Can I be Drug Tested in Court?

Can I be drug tested in court? Being a Texas criminal defense lawyer, this is a question I get often.

My name is Eric Benavides and I’m a Texas criminal defense lawyer. I want to talk to you today about the possibilities of being drug tested in court.

My clients asked me all the time could I potentially be drug tested when I go to court and the answer is yes you could. Now the chances are higher if you’re on
pretrial conditions or if you’re out on a PR bond and somebody’s checking in on you while your case is pending.

It is seldom that drug tested are random, but it could happen. Typically drug tests are ordered for individuals who are being supervised pre-trial, or by individuals who draw attention to themselves usually by either skipping court or showing up late.

You can also be sent for a drug test if you show up late to court or if you do something that causes the judge to become upset with you, these are bond conditions that the judge can check on. Now the courts understand that you could test positive for certain drugs for up to 30 days, such as marijuana, but they will give you time to clean up but if you test positive after that amount of time you run the risk of losing your bond.

So the answer is yes you could potentially be drug, so after being arrested you should stop using drugs because using drugs could land you in jail.