The First 48 Hours After A Family Violence Arrest

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Your phone is back in your hand, you’re finally out of the Bexar County jail, and you’re thinking one thing: what do I do now so I don’t make this worse? We break down the real timeline after a family violence arrest in San Antonio, with a focus on what happens in the first 48 hours and why the earliest decisions often shape the entire case.

We start at the magistrate hearing, where the judge sets the bond amount and the bond conditions. We explain how bail works, why many people use a bail bondsman (often at a 10% fee), and what that money does and does not buy you. Then we dig into the restrictions that hit family violence cases fast: firearm limits, no contact orders, and the possibility of an emergency protective order that can be separate from the criminal case and still keep you from contacting people or even returning home.

From there, we talk about the practical steps that protect you after release: following every no contact order, staying in good standing with your bail bondsman, checking in with pretrial services, and avoiding mistakes that can trigger a new charge or a warrant. We also explain why reaching out to an attorney early matters, how to think about working with a court-appointed lawyer, and when it may be time to hire private counsel to pursue the best possible result.

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If you have any questions about this or if you're being charged with a crime, feel free to call us at 210-405-6410 or click here to schedule a free 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

Transcript

Welcome And What’s Ahead

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, and welcome back to another episode of What to Expect When You've Been 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 if you were just arrested for family violence in Bear County, here's exactly what happens next and what you need to do in the next 48

Free Download And Consultation Link

SPEAKER_00 0:24

hours. Before we get into that, we do have a free download for you. It's five things you should be doing right now if you've been arrested. And you can click down on the show notes below, and there's a link down there where we will send that right out to you. We also have a link to schedule a free consultation with me. If you're being charged with a crime here in San Antonio, I highly recommend scheduling that free consultation. I'll sit down with you or do it over the phone. I can answer your questions, let you know what to expect. We can discuss your case and how I may be able to help you out.

Booking And The Magistrate Hearing

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If you've been arrested for family violence in San Antonio, the police are going to take you down to the Bear County jail. When you're in the jail, the biggest thing that's going to happen is that you're going to see a magistrate judge. And that magistrate judge is going to do a few things that are going to be very important for you. First off, they're going to set the bond amount in your case. The bond amount is the amount that your family member or your friend is going to have to pay to get you out of jail. And there are two ways they can do that. They can pay the full amount to the county, and at the end of the case, they get all of their money back. Or more likely, they're going to go to a bail bondsman. And in San Antonio, the going rate for a bail bondsman is usually right at 10%, which means that if the judge sets bond at $4,000, your friend or family member is going to have to pay $400 to get you out of jail. That's the fee for the bail bondsman, and you will not get that back. That's just your fee for them bonding you out of jail, and they end up vouching for the rest of

Bond Conditions And No Contact Orders

SPEAKER_00 1:56

that for you. The other big thing that's going to happen in front of that magistrate judge is that they're going to set any bond conditions. In a family violence case, that usually means you're not going to be able to have any firearms while your case is going on. And even more importantly, they're usually going to issue a no contact order preventing you from having any contact with the alleged victim on the case. And that lasts as long as your case does, unless you can get it changed. They can also issue an emergency protective order, which is going to be a different type of no contact order, and they can order both of those. The emergency protective order is going to be separate from your case, which means that it's going to have its own deadline, usually a month or two after the arrest. And in a lot of situations, not only is it going to prevent you from having contact with the alleged victim on the case, it could prevent you from having contact with their family members or going to their house even if they're not there. That can mean that you can't go home once you get out of jail. The entire process of being arrested and getting out, assuming that you can make bond on the case, is usually about 24 hours. It takes forever. It's a horrible process to go through, and you're going to want to get out as quickly as you can.

Staying Compliant After Release

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Once you do get out, it's very important what you do and what you don't do once you get out. First off, it's very important that you follow those no contact orders. If you make contact with the person you're not supposed to make contact with, that can be another charge against you. And it's harder to get multiple cases dismissed than it is to get just one case dismissed. So I always recommend that you make sure not to break any of those no contact orders. Now, here are some things that you will want to do. First off, you want to make sure that you're keeping your bail bondsmen and pretrial services happy. Your bail bondsman is there to make sure that you're showing up to court because they're on your bond. And if you don't show up to court, then they can be financially responsible for you. And if you do anything to violate the terms of the agreement with the bail bondsman, they can get off your bond, which means that a warrant goes out for your arrest, and we don't want that to happen. You're also probably going to have to check in with pretrial services. Pre-trial services' job is to make sure that you're following any bond conditions and also that you know about court dates. You normally have to check in with them, and if you don't check in with them, they're going to file a violation report with the judge, which could result in a warrant going out for your arrest. And we don't want you having to get arrested again during this process. So it's very important that you check in with your bail bondsmen and check in with pretrial services.

Hiring The Right Attorney Early

SPEAKER_00 4:32

The last thing that you want to make sure to do is get in contact with an attorney as soon as possible. When you were arrested, you may have been appointed an attorney to represent you. If you were, reach out to that attorney so that you can make sure that they are working on your case and so that you can find out if this is an attorney that you're comfortable working with. If this is a case that you want to get dismissed, then you want to make sure that you've got an attorney who you are confident within their ability to get this case dismissed, or at least that they are working on this case and keeping you up to date on what's going on and answering your questions. I've talked to so many people though who have had court-appointed attorneys and they are not getting any calls back, they're not getting their questions answered, and they only see them in court for a few minutes. And it's stressful enough just being charged with anything, especially a family violence case. But if you've got an attorney who's not there to answer your questions and let you know what to expect, it just makes everything so much more stressful than it has to be. And if that's a situation for you, then you need to be reaching out to a private attorney. Somebody like me who focuses on family violence cases and knows how to get good results in these cases. Now, obviously, we can't get every case dismissed, but we do have a good track record of getting good results on cases. In family violence cases specifically, you need an attorney who's going to start work on your case as soon as possible. In a lot of situations, family violence cases are beatable cases. They can be difficult for the state to prove up. However, it's important to get somebody working on your case as soon as possible. There have been many situations where somebody comes to us at the end of their case and we're very limited on what we can do at that time because there are things that we can do at the beginning of the case that we can't do at the end of the case. And so if you're looking for a dismissal on your case, it's important to try and reach out to an attorney as soon as possible and look for somebody who you have the confidence that is going to be able to get you the result that

Final Tips And How To Reach Us

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you want. I hope that this was helpful for you. If you do have any questions, please feel free to give me a call at 210 405 6410, or you can use that link down in the show notes to schedule a free consultation with me. I'd be happy to discuss your case with you and let you know how we may be able to help you out. I hope you have a great day.