New Braunfels (Comal County), Texas

Understanding San Antonio's Legal Landscape

San Antonio is a very large metropolitan area encompassing eight counties including Bexar, of which San Antonio is the county seat. Most lawyers who practice law in San Antonio must be prepared to represent people in all of these counties, and they must be able to try jury trials. However the jurors in any trial, regardless of the county of your residence, must be selected from persons who reside in the county in which the offense is filed. In criminal law it is imperative to know the nature of the jury pool from which the jury will be drawn in your case. The jury verdicts and sentences in similar cases to yours will be reflected in the attitudes and behaviors of the judges and prosecutors in the county in which you are charged because these public officials are elected by the citizens who sit on the juries. Your lawyer must be familiar with these dynamics, or serious mistakes could be made in the course of plea bargaining and motion practice as well as in the course of a trial.

Additionally different counties, even though they may be no more than 15 minutes from the city limits of San Antonio, may have radically different approaches to offenses such as DWI. As a general rule DWI is treated fairly harshly in most places, but some County Attorneys and District Attorneys will allow plea bargaining or reduced sentences for first and minor offenders. For 2013 the following counties and their general DWI policies are shown below. However, these tendencies can change with politics.