Texas Criminal Case Dismissal Statistics: What the FY25 Court Data Shows

Most people facing a criminal charge in Texas want the answer to one question: how often do cases like mine actually get dismissed? The honest answer exists — the Texas Office of Court Administration (OCA) publishes disposition data for every court in the state — but almost nobody presents it plainly, and the official numbers actually understate how often Texans walk away without a conviction.

This page does three things. First, it reports the statewide dismissal rates from OCA’s FY25 data (September 1, 2024 – August 31, 2025), with the denominators stated so you know exactly what each percentage means. Second, it breaks down court caseloads for the ten Central Texas counties where our attorneys practice. Third — the part no statewide database can tell you — it explains how dismissals actually happen, drawing on our own record: as of July 2026, our firm’s case management system documents 1,120 dismissals, prosecutorial rejections, and grand-jury no-bills since 2020 — counted per charge, the same basis Texas courts use for their own statistics.

What Percentage of Criminal Cases Are Dismissed in Texas?

In FY25, Texas county-level courts dismissed 172,741 misdemeanor cases — 49.1% of the 352,053 misdemeanor charge resolutions statewide (convictions, deferred adjudications, acquittals, and dismissals combined). In the felony courts, 83,874 cases were dismissed — 32.6% of 257,565 charge resolutions. Roughly speaking: half of resolved misdemeanors and one in three resolved felonies ended in dismissal.

Two notes on those numbers, because precision is the point of this page. Measured against all dispositions (a broader denominator that includes probation-revocation rulings and other administrative outcomes), the rates are 45.7% for misdemeanors and 26.6% for felonies. And OCA’s FY25 felony file is missing Dallas County data for the entire year, so the statewide felony figures exclude Dallas.

Why Official Dismissal Rates Understate No-Conviction Outcomes

Here is the detail almost every “dismissal rate” article gets wrong: OCA’s reporting instructions direct clerks not to count a dismissal that follows a completed deferred adjudication as a dismissal. The case is recorded as disposed on the day the defendant is placed on deferred — so when the charge is later dismissed after successful completion, that dismissal never appears in the statistics.

The scale of this is enormous. In FY25 alone, Texas felony courts placed 61,208 cases on deferred adjudication — 23.8% of all felony charge resolutions — and county-level courts placed another 53,518 misdemeanor cases. Every one of those defendants who completes supervision ends up with a dismissed charge that the official dismissal rate never counts. The true share of Texas criminal cases that end without a conviction is meaningfully higher than the published dismissal numbers suggest.

We see this in our own practice. A Milam County DWI (second offense) was dismissed after our client completed Veterans Treatment Court; a Caldwell County DWI was dismissed in favor of treatment. Both are documented dismissals on our record — and both are exactly the kind of outcome that official statistics are structured never to show.

Since September 1, 2019, deferred adjudication has also been available for most first-offense DWI charges in Texas (House Bill 3582) — one reason the FY25 data shows 19,184 first-offense DWI deferred placements statewide.

Felony Dismissal Rates in Texas by Charge Type (FY25)

Dismissal rates vary sharply by charge. Of FY25 felony charge resolutions statewide: family-violence assault was dismissed 39.6% of the time, aggravated assault 36.8%, drug possession 33.3%, theft 27.9% — while felony DWI was dismissed just 11.0% of the time. That last number matters: it is the honest context for anyone promising easy felony DWI dismissals.

Source: OCA FY25 Annual Statistical Supplement, statewide felony activity detail (District & Statutory County Courts; Dallas County data missing for FY25). “Charge resolutions” = convictions + deferred adjudications + acquittals + dismissals.

Wondering where a specific charge falls? See our guide to third-degree felonies in Texas.

Misdemeanor Dismissal Rates in Texas by Charge Type (FY25)

Misdemeanor dismissal rates run far higher. Of FY25 misdemeanor charge resolutions statewide: family-violence assault was dismissed 60.5% of the time, marijuana possession 55.1%, non-family assault 54.5%, theft 45.3%, and first-offense DWI 27.3%. Nearly half of all resolved Texas misdemeanors — 49.1% — ended in dismissal.

Source: OCA FY25 Annual Statistical Supplement, statewide misdemeanor activity detail (county-level courts). Same denominator definition as above.

