Michael D. Mercer
Born and raised in Houston, Michael D. Mercer began his career at the Harris County District Attorney's office, founded his firm the year he was licensed in 2012, and has defended more than 3,000 cases since — the vast majority dismissed. The courthouse at 1201 Franklin is three blocks from our door; the lawyer who answers the phone is the lawyer who walks in with you.
There is a walk he has made since 2012 — out of the Commercial Bank Building at 917 Franklin, three blocks down the street, four minutes on foot, into the sixteen misdemeanor courts and the twenty-nine felony district courts inside the Harris County Criminal Justice Center at 1201 Franklin. More than three thousand cases have come out of that walk. The vast majority of them ended the same way.
Here’s the thing about this page, and it’s the part we’re most proud of: nothing on it needs your trust. The license links to the State Bar’s own record. The reviews link to the public listing where they were posted. The docket rows carry cause numbers a clerk can pull. This firm doesn’t grade itself — the Bar keeps that record, the courts keep theirs, and the clients wrote theirs in public. We just made sure you can find all three.
Houston runs on a split map for criminal charges, and it matters more than people guess. A Class C file walks to the municipal courthouse at 1400 Lubbock — not downtown; everything Class A and up lands in the sixteen County Criminal Courts at Law and the felony district courts at 1201 Franklin. The paper in your hand names the building; the building names the playbook.
If you’re here because of a charge, know the stakes are real but so is the path. Every charge in Texas is a checklist of elements the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt — that rule has its own section of the Penal Code (§2.01) — and an incomplete checklist is a dead case. The State doesn’t dismiss out of mercy. It dismisses when it can’t win.
And if you’re here at 2 a.m., the same number works then. (713) 208-7682 reaches the lawyer himself — no screening service, no callback queue. Se habla español. The consultation is free, confidential, and protected from the first word.
01 · THE STORY
Born and Raised Here — Top Houston Criminal Defense Lawyer
Houston criminal attorney Michael D. Mercer worked for the Harris County District Attorney’s office before founding Mercer Law, Houston Criminal Defense Attorneys, in 2012. Unlike other attorneys who practice multiple areas of law, Mr. Mercer devotes 100% of his practice to criminal defense, taking on clients charged with all misdemeanor and felony offenses. Since 2012, Mr. Mercer has handled more than 3,000 criminal cases in and around Harris County. Over half of those cases involved assault charges, aggravated assault charges and domestic violence charges. The vast majority of those cases resulted in either dismissal or not guilty verdicts.
When he signs on to a case, Mr. Mercer devotes himself fully to making sure his client gets the best possible result. Whether issuing subpoenas for hidden evidence, taking to the street to find and interview witnesses, or undergoing hours of research on the law, Attorney Michael Mercer goes above and beyond the duty he owes to his clients. His tireless work ethic and professionalism are propelling him to become one of the brightest and hard-nosed criminal defense lawyers at the courthouse.
Houston is not a market Michael D. Mercer moved into. It’s home. His education runs through it — a B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin, then a J.D. from Mississippi College School of Law in May 2012. Six months later he was licensed in Texas, and he began his career at the Harris County DA’s office — the place where prosecutors learn how the State builds a case. Then he crossed the aisle and never went back. He founded his firm the same year he was licensed, and the State Bar’s record will tell you what happened to the practice: solo, by design; criminal defense, all of it — one practice area on the official record, and it’s “Criminal.”
We only defend.
Over more than four hundred weeks of settings, the practice grew the way a record grows: one case at a time, one zip code at a time. The assault call comes from a Spring apartment or a Humble home; the DWI arrest is a freeway stop on I-45 or the 610 Loop; the drug search rides the Ship Channel’s commute arteries or a patrolman’s knock on the 290 corridor out in Cypress. The Pasadena Police Department works its own streets on 225, Baytown PD patrols the I-10 East exits, Humble PD watches US-59 North — the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and the eight constable precincts carry the unincorporated belt, and DPS troopers ride the freeways, and the Houston Police Department writes the city’s share. Every one of them sends the file to the same building.
Each charge has its own checklist — the assault family (Penal Code §22.01’s three modes; the relationship definitions in Family Code §71.004; the felony turn under §22.01(b)(2); the aggravated file under §22.02), the DWI lanes and their second, civil case under Transp. Code §524.031’s fifteen-day window, drug charges under Chapter 481 where the search is usually the whole fight, theft’s value ladder under §31.03, weapons under §§46.02 and 46.04, and the records under the recodified expunction chapter (CCP Ch. 55A, in force since January 2025). Each one gets read the same way.
