Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
If you have been arrested, even if your case was dismissed, you were never convicted or if you completed your deferred adjudication, the arrest and court records are a part of the Public Record. Under Texas law, if you are granted expunction or win your petition for non-disclosure, you may legally DENY ever being arrested or prosecuted on employment, mortgage, or college applications.
Texas law allows you to clear an adult criminal record in certain circumstances. For example, if you were tried and found not-guilty, you can have all records of the arrest and prosecution expunged. Or if the court dismissed the charges against you, you can usually have the arrest record expunged. Furthermore, if you appeal your conviction and are acquitted by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, you can have the record expunged. In Texas, these procedures are known as "expunction."
If you are granted a legal expunction, criminal justice agencies will be ordered to erase or destroy evidence of your criminal record.
The main benefit of expunction is that once it is granted, you may deny the existence of the arrest record as well as the existence of the expunction order.
If any of the following criteria apply to your case, you may be eligible for expunction in the State of Texas:
- You went to trial and were found not-guilty.
- You were arrested but never charged.
- You have no charges pending or the statute of limitations has expired; and you have not been convicted of a felony in the five years prior to the date of the arrest to be expunged.
- You were convicted but have been pardoned by the governor.
- You received an acquittal from the Court of Criminal Appeals.
- You have completed deferred adjudication for a Class C misdemeanor.
- Someone else was arrested for the crime and provided your identity as their own causing you to have a false criminal record in your name.
The first step to be eligible to file a petition of non-disclosure is to successfully complete your deferred adjudication probation. For a felony, you must wait five years from the date of the discharge in order to file for non-disclosure. And depending on the misdemeanor, you may be able to file immediately after completely deferred adjudication, although some misdemeanors (assault, deadly conduct, disorderly conduct and unlawfully carrying a weapon) require that you wait two years. During the applicable waiting period, you may not be convicted or put on deferred adjudication for any other offense.
Finally, to be eligible to file a petition of non-disclosure you cannot have ever been convicted of or placed on deferred adjudication any crime that requires registration as a sex offender, aggravated kidnapping, murder, injury to a child, stalking, and any offense that involves family violence.
If you have completed straight probation you are not eligible for expunction or non-disclosure. In addition, some criminal convictions are final (e.g. DWI) and cannot be erased from a criminal record. Finally, if you were convicted of a crime and served a jail or prison sentence, that is a final conviction that is ineligible for expunction or non-disclosure.
If you are ineligible for expunction and non-disclosure, your only alternatives are to seek a pardon from the governor or president or to file a writ of habeas corpus.