Texas Penal Code Section 42.07 defines harassment by both a purpose and a means: a person commits the offense if, with intent to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, or embarrass another, the person engages in one of the specific forms of communication the statute lists.¹ On a first offense the charge is a Class B misdemeanor, which carries up to 180 days in the county jail and a fine of up to $2,000.² It rises to a Class A misdemeanor on a prior conviction, where the conduct is directed at a person younger than seventeen in stated circumstances, or in other situations the statute specifies, raising the ceiling to one year in jail and a $4,000 fine.³

The listed forms of conduct are specific: certain repeated communications, a communication that conveys a threat, a communication in obscene language, an anonymous call, a false report of injury or death, and electronic communications sent in a manner the statute describes.¹ The intent element is what most cases turn on, because the same message can be innocent or criminal depending on the purpose behind it, and intent is proved by inference from the whole context, not from the message alone.

Harassment is charged by the kind of communication and the person it targets. These are the variants this charge most often turns on.

The kind of communication alleged

The conduct may be charged as repeated communications intended to harass, as a communication conveying a threat, as obscene communication, as an anonymous or false-report call, or as electronic communication sent in a manner the statute describes.¹ Each form has its own elements, and the form charged determines what the State must prove.

The electronic-communications subsection

The subsection addressing repeated electronic communications has been the subject of sustained constitutional litigation in the Texas appellate courts, and the controlling authority continues to develop. Where a charge rests on that subsection, the current state of that authority is part of the analysis. The base grade for a first offense remains a Class B misdemeanor.²

When the grade rises to a Class A

A prior harassment conviction, or conduct directed at a person younger than seventeen in stated circumstances, raises the offense to a Class A misdemeanor under Section 42.07,¹ with the higher punishment range that grade carries.³

When the conduct overlaps with stalking or a protective order

A course of conduct that goes beyond communication can be charged as stalking under Section 42.072,⁴ and where a protective order is in place the same conduct can also be charged as a violation of that order under Section 25.07.⁵ How the State has characterized the conduct is a threshold question.

Harassment charges often arise out of a soured relationship, a contested divorce or custody dispute, or a disagreement that played out over text and social media. Many of the people charged were in ongoing, two-sided communication with the complainant, and the charge isolates a portion of that exchange. Others are charged over speech they believed was protected, such as criticism or argument.

The collateral exposure runs into family law. A harassment charge or conviction can affect a pending or contemplated divorce, custody, or protective-order matter, and a finding that the conduct was family violence can carry the consequences attached to that finding.⁶ For a noncitizen, some dispositions can carry immigration consequences. A misdemeanor conviction also appears on the background checks employers and landlords run. That is why the complete record of the communication, and the intent behind it, are examined before anything is conceded.

The criminal exposure on a Class B misdemeanor is up to 180 days in jail and a fine of up to $2,000,² rising to one year and a $4,000 fine on a Class A.³ The larger stakes are often collateral. A harassment charge tied to a family situation can be used in a related family-law proceeding and can support a protective order rendered on a finding of family violence under the Family Code.⁷

Where the charge rests on protected speech, there is a constitutional dimension as well, and the validity of the charge can turn on it. The complainant cannot drop the case: once the charge is filed, the prosecuting authority controls it, and a complainant's later wish to decline is one factor among many. Whether a case resolves by dismissal, by a constitutional challenge, through pretrial diversion, or otherwise is a fact-specific question answered from the record, never a promise.

A harassment case is built almost entirely from communication records, and what a person does early decides what survives. The most common mistake is explaining the messages to officers or investigators; statements are recorded and used, 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. Preserve the complete record of the communication, the full threads rather than isolated messages, including every message the complainant sent, and do not delete anything, because the surrounding exchange is often what shows the intent or the consent. Save call logs, voicemails, emails, and social-media histories. Keep all paperwork from the arrest and any protective order, and follow any order exactly. Do not continue or resume contact with the complainant until counsel has reviewed the situation.

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 first-offense harassment case in Bexar County follows a misdemeanor path, and knowing the order of events makes the decision points easier to see.

Arrest or citation and magistration

A harassment case can begin with an arrest or with a citation to appear. Where there is an arrest, the person is brought before a magistrate who gives the statutory warnings and sets bond, ordinarily within 48 hours, under Article 15.17.⁸

Bond conditions

Where the case carries a family violence allegation, the magistrate may impose conditions of bond related to the safety of the complainant, which can include no-contact terms under Articles 17.40 and 17.49.⁹

Filing in a County Court at Law

The prosecuting authority files the charge into a Bexar County Court at Law, which has jurisdiction over Class A and B misdemeanors,¹⁰ with companion family violence allegations heard on the county's family violence docket. Filings move through the Cadena-Reeves Justice Center on Dolorosa Street,¹¹ and the case is prosecuted from the Paul Elizondo Tower across the plaza.¹²

Pretrial settings, discovery, and resolution

The case proceeds through pretrial settings. The State's evidence, the offense report and every communication and electronic record, is produced under the discovery statute, Article 39.14.¹³ Constitutional and evidentiary motions are litigated where the charge rests on protected speech or a contested subsection. A case can resolve by dismissal, by a successful pretrial challenge, through the county's pretrial diversion program where a person is eligible, by a negotiated agreement, or at trial.¹⁴

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

Forrest Good PLLC works harassment cases through the records first and the legal framework second. Every alleged communication is obtained in its complete form through formal discovery and subpoena under Article 39.14, with metadata where the platform produces it, because the full thread, not the State's excerpt, is the working document.¹³ The intent element under Section 42.07 is then analyzed against the complete record: any prior consensual communications between the parties, the context in which a disputed message was sent, the reasonable reading of the language used, and the complainant's contemporaneous response.¹

Where the alleged conduct involves political, religious, or otherwise protected speech, a constitutional analysis is applied against the current appellate authority on the relevant subsection. Where the allegation arose alongside or after a family-law proceeding, the procedural timing is documented through the court file. Pretrial diversion is assessed where the facts and the person's history support it, and where it fits, the program requirements and timeline are reviewed before any application.¹⁴ Every motion is preserved on the record.

The hour estimate

Forrest Good PLLC estimates this matter at 15 to 25 hours of attorney time, billed at $250 per hour. The lower end reflects a single-thread file with limited constitutional questions that resolves early; the upper end reflects a multi-platform file requiring sustained constitutional briefing, contested platform-record subpoenas, 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 $5,000. It covers complete-thread review of every alleged communication and electronic record; intent-element analysis under Section 42.07;¹ constitutional motion practice where protected speech is in view; pretrial-diversion eligibility analysis;¹⁴ full pretrial motion practice including discovery enforcement and subpoena work under Article 39.14;¹³ and every pretrial setting in the assigned Bexar County misdemeanor 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).¹⁶

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 the complete communication record, the subsection the State has charged, and the context the message was sent in, and to understand whether a constitutional challenge or pretrial diversion fits before the next setting. Bringing the full threads, the arrest paperwork, and any protective order 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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