An order of nondisclosure seals a Texas criminal record from the public. Once it’s granted, the case stops showing up on the background checks landlords and most employers run, and Texas law says you don’t have to list it on a job or license application (federal forms are a different story). Most people who finished deferred adjudication qualify, and so do some people with a first misdemeanor conviction, including a first DWI. But the waiting periods run anywhere from zero to five years, and some offenses can never be sealed at all. We’ll tell you on the first call whether you qualify and the earliest date you can file.
Call (713) 664-4000. Have your case number or the county and year of the case if you know them.
Nondisclosure is often the last step in a case our Houston criminal defense practice handles, closing it out so the record stops following you.
What a nondisclosure does, and what it doesn’t
After the order is signed, the court clerk sends it to the Texas Department of Public Safety, which seals its copy of your record and forwards the order to police agencies, jails, courts and the private background check companies that buy criminal records from the state. A background check company that has been notified has to destroy the record, and if it keeps reporting a sealed case, Government Code § 411.0851 lets you sue it for your damages and attorney’s fees.
Sealed isn’t erased. Police and prosecutors can still see the case, and so can the courts and about thirty state agencies and employers listed in § 411.0765, including the Texas Education Agency and school districts, the State Bar, the Texas Medical Board and the Board of Nursing, public and nonprofit hospitals, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, and banks and credit unions screening their own employees. Any state agency can also get it for a licensing decision. If you’re ever charged again, the prosecutor sees it, and a sealed conviction can still be admitted in a later trial if the rules of evidence would otherwise allow it (§ 411.0775). Federal law doesn’t follow Texas sealing either. For immigration purposes, a Texas deferred adjudication counts as a conviction whether it’s sealed or not, so anyone who isn’t a citizen needs to talk to us before taking any plea.
Nondisclosure or expunction?
| Expunction | Order of nondisclosure | |
|---|---|---|
| Who qualifies | Arrests that didn’t end in a conviction or in deferred adjudication above Class C: acquittals, charges never filed, Class C deferred, and dismissals that meet the statute’s grounds or where the limitations period has run | Deferred adjudication that was completed, and some first misdemeanor convictions |
| What happens to the record | Destroyed | Sealed from the public, still visible to law enforcement and listed agencies |
| What you can say | You can deny the arrest happened, except under oath in a criminal case | You don’t have to disclose it on applications for employment or licensing |
| Law | Code of Criminal Procedure chapter 55A | Government Code chapter 411, subchapter E-1 |
If your case was dismissed, you may not need a nondisclosure at all. See our Houston expunction lawyer page, or run your case through our expunction eligibility tool. A deferred adjudication above Class C can’t be expunged, because it counts as court-ordered community supervision under Art. 55A.051. Nondisclosure is how those get sealed.
Who qualifies and when you can file
| How your case ended | When you can seal it | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| Deferred adjudication, most misdemeanors, no prior record other than fine-only traffic tickets | Automatic. The judge issues the order at discharge, or 180 days after you were placed on deferred if you finished sooner. No petition, a $28 fee | Gov’t Code § 411.072 |
| Deferred adjudication, any other misdemeanor | On discharge | § 411.0725(e)(1) |
| Deferred adjudication, misdemeanor under Penal Code chapter 20, 21, 22, 25, 42, 43 or 46 | 2 years after discharge | § 411.0725(e)(2) |
| Deferred adjudication, felony | 5 years after discharge | § 411.0725(e)(3) |
| Deferred adjudication for DWI or BWI, no prior record other than fine-only traffic tickets | 2 years after discharge | § 411.0726 |
| Misdemeanor conviction with probation (not DWI, BWI or other intoxication offenses, minor DUI, or organized crime) | When probation ends, or 2 years after for the chapters listed above | § 411.073 |
| Misdemeanor conviction with jail or a fine (same exclusions) | Once the fine is paid for a fine-only offense, otherwise 2 years after the sentence is done | § 411.0735 |
| DWI conviction with probation, no prior record other than fine-only traffic tickets | 2 years after probation ends with at least 6 months of ignition interlock, 5 years without | § 411.0731 |
| DWI conviction with jail or a fine, same prior-record rule | 3 years after the sentence is done with at least 6 months of interlock, 5 years without | § 411.0736 |
| Felony conviction | Not eligible, except in narrow cases like veterans treatment court | §§ 411.0727, 411.0728 |
The chapters in the two-year row cover a lot of ground: unlawful restraint, sexual offenses, assault, deadly conduct and terroristic threat, offenses against the family, disorderly conduct, harassment and animal cruelty, prostitution and public indecency, and weapons offenses like unlawful carrying. The automatic route under § 411.072 excludes all of those chapters, plus organized crime under chapter 71, DWI and BWI, and any case where the judge found at the plea that automatic sealing wasn’t in the best interest of justice. If that finding is the only thing in your way, you can still petition under § 411.0725. The automatic route also only applies to discharges on or after September 1, 2017. You still have to show the court you qualify, and if the order wasn’t issued when it should have been, we can ask for it.
