For decades a DWI conviction in Texas was permanent: no expunction, no sealing, no exceptions. That changed when the Legislature added sections 411.0731 and 411.0736 to the Government Code, effective September 1, 2017, allowing a first-offense DWI to be sealed by an order of nondisclosure. In a border city like El Paso, where many jobs require driving, a security clearance at Fort Bliss, or crossing into Juárez for work, a visible DWI can cost far more than the fine did. If your El Paso DWI was your first and only offense and nobody else was hurt, there is a good chance the record can be hidden from private employers, landlords and background check companies.
Section 411.0731 applies to a first-offense DWI under Penal Code section 49.04 resolved with community supervision (probation), and section 411.0736 applies to the same offense when the sentence was jail time or a fine only. A related section, 411.0726, covers DWI cases resolved by deferred adjudication. To qualify, the DWI must not have involved a blood alcohol concentration of 0.15 or more, must not have involved an accident involving another person, and you must have no other convictions or deferred adjudications other than fine-only traffic offenses. The waiting period is two years after completing your sentence if you had an ignition interlock for at least six months, and five years if you did not.
Navar Law handles DWI nondisclosure petitions for a flat fee and you never appear in court. Attorney Robert Navar pulls the judgment, the probation discharge and the interlock records from the El Paso County court file, confirms the BAC and accident facts from the offense report, and documents the waiting period before filing in the county court at law that handled the original case. The judge must find that sealing is in the best interest of justice, and the District or County Attorney may respond; the attorney handles any hearing. Because a DWI nondisclosure has more moving parts than a standard petition, and a denial on a defective petition wastes both time and filing fees, this is not a form worth guessing on.
DWI nondisclosure eligibility checklist
You are a candidate if all of the following are true: the conviction was for a first DWI under Penal Code section 49.04, not DWI with a child passenger, intoxication assault or a second offense; the BAC was under 0.15 or was not alleged in the judgment; the offense did not involve a crash with another person, including passengers in your own vehicle; you completed every condition of your sentence including fines, costs and any DWI education; you have never been convicted of or placed on deferred adjudication for anything other than a fine-only traffic ticket; and the two-year or five-year waiting period has passed. Commercial driver's license holders in El Paso should also ask about how sealing interacts with federal CDL disqualification rules, which are separate.
What sealing a DWI does and does not do
Once sealed, the DWI disappears from the DPS public criminal history and from the commercial databases El Paso employers and apartment managers use, and you may deny it on most private applications. It remains visible to law enforcement, prosecutors and the licensing agencies listed in section 411.0765, and it still counts as a prior if you are ever charged with DWI again, meaning a second arrest would still be prosecuted as a second offense. It also does not remove the DWI from your DPS driving record or affect the surcharge history, and federal agencies keep their own files.
If your DWI arrest ended in a dismissal or acquittal instead of a conviction, you are looking at an expunction rather than nondisclosure, and if it was reduced to obstruction of a highway, the standard nondisclosure rules apply. We sort that out at the first call.
What's included
- Review of your DPS criminal history, driving record and the El Paso County court file
- Verification of BAC, accident facts, interlock dates and sentence completion from the record
- Written eligibility opinion under sections 411.0726, 411.0731 or 411.0736
- Drafting and filing of the Petition for Order of Nondisclosure in the original El Paso court
- Service on the prosecutor and attorney attendance at any hearing, without you present
- Certified copy of the signed order and confirmation of transmission to DPS
How it works
Records pull and eligibility check
We obtain the judgment, offense report and probation records from El Paso County, confirm BAC, accident and interlock facts, calculate your waiting period, and tell you plainly whether you qualify.
Petition filed and served
We draft the petition and proposed order under the correct section, you sign, and we file in the El Paso County court at law that handled your DWI and serve the prosecutor.
Order signed, record sealed
The judge rules, usually on the paperwork. The clerk sends the signed order to DPS, which seals the record and notifies the private databases. You receive a certified copy and clear instructions.