The rest of the man stays out of the courtroom, and we’re deliberate about that. Wife and three children. A talented musician. A member of an award-winning barbecue team that competes at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and at county fairs. An avid hunter. The sort of details no plaque can capture — and, frankly, the kind of life a client who’s afraid wants their lawyer to have.
One client’s public review put it better than we ever could. K Will, facing a third-degree felony, wrote: “Mr. Mercer is a great man, a family man, way before being a lawyer.” And later in the same review: “Mercer fought for my freedom, as if I was his blood.” (posted on Google, his words exactly).
Criminal Defense Attorney Practice Areas
Assault Attorney · Assault-Family Member & Family Violence Charges · Aggravated Assault Attorney · Drug Charge Lawyer · DWI/DUI · Expunction/Expungement · Unlawful Carrying of a Weapon · Marijuana Possession · Prostitution · Sexual Assault Charges · Shoplifting Lawyer · Theft Lawyer · Weapons Charge Lawyer
Read the rest the way he earned it. The clients tell the rest — the full public record.
Criminal Defense Areas
Assault Lawyer · Assault on a Family Member · Aggravated Assault Lawyer · Drug Charges · DWI Lawyer · Expungement Lawyer · Marijuana Lawyer · Misdemeanor Lawyer · Theft Lawyer · Weapons Charge Lawyer
02 · THE PROMISE · TOLD, NOT CLAIMED
“His Cell, Not a Call Center” — What That Actually Means
Every firm in this market claims responsiveness. We publish the promise and show you the receipts. All of Mr. Mercer’s clients are given his personal cell phone to encourage open communication.
Kendall Green’s review said what clients feel after the fact: “I have to give Michael Mercer a huge thanks for winning my case. I called his office set an appointment and he went straight to work for me.” Mercer’s written answer, published publicly on the same listing, is where the promise lives: “One advantage of hiring your own lawyer is the access we give to our clients. When you hire Mercer and Keirnan, you have my personal cell phone number. Not many criminal defense attorneys can say that! Thank you, Kendall for the kind words.” — his words, on the public record, from before the firm was renamed.
Then there’s what the promise looked like when it was an emergency on a Houston freeway. Shonda posted this on Google:
“Mr. Michael Mercer has been a true blessing to my life. I was pulled over 15 minutes before I was scheduled to be in court. The officer informed me that my vehicle was going to be impounded. I called Mr. Mercer. Thank God he was five minutes behind me in traffic. Mr. Mercer showed suburb customer service. He pulled off of the freeway and on to the grass loaded my belongings into his vehicle. We made it to court. He has never failed to show up and fight for me in and out of the court room… My case was dismissed on 10/31/2024.”
That’s the whole answer to “who answers the phone at 2 a.m.?” The man who pulls onto the grass shoulder so a client makes her setting. Her case — a possession case — ended dismissed. His reply, posted to the same record: “Shonda I was truly grateful to be placed in a position to be of service to you. You are a source of faith and strength for those around you. Truly a blessing to know you and work for you.”
One man, one number, fourteen years — the firm.
03 · THE RECORD, IN HIS OWN WORDS
The Answers He Writes Back
Mr. Mercer commands an impressive knowledge of the law and is an exceptional negotiator in the courtroom, as indicated by over 200 former clients in online reviews and testimonials.
A lawyer’s page can tell you his philosophy. Ours shows you his — because he writes it, publicly, in answer to the people who actually hired him. Forty-five published owner responses sit on the firm’s Google listing. Four of them, in his own words:
On the trust a client places in him: “I take great pride in the trust that our clients place in us and I consider our relationship to be sacred. You are trusting me with your life, your future and your freedom and I will do everything I can to get you the best possible outcome. Dismissal.”
On what the defense’s job actually is — every case, every single time: “You force the state of Texas and its prosecutors to prove each and every case, every single time. You keep them on their toes so that innocent people are presumed innocent, and if the state wants to find them guilty, they have to do so beyond a reasonable doubt. Show me the evidence. If you don’t have it then dismiss this case!”
On the one-sided report — the police arrived after it ended and wrote the first version they heard: “The police aren’t witnesses to what happened so they frequently make mistakes. I will never let a client go down for something they didn’t do.”
And the line he returns to when the accusation doesn’t fit the man: “Sometimes bad things happen to good people.”
Walk into this page beside any bio in this market, and you get a paragraph of adjectives. Here you get the writing he already did where anyone can check it. The doctrine isn’t a slogan on this site. It’s the thing he signs.
All 117 reviews — read the public record in the clients’ own words.
