The legal standard is whether the person was a danger to themselves or others, and the offense requires a public place. Many of these cases are worth fighting rather than paying.
Many of these cases turn on whether the accused was a danger to themselves or others. That is the actual legal standard, not simply being intoxicated in public.
It comes up often when a driver is arrested for DWI and the passenger is charged with public intoxication as well. If there is a sober third party at the scene who can take the passenger home, that passenger generally is not a danger to themselves or others, and the charge should not hold up. Officers frequently miss that distinction and arrest anyone who appears intoxicated.
The firm has also seen public intoxication charged when someone was intoxicated inside their own home. The law requires a public place, so you cannot be publicly intoxicated in your own living room. A lot of these cases are worth fighting rather than simply paying the fine and accepting the record.
Citation: Texas Penal Code §49.02
Degree and classification: Class C misdemeanor. Minors are instead handled under Alcoholic Beverage Code §106.071.
Statutory language: A person commits an offense if the person appears in a public place while intoxicated to the degree that the person may endanger the person or another. A licensed alcohol-sales premises counts as a public place.
Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case. Every case is decided on its own facts.