What to Expect When You're Arrested (in San Antonio)
I'm a criminal defense attorney in San Antonio. When I was in my early 20s, I was arrested for DWI. I had no idea what to expect or what was going on with my case because my attorney didn't let me know what to expect. Now that I'm an attorney, I want to make sure that you don't have to go through the same experience that I did. This podcast will let you know what you can expect to happen at the different stages of your case. Even though it focuses on how cases in San Antonio are handled, it will be helpful even if you're charged somewhere else. If you've been arrested for DWI, assault, possession, or anything else, you probably have many questions about what will happen in your case. You'll probably have more questions while your case works through the system. This podcast will answer many of your questions.
What to Expect When You're Arrested (in San Antonio)
4 Things Not to Do If Arrested for Family Violence
If you have any questions about this or if you're being charged with a crime, feel free to call me at 210-405-6410 or click here to schedule a free consultation.
Click the link below to receive 4 Things You Should Do If You've Been Arrested:
https://bit.ly/3tDOVbt
We lay out the four biggest mistakes people make after a family violence arrest and show how to avoid new charges, warrants, and stress. We also explain how a trusted attorney can seek safer bond terms, keep you compliant, and protect long‑term rights.
• what no contact and emergency protective orders actually restrict
• how violations create new criminal charges and warrants
• why bondsman and pretrial check‑ins matter and how to stay compliant
• consequences for missing the first court date and how to prevent it
• long‑term risks of family violence convictions for guns, custody, and enhancements
• how to evaluate whether your attorney is responsive, respectful, and strategic
• steps to modify bond or protective terms through your lawyer
• where to get a free checklist and a no‑cost consultation
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Sean Henricksen Law Firm
sean@seanhenricksen.com
210-405-6410
106 S. St. Mary's St., Ste 445
San Antonio, Texas 78205
www.seanhenricksen.com
Hi, and welcome back to another episode of What to Expect When You're Arrested. This is your host, Sean Hendrickson, here from the Sean Hendrickson Law Firm, where we help good people like you avoid the devastating consequences of criminal charges. Today we're going to be talking about what not to do if you've been arrested on a family violence charge. Before we get to that, we do have a free download for you. It's five things you should be doing right now if you've been arrested. If you go down in the show notes, there's a link for that and we can send that right out to you. And before I get to this episode, we do handle, of course, criminal defense matters here in San Antonio. So if you're being charged with a crime here in San Antonio, please schedule a free consultation with us. We've got a link for you down in the show notes where you can schedule that consultation without even having to give us a call. Now, if you've been arrested for family violence, there are definitely some things you should be doing, but there's also a lot of things you should not be doing. And today we're going to be talking about those. One, you should not violate any no contact orders. When you are put on bond, when you see that judge after you get arrested, that judge can set a no contact order preventing you from having contact with people while you're on bond, which essentially means as long as your case is going on. And he can also issue an emergency protective order, which again prevents you from having contact with certain people and may prevent you from going certain places as well. And the emergency protective order is actually gonna have a date that it ends on, so make sure that you're aware of that date. But that no contact as a condition of bond can last as long as your case lasts. And if you violate either of these no contact orders, and if you violate either of these no contact orders, then you can be facing another charge, which is violating our protective order. And you definitely don't want to be picking up more charges and getting arrested again over the same issue. So you need to contact your attorney and see if there's anything that they can do about getting those no contact orders removed if you do want to have contact with the complaining witness or the alleged victim on the case. The next thing that I'm gonna tell you that you need to make sure you don't do is failing to check in with either your bail bondsmen or pretrial services if you're required to check in with them. If you fail to check in with your bail bondsmen, then they're gonna get off your bond, which means a warrant is gonna go out for your arrest and your bond could be increased, and you don't want either of those to happen. Pretrial services, it's a similar situation. If you don't check in with them when you're supposed to, then they can issue a violation report saying that you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing, and the judge could issue a warrant out for your arrest. And so we definitely don't want more warrants going out for your arrest, which leads us into the third thing, and that would be missing your first court date. Make sure that when you get out of jail, that you mark that court date down on your calendar and make sure you know when that is. Your bail bondsman is probably also going to be reminding you about that court date, but it's very important that you be there on that date because if you're not there, then again, a warrant is gonna be issued for your arrest. These first three items that you definitely do not want to do, which are violating no contact orders, not checking with your bondsman or pretrial services, or missing your first court date. If you do any of those things, then a warrant could be issued for your arrest. And so that's why those are the top three. Make sure you don't miss any of those or violate any of those, because we definitely don't want you getting warrants out for your arrest. The last one I'm going to tell you about is don't settle on an attorney. Family violence charges are very serious, even if you're being charged with a misdemeanor, because in addition to possible jail time, fines, and fees and everything else, there's also a lot of additional consequences. It could prevent you from ever owning or possessing a gun. It could prevent you from having custody or access to your children. If you're ever charged with something like this again, it could lead to that case being enhanced and it could prevent you from ever cleaning up your record later on. And so you definitely want to take this serious. And it's important that you don't settle on an attorney. Whether the attorney that you have was appointed to you or whether you're looking to hire one or already have hired one, if you have an attorney that you don't trust to be able to get the result that you want, if they're not returning your phone calls or keeping you up to date on your case, or if they're treating you poorly, if they're not treating you with respect, then those are all huge red flags that you may need to look at hiring another attorney because you don't want somebody who's not going to be able to not only get you a good case in the end, but help you be reunited with your family right now, if that's a possibility, or at least explain that process to you and let you know what to expect on your case and be able to answer your questions. It's stressful enough just being charged with a case, especially when it's a family violence case. But if you've got an attorney who's not there to answer your questions and they're not returning those phone calls or they're not treating you respectfully, it makes everything so much more stressful than it has to be. I hope that this was helpful for you. If you have any questions or if you're being charged with a crime here in San Antonio, please feel free to give us a call at 210 405 6410, or there is the link down in the show notes below. We'd be happy to answer any questions you have, discuss your case with you, and let you know what to expect. And I hope that you have a great day.