And the reviews he chose for his own page, verbatim:
By A. O., January 29, 2024: “Michael Mercer is a personal, professional, empathetic, diligent, caring and hard working who has the optimum interests of his clients at heart. He recently represented me in an assault family member case against me. Constantly assured me when I was down there was no evidence against me. He worked hard to have all cases dismissed in a lightning speed of time.”
By H. I., March 8, 2024: “…some of the best criminal defense attorneys in Houston. I was facing an aggravated assault with a deadly weapon charge in Harris County and they got this felony assault case dismissed outright with no probation. Anyone charged with assault or aggravated assault in Houston should strongly consider calling Mercer Law Criminal Defense Attorneys. I couldn’t be happier with how they handled my case!”
04 · THE RECORD, ON THE RECORD
The Credentials, Verified
MEMBER: Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, Houston Young Lawyers Association.
No plaques. No badges you can buy. Just the lines you’d want to check — each one with somewhere to look:
| The record | What it says |
|---|---|
| Texas license | Bar No. 24080596 · licensed November 2, 2012 · “Eligible to Practice in Texas” |
| Discipline | No public disciplinary history — fourteen years, zero entries |
| Practice | Firm size: Solo · 100% criminal defense · founded 2012 |
| Fees | Flat fees: yes · Payment plans: yes — on the Bar’s own fee-options rows |
| Languages | Spanish and English — on the official record |
| Education | B.A., The University of Texas at Austin · J.D., Mississippi College School of Law, 2012 |
| Affiliations | Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association and Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, since 2012 |
| The courtroom record | An independent courthouse tracker has documented his wins year over year, 2021 through 2026 — cause-numbered dismissals across five different courts at 1201 Franklin |
OFFICIAL source: the State Bar of Texas public member record — the Bar keeps the record; the link is on this page.
A colleague’s endorsement on Avvo (where he carries an 8.6 “Excellent” rating across 29 reviews) reads: “Michael Mercer is a beast in the courtroom… His drive and tenacity make him an excellent criminal defense lawyer.” — attorney Mackenzie Schaffer, published peer endorsement.
And where the proof needs a file, it gets one. A felony dismissal in the 177th District Court — No. 1686177 (August 27, 2021). Another in the 178th — No. 1616577 (April 7, 2022). A family-member assault case dismissed at a trial setting in the 208th — No. 1672025. Assault dismissed at County Criminal Court at Law 9 — No. 2529620, March 21, 2025. And this year, the 497th District Court — No. 1924250, dismissed May 1, 2026. The ledger runs six rows across five courtrooms, one building.
The docket, case by case — every row carries a cause number.
05 · THE COURTHOUSE AND THE COUNTY
Three Blocks. Four Minutes. Fourteen Years.
Where the office sits is not a detail; it’s the whole arrangement. A case in Harris County moves from booking at the Joint Processing Center at 1200 Baker Street, to a magistrate within 48 hours under CCP art. 15.17 — bond conditions and, in family-violence-track arrests, sometimes a protective order signed at the same hearing — to the District Attorney’s filing decision, to a courtroom at 1201 Franklin. Every step of that path is walking distance from this desk. When the bond decision comes under the individualized rules (art. 17.028), the lawyer arguing it isn’t driving in from a suburb. When the order needs to be amended, we’re at the building. When the record following a dismissal needs erasing, the expunction walks the same three blocks.
The agencies differ; the destination doesn’t. HPD — the Houston Police Department — writes the city’s share from downtown to the corridors; the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and the eight precinct constables carry the unincorporated belt through Spring, Cypress, and Atascocita; Tomball PD, Katy PD, and Clear Lake’s and Webster’s own officers send theirs; the city departments in Pasadena, Baytown, and Humble run on their own turf. Charged in Pasadena does not mean tried in Pasadena. Every one of those files walks downtown.
The ring doesn’t change the doctrine. Fort Bend’s cases run to the Justice Center in Richmond off 59. Montgomery County’s go to Conroe, up I-45 North past The Woodlands. Brazoria’s go to Angleton, the county seat down SH 288 — the same corridor that carries Pearland’s Harris-side commutes. Galveston County’s walk the I-45 Gulf Freeway — League City, Texas City, the island. Same statutes. Same checklists. §2.01 doesn’t move with the county line — and one client’s public record says the work doesn’t either: after two felony dismissals, “one of those cases being in a county he wasn’t to sure of. Nonetheless that didn’t stop him from coming in and getting the judge to see the truth.”
The city around it all is the one he was born into — the port and energy economy, the Medical Center corridor, the county fair at the rodeo season. The office sits inside it at 917 Franklin, Fourth Street and a four-minute walk from where it all gets heard.
