Continuous violence against the family is defined by Texas Penal Code Section 25.11: a person commits the offense if, during a period of twelve months or less, the person engages in conduct that would constitute two or more family violence assaults.¹ The statute elevates a pattern of misdemeanor-level allegations into a single third-degree felony, punishable by two to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.² The underlying conduct is assault against a family or household member as defined in the Family Code,³ but the charge itself is the pattern, not any single incident.

Two features set this charge apart. First, the earlier assaults do not need to have resulted in arrest or conviction; the State can build the felony from incidents that were never separately prosecuted.¹ Second, the statute does not require the jury to agree on which two specific incidents occurred, only that two qualifying incidents occurred within the twelve-month window. That structure is what makes a careful, incident-by-incident investigation of the allegations so consequential.

A continuous violence case is assembled from predicate incidents, and the shape of the charge depends on what those incidents are alleged to be. These are the variants this charge most often turns on.

Two or more simple assault allegations within twelve months

This is the core charge. Two or more acts that would each constitute a family violence assault under Section 22.01, occurring within a single twelve-month period, support a Section 25.11 felony,¹ even where each individual act would on its own have been only a Class A misdemeanor under Section 22.01.⁴

When a predicate incident involves choking or strangulation

Where one of the alleged incidents involves impeding the breath or circulation of a family or household member, that incident is itself a third-degree felony under Section 22.01(b)(2)(B),⁵ and its presence inside the twelve-month window changes both the investigation and the exposure.

When a predicate incident is alleged as aggravated assault

Where serious bodily injury or a deadly weapon is alleged in one of the incidents, that incident can support an aggravated assault charge, a first- or second-degree felony when committed against a family or household member.⁶ A continuous violence indictment can sit alongside a separate aggravated count drawn from the same window.

How prior convictions interact

Section 25.11 is already a felony on its own terms, but a person's separate criminal history can affect the punishment range and the State's charging posture. A prior family violence conviction also independently raises an ordinary assault to a third-degree felony under Section 22.01,⁴ so the criminal history is reviewed alongside the continuous-violence theory.

The people charged under Section 25.11 are often partners and spouses in a relationship that has produced more than one police call over the course of a year. Many of the alleged incidents were never separately charged, and the person learns only at indictment that the State has assembled them into a felony. The complainant is frequently someone the person still shares a home or children with.

The collateral exposure is heavy because the result is a felony. A conviction triggers a lifetime federal prohibition on possessing a firearm or ammunition under the Lautenberg Amendment,⁷ becomes a permanent part of the record with the employment, housing, and professional-licensing consequences that follow any felony, and for a noncitizen is a basis for removal under federal immigration law.⁸ A continuing protective order is frequently sought as the case proceeds, and the finding can shape any custody or divorce matter between the parties. That combination is why each predicate incident is examined on its own before the pattern is conceded.

The criminal exposure on a third-degree felony is two to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.² Where the person has prior felony convictions, the punishment range can be enhanced for repeat and habitual offenders under Section 12.42, which raises both the floor and the ceiling.⁹ A conviction is a felony of record, and because it carries a family violence finding it triggers the federal firearm prohibition under 18 U.S.C. Section 922(g)(9) for life and cannot later be sealed or expunged.⁷

There is almost always a parallel civil and family-law side. An emergency protective order is typically entered at magistration,¹⁰ and the State often seeks a continuing protective order as the case proceeds. Community supervision in these cases ordinarily includes a Batterers Intervention and Prevention Program requirement. The complainant cannot drop the case: once the charge is filed, the Bexar County Criminal District Attorney controls the prosecution. Whether any particular resolution fits a given case is a fact-specific question answered from the record, never a promise.

A continuous violence case is built from the records of several separate incidents, and what a person does early affects all of them. The most common mistake is explaining any one of the incidents to officers or investigators; statements are recorded and used across the whole pattern, and Article 38.22 governs when an accused's statement is admissible and what warnings had to come first.

A few steps help in nearly every case. If an emergency protective order has been entered, follow it exactly, because a violation is a separate crime that can be filed on top of the felony.¹⁰ Preserve every text message, voicemail, photograph, and calendar entry that bears on the dates the State is treating as predicate incidents, and do not delete anything. Gather any family-law or civil-protective-order filings between the parties from the same twelve-month window, because they often fix the timeline. Keep all paperwork from the arrest and any protective order, and do not contact the complainant until counsel has reviewed the order.

This is general information about how these cases work in Texas. It is not legal advice about any specific case, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.