Almost every route requires a clean record apart from fine-only traffic tickets. The main exception is a deferred adjudication sealed by petition under § 411.0725, which doesn’t care about your other cases unless one of them is on the barred list below. Every route on this page also requires that you picked up no new conviction or deferred adjudication, other than a fine-only traffic ticket, from the day you were sentenced or placed on deferred through the end of the waiting period (§ 411.074(a)). A misdemeanor conviction that was violent or sexual in nature can’t be sealed under § 411.0735, though an assault conviction under § 22.01 can, as long as it didn’t involve family violence.
The DWI routes have their own limits. Deferred adjudication isn’t available for a DWI if your alcohol concentration was 0.15 or more, if you held a commercial license or learner’s permit at the time, or if you have a prior DWI. A conviction for the Class A 0.15 offense under § 49.04(d) can’t be sealed either, which is one more reason getting a 0.15 allegation dropped matters. On every DWI route, the judge can’t grant the order if the prosecutor shows the DWI caused a crash involving another person, including your own passenger. The judge can also block sealing of a DWI deferred at the plea by finding it isn’t in the best interest of justice, and once that finding is filed there’s no other route. And a DWI deferred still counts as a prior DWI if you’re ever charged again, sealed or not (§ 49.09(g)). Deferred adjudication for DWI only exists for offenses committed on or after September 1, 2019. Our pages on how long a DWI stays on your record and DWI expunction and sealing go further into those cases.
Offenses that can never be sealed
Under § 411.074(b), no nondisclosure is available to anyone who has ever been convicted of, or placed on deferred adjudication for, any of these, whether or not it’s the case you want sealed:
- any offense that requires sex offender registration
- murder or capital murder
- aggravated kidnapping
- human trafficking or continuous trafficking
- injury to a child, elderly person or disabled person
- abandoning or endangering a child, elderly person or disabled person
- violating a protective order or bond conditions in a family violence, stalking, sexual assault or similar case, or repeatedly violating one
- stalking
- any offense involving family violence
The family violence bar is the one that catches people. It covers any offense involving family violence as the Family Code defines it, and a court finding of family violence in the case also blocks the order. It turns on who the victim was, not what the charge is called, so a plea to plain assault or criminal mischief against a family member or dating partner can trigger it. A family violence charge that was dismissed can often still be expunged, though sometimes only after the limitations period runs. A family violence deferred adjudication above Class C can’t be expunged or sealed.
How the petition works
Except for the automatic route, you file a petition in the court that handled your case, with proof that you’re eligible. You’ll also pay the county’s civil filing fee. The State gets notice and has 45 days from notice to ask for a hearing. If it doesn’t, the judge can decide the petition on the papers. If it does, there’s a hearing, and the judge decides two things: are you entitled to file, and is sealing “in the best interest of justice” (§ 411.0745).
That second question is where a petition is won or lost. Most of the eligibility part is arithmetic. The best-interest part is about you: what you’ve done since the case, and what the record is costing you now. We put that in front of the court instead of leaving the judge with a form and a criminal history.
After the judge signs, the clerk has 15 business days to send the order to DPS. DPS has 10 business days to seal its own records and then sends the order on. Government agencies get 30 business days to seal theirs, and background check companies have to destroy the record once they’re notified.
If your case isn’t over yet
The best time to plan for a nondisclosure is before the plea. Many misdemeanors that end in deferred adjudication, like theft or drug possession, are sealed automatically at discharge if you have no prior record. The same charge ending in a conviction means a petition and possibly a two-year wait. A plea to any offense involving a family member or dating partner can close the sealing door permanently, even if the charge doesn’t say family violence. We look at the sealing consequences of every offer before we recommend taking it. Read more about deferred adjudication in Houston or how deferred adjudication works in Texas.
Want your record sealed? Call Blass Law
Jay Blass Cohen has practiced criminal defense in Houston since 2009 and has never worked for the prosecution. Our office is on Franklin Street, down the street from the Harris County criminal courthouse, and we handle sealing cases across the Houston area. Tell us how your case ended and we’ll tell you which statute applies and the earliest date you can file.
Call (713) 664-4000. If a background check just cost you a job or an apartment, call today.
Related pages
Reviewed by Jay Blass Cohen, founder of Blass Law PLLC, ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist, certified Drug Recognition Expert, and SFST instructor, serving Houston since 2009. This article is general information, not legal advice for your situation. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.