How long does an expunction take in Texas?

In El Paso County, the statute gives agencies at least 30 days after service to respond, and courts usually rule within two to four months of filing if no one objects. After the order is signed, agencies have a set period to destroy their records, and private background check databases can take several more months to refresh. Plan on roughly a year before the arrest is gone everywhere.

Do I have to go to court for an expunction in El Paso?

No. You sign the verified petition and we handle the rest. If the court sets a hearing, which happens mainly when the District Attorney or DPS objects, attorney Robert Navar attends for you. In practice most eligible El Paso expunctions are granted without any contested hearing at all.

How much does an expungement cost in El Paso?

We charge a flat attorney fee per petition, quoted before you hire us, plus the El Paso County District Clerk filing fee and the cost of serving each agency. A petition covering several arrests from separate dates costs more than a single arrest because each must be pleaded and served separately. Acquittal cases filed within 30 days shift the costs to the state.

Can I expunge a case if I got deferred adjudication?

Only Class C misdemeanor deferred adjudication can be expunged once it is successfully completed. Deferred adjudication on a Class A or B misdemeanor or on a felony cannot be expunged under Chapter 55A, but most of those cases qualify for an order of nondisclosure, which seals the record from private background checks. We will tell you which one fits your El Paso case.

Can I say I was never arrested after an expunction?

Yes. Once the order is final, Texas law allows you to deny the arrest and the expunged case on employment, housing and most license applications, and it is a criminal offense for an agency to release the expunged record. The main exception is that you must disclose the arrest if you are questioned under oath in a criminal proceeding, and you may only say the matter was expunged.

Expungement Lawyer El Paso

Expunction in El Paso: Erase a Dismissed or Acquitted Arrest for Good

If your El Paso case was dismissed, no-billed, acquitted or never charged, a Texas expunction destroys the arrest record and lets you legally deny it ever happened. Flat fee, no court appearance.

Last reviewed by Robert Andrew Navar, Esq. · State Bar of Texas

An expunction, often called an expungement, is the strongest form of criminal record relief Texas offers. When a judge in El Paso signs an expunction order, every agency that holds a record of the arrest, from the El Paso Police Department and the El Paso County Sheriff to the Texas Department of Public Safety and the FBI, must destroy or return its files. Once the order is final you may lawfully deny the arrest on job applications, apartment applications and most licensing forms. Thousands of El Paso residents carry arrests that never led to a conviction, and many do not realize those arrests still show up on background checks until a job offer is pulled.

Expunction eligibility is governed by Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 55, which the Legislature recodified as Chapter 55A effective 2025 without changing the substance of the right. You generally qualify if you were acquitted at trial, pardoned, found actually innocent, if the charge was dismissed or never filed and the applicable statute of limitations has run or the specified waiting period has passed, if a grand jury no-billed the case, or if you completed deferred adjudication on a Class C misdemeanor. Certain identity-theft victims also qualify under the same chapter. A conviction, or deferred adjudication on a Class A or B misdemeanor or a felony, is not expungeable, but an order of nondisclosure may seal it instead.

Navar Law handles expunctions as a flat-fee matter and you never appear in court. Attorney Robert Navar pulls your DPS criminal history, confirms eligibility and the waiting period, then drafts a verified petition listing every agency that may hold the record and files it in an El Paso County district court. The District Attorney and DPS are served and have the chance to object; in El Paso most eligible petitions are approved on the paperwork or at a brief setting the attorney attends alone. Doing it yourself risks leaving an agency off the order, which means the record survives in that database, or filing before the waiting period ends, which gets the petition denied and the filing fee lost.

Who qualifies for an expunction in Texas

The most common expunction paths in El Paso are a dismissal, a no-bill from the grand jury, an acquittal, and completed Class C deferred adjudication. For dismissals and cases never filed, Chapter 55A generally requires either that the limitations period has expired or that a set waiting period has passed since the arrest: 180 days for Class C, one year for Class A and B misdemeanors, and three years for felonies, unless the prosecutor certifies the file is no longer needed. If the arrest produced a conviction for any offense arising from the same event, expunction is usually unavailable for that arrest.

Acquittals and actual-innocence findings have no waiting period and the state pays the costs when the petition is filed within 30 days. If you are unsure how your El Paso case ended, we can find out from the District Clerk and DPS before you spend anything on filing.

What happens after the judge signs the expunction order

The signed order goes to every agency named in the petition: the arresting department, the El Paso County Sheriff, the District Attorney, the County and District Clerks, the municipal or justice court, DPS and, through DPS, the FBI. Each agency must delete or return its records and confirm compliance. DPS also notifies the private background check companies that buy its data, but those companies update on their own schedules, which is why we recommend a background check review a few months after the order to confirm nothing lingers.

What's included

Pull and review of your Texas DPS criminal history and El Paso court records
Written eligibility and waiting-period analysis under CCP Chapter 55 / 55A
Drafting of the verified Petition for Expunction naming every record-holding agency
Filing with the El Paso County District Clerk and service on the District Attorney and DPS
Attorney attendance at any hearing the court sets, without you present
Proposed Order of Expunction and delivery of the signed order to all agencies
Certified copy of the order for your records and follow-up on agency compliance

How it works

Eligibility review

Call or come by the office in El Paso. We obtain your DPS record and court dispositions, confirm which arrests qualify under Chapter 55A, check the waiting period, and quote a flat fee for the petition.

Petition and filing

We draft the verified petition, you sign it at the office or electronically, and we file it in an El Paso County district court and serve the District Attorney, DPS and every listed agency.

Order and agency purge

After the objection window closes, the judge signs the order. We send certified copies to every agency, track their compliance, and give you a certified copy to keep as proof.