Know exactly where you stand before you walk into court.
The worst part of any case is not knowing. A partner reads your matter, tells you what you are actually facing, and handles it start to finish. Criminal defense, family law and personal injury in El Paso, licensed in Texas and New Mexico.
What can we help you with?
Six areas, all of them tried in El Paso courts. If your matter falls outside them we will tell you who should have it rather than take it anyway.
An arrest starts a process full of deadlines nobody reads you. What happens in the first two weeks, the magistrate setting, the bond conditions, whether the case goes to a grand jury, shapes everything that comes after it.
Do not discuss the facts with anyone but a lawyer. Jail phones are recorded.
What this covers
A family case runs on two tracks at once: the legal one, and the one your children are actually living in. Temporary orders set the pattern early, and courts are slow to disturb an arrangement that looks like it is working.
Write down the schedule your children keep now. It matters more than people expect.
What this covers
The other side's adjuster starts building a file the day it happens. Three things shrink a claim more than anything else: a gap in treatment, a recorded statement given too early, and a release signed before anyone knows the full extent of the injury.
Get treated, and keep going. A gap in the record gets read as a gap in the injury.
What this covers
An ignored ticket becomes a warrant, a warrant becomes a hold on your license, and the hold becomes a surcharge you pay for years. Almost all of it is cheaper to fix earlier than people assume.
Do not just pay the ticket. Paying it is a guilty plea and it goes on your record.
What this covers
Most civil matters are settled by what somebody wrote down before anyone disagreed. A clear document costs a fraction of the argument it prevents, and an unclear one is usually why the argument exists.
Bring every version of the document, including the one you did not sign.
What this covers
Juvenile cases sit in a different court under different rules, and that system is meant to be about the child rather than the punishment. It only works out that way when somebody is in the room arguing for it.
A parent can be present. Ask for a lawyer before your child gives any statement.
What this covers
What happens after you call
Three steps, and a partner is in all of them. Open any one to see what it actually involves.
What happened, roughly when, and whether there is a court date. That is enough to know whether this is something the firm should take. Nothing is filed, nothing is committed, and the conversation itself does not create an attorney-client relationship.
If there is a date on a piece of paper, have it in front of you.
Which partner depends on what the matter is. The firm is three lawyers rather than a floor of associates, so the person who assesses your case is the person who would carry it.
Ask which partner is taking it, and ask before you sign anything.
Including when the answer is that you do not need a lawyer, or that the matter belongs somewhere else. A firm that only ever says yes is telling you something about the firm.
Get the fee arrangement in writing before work begins.
Three names on the door, and all three of them try cases.
The lawyer who signs your petition is the lawyer who returns your call. The docket is kept small enough that this stays true.
Dereck Wyatt
Managing Partner
dereck.wyatt@wuglaw.comJustin Underwood
Partner
justin.underwood@wuglaw.comElena Grasheim
Partner
elena.grasheim@wuglaw.comThe questions people actually ask first
Answered for El Paso specifically, with the deadlines that apply here. General information, not legal advice about your matter.
Do not ignore it, and do not rely on somebody else's description of it. Confirm the issuing court and the cause number first, because a Municipal Court warrant, a county misdemeanor warrant and a felony warrant all move differently. A lawyer can review the options for surrender, bond and requesting a hearing.
Texas requires an arrested person to be taken before a magistrate without unnecessary delay and no later than 48 hours after arrest. Separate release rules turn on the State's readiness: broadly 90 days for a felony, 30 for a Class A misdemeanor, 15 for a Class B and five for a Class C, each with statutory conditions and exceptions.
Those are two different things. Expunction is available only in defined situations: some acquittals, pardons, qualifying dismissals, and arrests never charged after the applicable waiting period. Nondisclosure seals eligible records from much public access but does not remove them from every government user. Eligibility turns on the exact charge, the disposition and your history.
Texas will not finalise one before the 60th day after filing, with limited family-violence exceptions. One spouse generally must have lived in Texas for the preceding six months and in the county for 90 days. Sixty days is a floor, not an estimate: contested custody, property, service and the court's calendar routinely make it longer.
Texas calls it conservatorship and decides it on the child's best interest. Courts weigh safety, caregiving history, stability and each parent's circumstances. There is no rule that mothers or fathers win by default. El Paso family cases can involve associate judges and local scheduling rules, which affect timing more than most people expect.
Most Texas personal injury and wrongful death suits carry a two-year limitations period. Claims against a governmental unit usually require notice within six months, and a city charter can impose a shorter one. Minors and other circumstances need separate analysis. Waiting also costs evidence: video is overwritten and witnesses move.
Texas proportionate responsibility generally allows recovery when you are 50 percent or less responsible, reducing damages by your share. Above 50 percent, recovery is barred. Those percentages are contested questions of fact, so an adjuster's opening position on your fault is an argument, not a finding.
It can add a failure to appear allegation, produce a warrant, or create a hold affecting your license renewal, depending on the court. Check which court is printed on the citation immediately: city tickets usually go to El Paso Municipal Court, while citations written outside city jurisdiction may go to a county Justice Court.
Sometimes, through a driving safety course or deferred disposition requested by the citation's response deadline. Eligibility depends on the offense, your record and your licence type, and there are real restrictions for CDL holders and for alleged speeds 25 mph or more over the limit. Paying the ticket is not one of these options; it operates as a conviction.
Texas juvenile jurisdiction generally covers conduct by a child at least 10 and under 17. If the child is not released, a detention hearing generally has to happen by the second working day after detention, with special timing when a child is detained on a Friday or Saturday. Keep every piece of paper, and do not coach the child's account.
In specified felony cases a juvenile court can waive its jurisdiction and transfer the case to adult court, after investigation and a hearing. The minimum age is generally 14 for certain capital, first degree and aggravated controlled substance felonies, and 15 for other eligible felonies. Transfer is not automatic.
Texas Justice Courts hear civil disputes within a $20,000 limit, subject to exclusions and limits on the relief they can grant. File in the correct precinct and venue rather than the nearest courthouse. El Paso County Courts at Law Nos. 3 and 6 handle larger civil disputes and appeals from Justice Court.
A written contract claim in Texas generally carries a four-year limitations period, though accrual, contractual limitations and other theories can change the analysis. If you have been served: District and County Court answers are generally due by 10 a.m. on the Monday after 20 days from service, and Justice Court uses 14 days. Follow the citation you actually received.
Not necessarily. Doña Ana County sits in New Mexico's Third Judicial District, and New Mexico law, deadlines and comparative fault rules may govern an accident, arrest or family matter that happened there. Living in El Paso does not make it a Texas case. Anthony, Sunland Park, Santa Teresa and Las Cruces all fall on that side of the line.
Tell us what happened.
The review is free, the call comes from a partner, and you will get a straight answer either way. Hablamos español.