The courts at 1201 Franklin — the building’s anatomy.
Harris county criminal courts →
06 · THE INVITATION
Talk to the Lawyer — Free, Any Hour
Your life can change in one conversation with a police officer. The next conversation should be with your lawyer, and it costs nothing. Whether the paper came home tonight or the call came at 2 a.m. from 1200 Baker, the same answer holds: the consultation is free, confidential, and protected from the first word — and the person on the line is Michael D. Mercer himself.
Flat fees and payment plans are on the Bar’s record, not in our pitch. The courthouse is four minutes from our door, and the county line doesn’t change the work — Richmond, Conroe, Angleton, and Galveston run on the same Texas code. And the record — thousands of cases, the vast majority dismissed — is the one you already read above, from the people who lived it. (Past results don’t guarantee outcomes; what they show is how this office works.)
Call (713) 208-7682 — or start online if a phone call is too big a step tonight. Se habla español, a cualquier hora.
MICHAEL D. MERCER · 917 FRANKLIN ST #550, HOUSTON, TX 77002 · P: (713) 208-7682 · F: (713) 227-9900 · EMAIL: MIKEDMERCER@GMAIL.COM
Start with the free, confidential evaluation.
Straight answers
Will I ever actually get him — or does an intake team call back later?
He answers. Not an intake service, not a callback queue, not “next business day.” The free consultation is held by the lawyer himself, at any hour — that’s the published practice and the published promise. His own posted answer on the public review record says it plainly: “When you hire us, you have my personal cell phone number. Not many criminal defense attorneys can say that!” One client called him from the shoulder of a Houston freeway fifteen minutes before her court setting; he was five minutes behind her, loaded her belongings onto the grass shoulder, and made the courthouse on time. Access on this site isn’t a slogan — it’s what clients write about in public.
I’m out of state — will the fee, or the case, change?
The fee structure doesn’t change — flat fees and payment plans are on the State Bar’s record, same for everyone. And the case travels less than you fear. The record has the receipts: Chris Castro’s case was “handled while I was in NY,” and ended dismissed; Susan’s referral came “across state lines” — full dismissal; Haylee Warcup moved out of state mid-case — finished and dismissed. In many settings counsel appears so you don’t have to (we tell you exactly which dates require you, before you book anything travel-related). One county over works the same way: Fort Bend cases go to the Justice Center in Richmond, Montgomery’s to Conroe — the same statutes, the same checks on the State’s checklist. Distance changes logistics, not the work. The courthouse is three blocks from our office — not from yours.
Is it okay that I’m scared to call — and how confidential is the consultation?
Both are normal, and both are addressed before anything else. The consultation is confidential from the first word — attorney-client privilege attaches to it — and it costs nothing. One client whose Class A DWI ended with his license never suspended wrote about the relief he felt during that first call; Mercer’s published answer: “I remember our initial consultation and I could see the fear in your eyes.” You never owe us a decision; the consultation is the best hour for making one. Ask everything — the fee, the timeline, what happens at 1201 Franklin, whether you’ll ever see a cell.
Are the reviews on this site real — can I check them somewhere else?
They’re real, and they’re checkable — every quote on this site runs byte-verbatim from the live public listing (4.9 stars across 117 Google reviews, 45 written answers from the lawyer himself). Don’t take our word. Open the platform and read the entire exchange — including the client’s name, the outcome they describe, and the answer Mercer wrote back. The wall exists to be checked, not to be believed. His Avvo profile is independently verifiable too: 8.6 “Excellent” across 29 published reviews.
He seems younger than the big firms’ lawyers. Is that a problem — or something else?
Fourteen years is the window where the walk to the courthouse is muscle memory. He’s handled more than 3,000 cases since 2012 — in the sixteen misdemeanor courts at 1400 Lubbock’s neighboring building’s bigger sibling, the sixteen County Criminal Courts at Law, and the twenty-nine felony district courts at 1201 Franklin — and the State Bar’s record across those fourteen years reads: no public disciplinary history. The record isn’t the seniority badge. It’s what’s written in the docket: cause-numbered dismissals across five different courts between 2021 and this year — and the reviews written by the people who hired him. The resume answers itself.
¿Se habla español?
Sí. La representación completa en español está en nuestro perfil oficial del Colegio de Abogados del Estado de Texas — asistencia legal en español figura en el registro del Bar. La consulta es gratis, confidencial, protegida desde la primera palabra, y a cualquier hora. El abogado que contesta es el abogado que aparece en el tribunal — en el palacio de justicia de Harris County en 1201 Franklin o en las cortes de los condados vecinos. Llame o empiece en línea: (713) 208-7682.