Most of these charges are Class A or Class B offenses — here is what a Class B misdemeanor means in Texas.

How Often Do Criminal Cases Actually Go to Trial in Texas?

Almost never — and that reshapes how you should think about defense strategy. In FY25, Texas felony courts recorded just 689 acquittals out of 257,565 charge resolutions (0.27%), and juries were selected in only 2,378 felony cases statewide. Misdemeanor acquittals were rarer still: 606 out of 352,053 resolutions (0.17%).

Compare that with 83,874 felony dismissals and 172,741 misdemeanor dismissals the same year. Cases are overwhelmingly won before trial — through suppression litigation, indictment deadlines, grand-jury advocacy, diversion programs, and negotiation backed by trial readiness. That is exactly what the next section documents. If you’re wondering whether a motion to suppress can end a case, Texas courts ruled on 2,752 felony suppression motions in FY25 — see our guide to motions to suppress in Texas.

Criminal Case Statistics by County in Central Texas (FY25)

The table below shows FY25 felony caseloads in the district courts of the ten Central Texas counties where the Law Office of David D. White, PLLC practices, from OCA’s county-level data. All ten counties fully reported in FY25.

Misdemeanors in eight of these counties run through statutory county courts at law; Lee and Milam have no county court at law, so misdemeanors there are handled by the constitutional county court.

Source: OCA FY25 Annual Statistical Supplement, activity-by-county summaries (district, statutory county, and constitutional county courts). Figures are fiscal-year (Sep–Aug) counts as reported at publication.

County-specific guides: Travis County · Williamson County · Hays County · Bell County

How Criminal Cases Actually Get Dismissed in Central Texas

Statewide statistics tell you how often. They cannot tell you how. OCA’s databases record a dismissal as a single line with no reason attached — we confirmed this against every report type the state’s court-activity database offers. What follows are the mechanisms that actually produce dismissals, each illustrated by an outcome documented in our case results. Every example is stated as charge + county + outcome; we do not publish client names. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

Pre-file intervention and prosecutorial rejection. The earliest dismissals happen before a case is ever filed. Our documented results include a Class A family-violence assault declined before filing in Bell County (2026), a felony family-violence charge declined in Burnet County (2025), and an aggravated assault (serious bodily injury) and a burglary-of-habitation charge each rejected in Travis County (2026). Early defense work — presenting evidence to the prosecutor before charging decisions — is how charges end before they begin. More on how prosecutors decide: can a prosecutor drop charges in Texas? Only the State or the court can end a case — see whether a judge can dismiss a case.

Grand-jury no-bills. For felonies, the grand jury is a real checkpoint. A Travis County felony assault allegation on our record was no-billed by the grand jury in 2026 — the grand jury declined to indict, ending the case.

Indictment deadlines (Article 32.01). When the State fails to indict within the deadline set by Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 32.01, the defense can move for dismissal. Our results include felony theft and forgery charges dismissed in Travis County on exactly this ground.

Suppression litigation. When evidence is thrown out, cases collapse. Texas felony courts ruled on 2,752 motions to suppress in FY25. A documented first-offense DWI dismissal in Williamson County followed a granted motion to suppress based on an illegal detention. How suppression works: motions to suppress in Texas.

Diversion and treatment programs. Pre-trial diversion (PTD), pre-trial intervention (PTIP), veterans treatment court, and treatment-based resolutions all end in dismissal on completion. Documented examples: three Travis County felonies — including arson and insurance fraud — dismissed after pre-trial diversion (2025); a felony drug-possession charge (Penalty Group 1) dismissed after PTD in Travis County (2026); a Williamson County DWI dismissed through PTIP (2025); the Milam County Veterans Treatment Court dismissal above.

Procedural and interstate mechanisms. Some dismissals come from procedural leverage most defendants never hear about: three felony charges dismissed via the Interstate Agreement on Detainers (Bexar County, 2022–2026), and a third-degree felony theft dismissed while in warrant status in Travis County (2026).

