Plano is one of the few North Texas cities that crosses a county line — a fact most clients only learn after they have already been charged with something. The city sits across both Collin and Dallas Counties, with the rough boundary tracking Park Boulevard and the President George Bush Turnpike (PGBT, Highway 190). For criminal cases, that line is not cosmetic. An offense north of the line is prosecuted by the Collin County District Attorney and routed to the McKinney courthouse complex. The same offense, on the same Plano street, south of the line is prosecuted by the Dallas County District Attorney and routed to the Frank Crowley Courts Building in downtown Dallas. Different prosecutors, different judges, different bail patterns, different pretrial diversion programs. Knowing which side of the line your case fell on is often the first useful conversation.
Plano Municipal Court at 4120 W 15th Street handles Class C misdemeanors and city-ordinance matters arising inside the city — most commonly traffic citations, public-intoxication allegations, theft-by-check matters, and code violations. Anything more serious — Class B and Class A misdemeanors and felonies arising in the Collin County portion of Plano — moves either to the Collin County Sub-Courthouse in Plano for early-stage handling or to the main courthouse complex in McKinney for trial. Cases originating in the Dallas County portion of Plano move to the Dallas County criminal courts downtown. Kent Starr has practiced across all three of those venues for three decades and knows the working rhythm of each.
Plano’s economic profile shapes the case mix in a particular way. The city is home to the Toyota North America headquarters at Legacy West, the Frito-Lay corporate campus on Legacy Drive, the Capital One and JPMorgan Chase footprints in the same Legacy corridor, and dozens of other Fortune-500 satellite operations. White-collar exposure — wire fraud, mail fraud, embezzlement, healthcare-billing fraud, securities-related allegations, and the occasional Foreign Corrupt Practices Act referral — runs higher in Plano than in most surrounding cities. Many of these matters move into the Eastern District of Texas as federal criminal cases, where Kent’s Fifth Circuit oral-argument experience and his Oxford and Denver LL.M. background in international and tax law become directly relevant.
The volume side of the practice in Plano is driven by traffic. The Dallas North Tollway, Central Expressway (US-75), and FM-544 form a high-density commuter grid, and Plano PD plus DPS run consistent enforcement along all three. Kent represents Plano residents and commuters facing DWI defense in Plano, drug-possession and distribution charges arising from highway stops, and the parole and probation violation matters that often follow a new arrest. The firm also handles a steady volume of domestic violence allegations in the Plano area, where the procedural shape of the case can change dramatically depending on whether the matter starts in Collin or Dallas County.
Three details about Plano are worth knowing if you have just been charged. First: the bail patterns differ between the two county jails. The Collin County Detention Facility on Community Avenue in McKinney books and processes Plano arrests originating north of the county line; the Lew Sterrett Justice Center in downtown Dallas handles arrests originating south of it. Second: the prosecutors’ pretrial diversion programs differ as well, and a misdemeanor that is divertible in one county may not be in the other. Third: Plano PD’s body-worn-camera and dash-camera footage practices have improved meaningfully over the last several years, and a careful evidentiary review at the front of a case often surfaces facts that were not in the offense report.
Kent runs Starr Law P.C. as a solo practitioner. When clients call, they reach Kent. When clients meet at the McKinney office at 5900 S Lake Forest Drive — about fifteen minutes north of Legacy West on US-75 — they meet with Kent. He speaks Spanish and Portuguese in addition to English, offers free, confidential initial consultations, and represents clients throughout Collin, Dallas, Tarrant, Denton, Rockwall, Kaufman, Ellis, Johnson, and Parker Counties. Reading the firm’s client reviews is the most honest portrait of the work.
If you have been charged with an offense anywhere in Plano — and especially if you do not yet know which county is prosecuting your case — call (214) 982-1408 for a free consultation with Kent.
Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Every case is evaluated on its own facts.
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