A continuous violence case in Bexar County follows a felony path, and knowing the order of events makes the decision points easier to see.

Arrest, magistration, and emergency protective order

The case ordinarily begins with an arrest. The person is brought before a magistrate who gives the statutory warnings and sets bond, ordinarily within 48 hours, under Article 15.17.¹¹ In a family violence case the magistrate frequently enters an order for emergency protection at the same hearing under Article 17.292.¹⁰

Bond conditions

The magistrate may impose conditions of bond related to the safety of the complainant and the community, which in a family violence case can include no-contact terms and monitoring under Articles 17.40 and 17.49.¹² Conditions affecting contact with shared children are addressed by motion to modify.

Grand jury and filing in district court

A felony is presented to a grand jury, which decides whether to return an indictment; where the case has not yet been indicted, a defense submission can be made to the District Attorney's intake before that decision. An indicted Section 25.11 case is filed into a Bexar County district court, which has jurisdiction over felony matters.¹³ Filings move through the Cadena-Reeves Justice Center on Dolorosa Street,¹⁴ and the case is prosecuted from the Paul Elizondo Tower across the plaza.¹⁵

Pretrial settings, discovery, and resolution

The case proceeds through pretrial settings. The State's evidence for each predicate incident, the offense reports, the 911 audio, and every body-worn camera angle, is produced under the discovery statute, Article 39.14.¹⁶ The unanimity structure of the statute receives focused motion practice. A case can resolve by dismissal, by reduction of the continuous count to a single underlying assault, by a negotiated agreement, or at trial, with deferred adjudication under Article 42A.102 analyzed where it is available and the firearm consequence is in view.¹⁷

A continuous violence case does not carry the fast administrative clock a DWI does, but timing still decides what evidence survives and what options remain.

Because the charge is a pattern, Forrest Good PLLC begins with each alleged predicate incident as a discrete factual matter. The 911 audio, body-worn camera, in-car video, and any photographs from each scene are requested through formal discovery under Article 39.14 and reviewed independently and then in relation to one another.¹⁶ The timeline is reconstructed against contemporaneous records, including messages, third-party accounts, and any family-law or civil-protective-order filings between the parties during the twelve-month window, which often fix or contradict the dates the State has chosen.

The family violence finding is examined against the Family Code definition rather than the State's intake summary.³ The unanimity structure of Section 25.11 receives focused motion practice.¹ Where one incident is alleged as strangulation or as an aggravated assault, independent medical or forensic review is considered for that incident.⁵ The federal firearm prohibition under 18 U.S.C. Section 922(g)(9) is held in view at every negotiation, alongside the felony-record and immigration consequences.⁷ Where the case has not yet been indicted, a defense grand jury submission is prepared. Every motion is preserved on the record.

The hour estimate

Forrest Good PLLC estimates this matter at 30 to 50 hours of attorney time, billed at $250 per hour. The lower end reflects a two-incident file with a cooperative complainant that resolves early; the upper end reflects a multi-incident file with contested predicate evidence, unanimity motion practice, a protective-order overlay, and extended pretrial settings. The pricing methodology explains how the charging instrument, the evidence load, and the procedural stakes drive the estimate.

The flat fee and what it covers

The starting flat fee is $7,500. It covers a defense grand jury submission where the case has not yet been indicted; independent review of each alleged predicate incident with its own recorded-evidence file; analysis of the family violence finding under the Family Code definition;³ unanimity and continuous-conduct motion practice under Section 25.11;¹ navigation of emergency and continuing protective orders;¹⁰ full pretrial motion practice including discovery enforcement under Article 39.14;¹⁶ and every pretrial setting in the assigned Bexar County district court through trial-court disposition. The fee shown here is honored while this page is published, consistent with Texas Disciplinary Rule of Professional Conduct 7.02(d).¹⁹

Any work outside the scoped fee is billed at $250 per hour and is disclosed in the written engagement letter before it begins. The engagement letter is the binding contract for the matter.

The first step is a conversation. The initial 30-minute consultation with Forrest Good PLLC is free and is scheduled through the office's Google Booking page. It is the time to walk through each incident the State is treating as a predicate, any protective order, and the twelve-month window the indictment relies on, and to understand how the firearm consequence and any custody case fit together before the next setting. Bringing the arrest paperwork, any protective order, and any family-law filings from the same period makes the half hour far more useful.

No attorney-client relationship is formed until a written engagement letter is signed; the consultation itself carries no obligation.

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