Negotiated dismissals and reductions. Prosecutors dismiss when conviction risk, mitigation, or the interest of justice makes trial the wrong path — a documented Travis County felony theft was dismissed under a mitigation-based agreement (2026). Where outright dismissal isn’t available, reduction changes lives: our record includes two felony DWI charges reduced to misdemeanors with no jail (Travis, 2026), a felony DWI (third offense) reduced to a Class B misdemeanor (Travis, 2026), and a murder charge reduced to aggravated assault (Travis, 2026).

After the dismissal: clearing the record. A dismissed charge usually remains on your criminal record until it is expunged — dismissal is not conviction, but it is also not erasure. Our expunction practice, led by Kenneth Hines, has documented results including an expunction granted over the State’s objection (Travis) and an early expunction of a first-degree felony arrest granted before the standard waiting period (Travis). Start here: expunction in Texas. For weapons-charge arrests, see UCW expungement in Austin.

What Our Documented Case Results Show

Our case management records document 1,120 dismissals, rejections, and no-bills since 2020 (as of July 2026, counted per charge/cause number). That count includes charges dismissed after successful completion of deferred adjudication or pretrial diversion — real dismissals that, as explained above, the state’s own statistics never count. Our published case results independently document at least 86 of those dismissed charges in the public record — and at least 113 favorable outcomes overall, including reductions, pre-file rejections, no-bills, expunctions, and early probation terminations — with at least one documented outcome in every one of the ten Central Texas counties where we practice: Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bell, Coryell, Milam, Caldwell, Bastrop, Burnet, and Lee. Additional documented outcomes come from other Texas venues, including thirteen drug and firearm charges — including first-degree drug delivery — dismissed in Bandera County (2018–2026), and federal court.

Two honesty notes, because they are the point. These are documented outcomes from our public record, not a complete accounting of every case the firm has handled — the count is a floor, not a census. And we publish counts, never a “success rate”: a percentage computed from selected results would be meaningless, and firms that advertise one are telling you something about their marketing, not their lawyering. The rates on this page come from OCA, which counts every case in Texas. The mechanisms come from us.

Frequently Asked Questions

What percentage of criminal cases are dismissed in Texas?

In FY25, 49.1% of Texas misdemeanor charge resolutions and 32.6% of felony charge resolutions ended in dismissal, per OCA court data (denominator: convictions + deferred adjudications + acquittals + dismissals). Measured against all dispositions, the shares are 45.7% and 26.6%.

Do Texas dismissal statistics include deferred adjudication dismissals?

No. OCA reporting rules count a deferred-adjudication case as disposed at placement, so the dismissal entered after successful completion never appears in dismissal statistics. With 61,208 felony and 53,518 misdemeanor deferred placements in FY25, official dismissal rates understate no-conviction outcomes.

How often are DWI cases dismissed in Texas?

In FY25, 27.3% of first-offense misdemeanor DWI charge resolutions statewide ended in dismissal (17,663 of 64,665), while felony DWI was dismissed in 11.0% of resolutions — the lowest dismissal rate of any major felony category.

How often are family violence cases dismissed in Texas?

More often than any other major category: 60.5% of misdemeanor family-violence assault charge resolutions (21,832 of 36,095) and 39.6% of felony family-violence resolutions ended in dismissal in FY25. Individual outcomes depend heavily on evidence and early defense work. See what happens if a victim wants to drop charges in Texas.

How many criminal cases were dismissed in Travis County in FY25?

Travis County district courts disposed of 9,487 felony cases and its county courts 15,326 misdemeanor cases in FY25; statewide, roughly one in three felony and one in two misdemeanor resolutions were dismissals. County-level dismissal counts are not yet published for FY25 — we will update this answer when the state releases them.

How often do criminal cases go to trial in Texas?

Rarely. FY25 statewide: 689 felony acquittals (0.27% of resolutions), 2,378 felony cases with a jury selected, and 606 misdemeanor acquittals (0.17%). The overwhelming majority of favorable outcomes are dismissals secured before trial.

Can a felony be dismissed in Texas?

Yes — 83,874 felony cases were dismissed statewide in FY25, 32.6% of felony charge resolutions. Mechanisms include grand-jury no-bills, Article 32.01 indictment deadlines, suppression of evidence, diversion programs, and negotiated dismissals.

Does a dismissed case mean I was convicted?

No. A dismissal ends the prosecution without a conviction — but the arrest and charge typically remain on your record until expunged. See will a dismissed charge appear on a background check?