Expunction and Non-Disclosure

This section is for certain people who have a past they’d like to erase.

Fortunately, Texas offers a sort of reset button in the form of Expunction and Non-Disclosure. Expunction is the only way to delete and destroy all records of an arrest from your record. Forever. We can help you erase a past that could be hurting your job prospects or tarnishing your reputation. But it’s only available to people under limited circumstances.

If you were arrested but not convicted:

If you successfully completed deferred adjudication probation
If your case was dismissed
If it was no-billed by a grand jury
If you were acquitted at trial (found “not guilty”)
If someone else was arrested using your name without your permission
If you were convicted but later pardoned (as long as you weren’t convicted of another crime stemming from the same criminal episode)

If you were arrested but never went to trial and were never acquitted nor pardoned for an offense, you may still expunge your arrest record IF you meet the following requirements:

You did not intentionally flee after being released on bail, and
The arrest wasn’t for a community supervision violation warrant,
A court didn’t order community supervision for the crime, and either

The requisite time period has passed, or
The prosecutor certifies the arrest records are no longer needed, or
The charge was dismissed because you completed a pretrial intervention program, or
The charge was void or based on a mistake or false information, or
The offense can no longer be prosecuted because the statute of limitations expired

If all these circumstances fit the bill, we can petition the court on your behalf to erase the slate and set you free of your past. You will be able to legally deny an arrest ever even happened, never have to mark it on an employment application, and the records will vanish from all databases.

Another option is to obtain an “Order of Non-Disclosure.” Like Expunctions, an Order of Non-Disclosure allows you to also deny an arrest occurred, but there are critical differences.

Non-Disclosure is available to those who successfully complete deferred adjudication for a Class B or higher criminal offense. Once granted, the Order prevents law enforcement agencies, jails, courts and other public information agencies from releasing arrest information to private third parties – but – the Order does NOT prevent law enforcement agencies from sharing the information with one another or with certain authorized agencies, like school districts. The arrest information may also be revealed if there’s subsequent criminal prosecution.

You are eligible for a Non-Disclosure Order upon completion of your deferred adjudication requirements if the crime did not involve, sex, guns or violence. If it did, there’s a 5-yeat waiting period before you can apply. In felony arrest cases, the waiting period is 10 years.

Orders of Non-disclosure are not available to those receiving deferred adjudication for kidnapping, sex crimes, abandonment or endangerment of a child, injury to a child, the elderly or disabled, violation of a protective order, stalking or crimes involving family violence.

Important to note, a Judge seals the records believing it serves the best interest of justice, but judges are NOT required to grand Non-Disclosure to everyone who qualifies.

Let Jarvis Law Firm review your case and evaluate your chances of getting a fresh, clean start.

Jarvis Law Firm is the ace defenders you want on your side.