Matthew’s Shrum Law Office

A public defender or a private lawyer? Which one to choose? This decision depends upon various factors and requirements a defendant may have. To start, a public defender is a lawyer appointed by the court to the defendant for his/her…

A bill has been passed in the state of Texas that allows DWI first-time offenders the opportunity to have charges deferred. John Fleming, the criminal attorney of Nacogdoches County in Texas stated that “historically, DWI (driving while intoxicated) could not…

UPDATED: Travis County prosecutors will now reject Possession of Marijuana cases filed from June 10 forward, unless they’re accompanied by a lab report. This comes as an unintended consequence of House Bill 1325, legalizing hemp cultivation, which was signed into…

We read stories about this type of thing on a regular basis. The person who is arrested complains that he or she was manhandled or otherwise abused by a police officer or officers, and the response is that the force…

We see figures concerning crime that come from a variety of sources. Those sources include the Austin PD, the Texas Department of Public Safety, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation. When you take the numbers related to property…

It began with a report by Georgetown resident Delisha Thomas. Ms. Thomas reported to police a bizarre and disturbing sequence of events that allegedly took place last month and began in North Austin, including being kidnapped for two days, being…

When a person causes the death of someone else, most people tend to assume that any criminal charge will be a felony. After all, murder, manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and intoxication manslaughter are all felonies of one degree or another.…

When we hear about traffic stops, we may think of the possibility of speeding tickets, a citation for running a red light or a stop sign, or maybe a DWI. But the fact is that traffic stops often lead to…

A recent report concerns an incident in Pflugerville, Texas, in which a man allegedly left his child in a locked car while he went into a building around lunchtime to renew his Texas identification card. The girl was just a year old,…

If you’ve been granted a release on bail, have posted bail, and are now walking the streets, be careful what you do while your case proceeds through the court system. Whatever the conditions of your bail may be, a violation…