An order of nondisclosure is Texas's record sealing tool. It does not destroy the record the way an expunction does, but it prohibits the courts, DPS and law enforcement from releasing it to the public, and it removes the case from the data DPS sells to the private background check companies that El Paso employers and apartment complexes rely on. For anyone who completed deferred adjudication, or who was convicted of a single qualifying misdemeanor, nondisclosure is usually the only relief available, and it is often the difference between getting the job at Fort Bliss, the hospital or the school district and being screened out before an interview.
Nondisclosure is governed by Texas Government Code Chapter 411, Subchapter E-1, sections 411.071 through 411.0775. Section 411.072 provides automatic-style relief for many first-time misdemeanor deferred adjudications; section 411.0725 covers other deferred adjudications, including felonies after a five-year wait; section 411.073 covers certain misdemeanor convictions with community supervision; and section 411.0735 covers misdemeanor convictions with jail time or a fine. Section 411.074 lists the disqualifiers: offenses requiring sex offender registration, family violence, murder, human trafficking, injury to a child and a handful of others. Waiting periods range from none to ten years depending on the offense and disposition, and you must have no new convictions during that time.
Navar Law handles orders of nondisclosure for a flat fee and you do not appear in court. Attorney Robert Navar reviews your DPS history and the El Paso court file to confirm the disposition date, the discharge date and any disqualifying history, identifies the exact subsection you qualify under, and files the petition in the same El Paso County court that handled the original case. The prosecutor may object, and the judge must find that sealing is in the best interest of justice; if a hearing is set, the attorney handles it. A petition filed under the wrong section or before the waiting period ends gets denied, and some sections only allow one attempt, which is why doing this correctly the first time matters.
Waiting periods and eligibility under Subchapter E-1
For most misdemeanor deferred adjudications, you can petition as soon as you are discharged and dismissed, though some misdemeanors carry a two-year wait. Felony deferred adjudication requires five years after discharge. Misdemeanor convictions under sections 411.073 and 411.0735 generally require two years for offenses under Penal Code Chapters 20, 21, 22, 25, 42, 43 and 46, and no wait for other misdemeanors once the sentence is complete. In every case you must have no other convictions or deferred adjudications, other than fine-only traffic offenses, during the waiting period, and you must have paid all fines, costs and restitution.
A prior conviction or deferred adjudication for any of the section 411.074 disqualifying offenses, at any point in your life, blocks nondisclosure entirely. We check this before you pay a filing fee.
Who can still see a sealed record
Nondisclosure is not total secrecy. Section 411.0765 lists the entities that still receive the record: criminal justice agencies, the Texas Medical Board, the State Board for Educator Certification, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, the Texas Board of Nursing, the Health and Human Services Commission, school districts, and about two dozen others involved in licensing or public safety. If your El Paso career runs through one of those agencies, we will explain what they can see so you are never caught off guard on an application. For everyone else, including private employers, apartment managers and the commercial background check companies, the case is off limits and you may deny it on most applications.
What's included
- Review of your DPS criminal history and the El Paso court file for the case to be sealed
- Written analysis of the applicable Government Code section, waiting period and disqualifiers
- Drafting of the Petition for Order of Nondisclosure on the current Office of Court Administration form
- Filing in the correct El Paso County court and service on the prosecuting attorney
- Attorney attendance at any hearing the court sets, without you present
- Proposed order and confirmation that the clerk transmits the signed order to DPS
- Certified copy of the order and guidance on answering future application questions
How it works
Free eligibility screen
Tell us how your El Paso case ended and when. We pull the DPS record and court judgment, match you to the right section of Subchapter E-1, confirm the waiting period has run, and quote a flat fee.
Petition filed in the original court
We prepare the petition and proposed order, you sign, and we file in the El Paso County court that handled the case and serve the District or County Attorney, who has a window to respond.
Order signed and sent to DPS
The judge signs the order, the clerk sends it to DPS within the statutory deadline, and DPS notifies the private databases. We give you a certified copy and explain exactly what you may now deny.