that can increase the amount of legal trouble a minor faces in the case of a DWI. For instance, if the minor was driving while intoxicated and had a child in the car then the severity of the sentence can be expected to increase. In fact, if a minor is convicted of a DUI and a child under the age of 15 was a passenger, then he or she could be confined to prison for up to 2 years and fined up to ten thousand dollars.
If the minor caused bodily injury or death to another individual as a result of their drunk driving behavior, then jail terms could reach 10 to 20 years and although fines may be capped at $10,000 by the court, expect civil suits to follow. Minors who are thinking of obtaining their commercial driver’s license in the future will have to wait a bit longer before they can attempt to obtain their CDL.
This is why it’s crucial to have an experienced underage DWI attorney in Houston on your side; someone who can fight to protect your rights, minimize penalties and work toward the best possible outcome.
Minors in Texas can be charged with DUI for having any detectable amount of alcohol in their system while driving. However, if their blood alcohol content is 0.08% or higher, they may also face a DWI charge, which carries more serious penalties. These are two separate charges that apply based on the evidence collected at the scene.
Prosecutors might move forward with both charges if the incident involved property damage, an accident, or if another driver or passenger was hurt. When your BAC is close to or above the legal limit, and there is another concern like reckless behavior or a crash, they may pursue a combination of DUI and DWI charges. That can lead to a more aggressive case under Texas Penal Code § 49.04.
Getting charged with DUI as a minor is serious on its own, but certain details can make things worse. If it’s your second or third DWI conviction, refused to take a test, or there was an accident, prosecutors may be more likely to seek enhanced charges or stack DUI and DWI together. These cases can move fast, especially if someone else was hurt.
If the facts include broken bones, serious injuries, or reckless driving, the court may allow prosecutors to pursue both charges. In severe cases, especially when another person is seriously injured or killed, prosecutors may file additional charges like intoxication manslaughter, which carries significant prison time. If substances other than alcohol are involved, drugged driving charges may also be on the table.
That is especially true when a minor has a prior record or the incident triggered more than one concern. These situations are commonly handled under Texas Alcoholic Beverage Code § 106.041.
These are serious charges that require a strategic response. Working with an underage DWI lawyer in Houston early in the process can make a major difference in how the case is handled.
In Texas, drivers, regardless of age, are subject to implied consent laws. This means that by choosing to operate a vehicle on public roads, you have already legally agreed to submit to a breath or blood test if an officer has probable cause to believe you are impaired. For minors, the decision to refuse this test carries immediate and lasting consequences.
If a minor refuses to take a breath or blood test, the refusal triggers an automatic Administrative License Revocation (ALR). For a first refusal, your license can be suspended for 180 days. If you have a prior alcohol-related contact on your record, that suspension can jump to two years.
It is a common misconception that refusing a test prevents the state from getting evidence. In many Houston “No Refusal” initiatives, officers can quickly secure a warrant for a blood draw, meaning you may end up facing both the BAC evidence and the 180-day refusal penalty simultaneously.
An underage drinking stop in Harris County rarely involves just one charge. Often, a minor is also hit with a Minor in Possession (MIP) citation. In Texas, you do not have to be behind the wheel or even holding a drink to be charged. Even if the alcohol is not in your hand, you can still be charged if officers believe you had control over it.
An MIP conviction can lead to fines up to $500, mandatory alcohol awareness classes, and a separate driver’s license suspension of 30 to 180 days. However, there are specific legal exceptions in Texas, such as possession in the visible presence of an adult parent or guardian, or within the scope of employment. A strategic defense involves looking at whether the search that uncovered the alcohol was lawful and whether the minor exercised care, custody, or control over the beverage.
A DUI charge for someone under 21 might seem like a temporary issue, but the effects can stick around for years. Even a first-time offense can show up on background checks and make it harder to move forward with school or work goals. If your child or teen is dealing with an underage DUI, it helps to know what might follow them into adulthood. Common long-term effects of an underage DUI charge may include:
A charge that starts during your teenage years can carry real-world consequences well into adulthood. While some records may be eligible for sealing, that process is not automatic. In other cases, you may qualify for expunction, which can remove certain offenses from your criminal record entirely. Under Texas Family Code § 58.003, certain juvenile records can be sealed under the right conditions, but timing, eligibility, and follow-through matter.
If a second offense occurs, the consequences escalate quickly. A second DWI offense can lead to mandatory jail time, higher fines, and longer license suspensions, often including a requirement to install an ignition interlock system on your vehicle. These devices monitor for alcohol use and must be passed before a car can start, adding cost and hassle to everyday life.
A Houston underage DWI attorney can evaluate whether your record may be eligible for sealing or expunction and can guide you through the process to protect your future.
One jarring aspect of Texas law for parents is the age of criminal responsibility. While 18 is the age of majority for most things, Texas is one of the few states that treats 17-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system. If your child is 17 and arrested for DWI in Houston, they will not be sent to a juvenile facility. They will be booked into an adult jail, and their case will be heard in a Harris County criminal court.
They will not have the same privacy protections that apply in juvenile cases. Instead, their arrest becomes part of the public record, and they face adult penalties that can follow them long-term. That is why it is so important to have a lawyer who knows how to present a young person’s situation clearly and fairly to a judge who is used to handling adult cases.
The moment a minor is arrested for DUI or DWI, a 15-day clock begins ticking. After the arrest, the officer usually seizes your driver’s license and replaces it with a temporary paper permit. That permit contains an important notice that you have only 15 days to request an ALR hearing.
If you miss this deadline, your license is suspended automatically 40 days after the arrest. The ALR hearing is a vital tool for your defense. It is a civil proceeding where your attorney can cross-examine the arresting officer under oath. Many times, the discovery we obtain at an ALR hearing, such as dashboard camera footage or inconsistencies in the officer’s testimony, becomes key to getting the criminal DUI or DWI charges dismissed later.
If a minor male or female is stopped for a suspected DWI and his or her blood alcohol content level is at the legal limit for intoxication (or higher), then the punishments meted out grow exponentially. Fines can increase up to $2000 and driving privileges may be suspended for anywhere from 3 months to an entire year.
In addition to legal penalties, the cost of a DUI includes hidden fees like court costs and mandatory alcohol education. Worse yet, a conviction can drastically increase what you pay for coverage, and a DWI can significantly raise your insurance rates in Texas, especially for younger drivers.
If your case involves a denial or other unfavorable decision, you have the option to challenge it through an appeal. Speaking with an experienced Houston underage DUI lawyer can help you understand your rights and the steps to take.
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Facing these charges can feel overwhelming, but a detectable amount of alcohol is not a guaranteed conviction. Our legal team examines every detail of the stop, including:
By challenging the state’s evidence from multiple angles, we work to minimize the impact on your child’s future.
However, it is only when a ‘minor’ is stopped by police for suspected drinking and driving that the expertise of a Houston underage DWI lawyer is required. You see, for adults, the legal limit for alcohol content in the blood is 0.08% but for the ‘under-21 crowd’, there is zero-tolerance for any level of alcohol in the blood system. Contact a Houston underage DUI attorney today at the Law Office of David A. Breston.
Parents, remind your minors often not to drink and drive. If you have more questions about juvenile DWIs, speak to our Houston juvenile defense lawyers today.