Most Texans who took deferred adjudication and completed it cleanly assume they're done with the case. The judge dismissed the charge, the file closed, and they moved on. Then a background check turns up the arrest and the deferred-and-dismissed disposition, and they find out the rest of the world doesn't see "dismissed" — it sees the original charge.
An Order of Nondisclosure is the fix. It hides the record from the people most likely to be screening you — private employers, landlords, and the data brokers that resell criminal records to them. The legal framework lives in Subchapter E-1 of Chapter 411 of the Texas Government Code.
Nondisclosure seals; expunction destroys. Dan Wyde explains when each one is the right tool.
What Nondisclosure Actually Does
When a court signs an order of nondisclosure:
- DPS, the FBI, the clerks of court, and the original arresting agency must remove the case from public-facing criminal history reports.
- Private consumer reporting agencies that receive DPS records must update their files to suppress the record.
- You are legally entitled to deny the existence of the arrest and the underlying offense in response to most employment and rental inquiries.
What it doesn't do:
- Destroy the record. The case file still exists, sealed.
- Hide the record from a list of specific agencies under § 411.0765 — including law enforcement, prosecuting attorneys, school districts, hospitals that hire workers with patient contact, banks, certain state licensing boards (medical, legal, financial), and several other categories.
For most people, the § 411.0765 exception list doesn't matter — the standard background check that an apartment complex or a private employer runs won't see the record. For nurses, teachers, lawyers, bankers, and some others, the sealed record is still visible to their licensing authority.
Two Tracks: Automatic and Petition-Based
Chapter 411 splits nondisclosure into automatic orders (the court signs without a petition) and petition-based orders (you file and ask).
Automatic Nondisclosure — § 411.072
The 2017 statute added an automatic-issuance track for certain first-time deferred adjudications. You qualify for automatic nondisclosure if:
- The offense was a Class A or Class B misdemeanor, AND
- You have no prior convictions or deferred adjudications other than fine-only traffic offenses, AND
- The offense is not on the § 411.0735(c) carve-out list (which includes weapons offenses, family-violence offenses, and a handful of others), AND
- You completed the deferred adjudication and the case was dismissed.
When all four are met, the court is supposed to sign the order at the time of discharge or shortly after, with no petition required. In practice, automatic orders don't always get issued automatically — especially in busy counties. If you took deferred on a clean record after 2017 and have never confirmed an automatic order was entered, it's worth checking.
Petition-Based Nondisclosure — §§ 411.0725 – 411.0731 & 411.073 & 411.0735
For everything else, you file a petition. The main categories:
- § 411.0725 — Felony deferred adjudication. Five-year wait after discharge. Subject to the § 411.074 exclusions.
- § 411.0726 — DWI deferred adjudication (Class B). Two-year wait if you used an ignition interlock for at least six months during community supervision; otherwise five-year wait.
- § 411.0727 — Certain veteran cases involving qualifying mental health conditions.
- § 411.0731 — Drug court program graduates. No additional wait beyond program completion in most cases.
- § 411.073 — Certain misdemeanor convictions after successful community supervision. Five-year wait from completion of supervision.
- § 411.0735 — First-time DWI conviction (Class B or A, with BAC under 0.15 and no accident with another person). Two-year wait with documented interlock use, otherwise five-year wait.
The Permanent Exclusion List — § 411.074
Some offenses are barred from nondisclosure permanently, regardless of how long ago they happened, how clean your record has been since, or how compelling your reason for wanting the seal. The big categories on the § 411.074 exclusion list:
- Offenses requiring sex-offender registration.
- Aggravated kidnapping.
- Murder and capital murder.
- Trafficking of persons.
- Family-violence cases (broadly defined — including dating-relationship violence and household-member offenses).
- Stalking.
- Injury to a child, elderly individual, or disabled individual.
- Abandoning or endangering a child.
- Violation of certain protective orders.
The family-violence bar is the one that catches people most often. The statute reaches not just convictions but any case where the court made an affirmative family-violence finding — including some deferreds where the finding got entered on the docket without the defendant fully appreciating what it meant for future relief.
"Reasonable to Issue in the Interest of Justice"
Most nondisclosure statutes (other than automatic § 411.072) require the court to make an additional finding: that the order is "in the best interest of justice" or "reasonable to issue in the interest of justice." That language gives the judge discretion. In practice, judges grant the vast majority of eligible petitions, but the phrasing means a contested case is possible — particularly where the DA's office actively opposes (more common in DWI matters and certain repeat offenders).
A well-prepared petition includes evidence pointing at the "interest of justice" finding: employment, education, family responsibility, community involvement, treatment completion, time elapsed without new offenses.
What the Process Looks Like
- Confirm eligibility — offense type, disposition, waiting period, no disqualifying offenses on record.
- Confirm the discharge order. The waiting period runs from successful discharge, not from sentencing.
- Run a current criminal history report to confirm no intervening convictions or pending cases.
- Draft the Petition for Order of Nondisclosure. Specific statutory section matters — petitions cite the section under which relief is sought (411.0725, 411.0726, etc.).
- File in the court that placed you on deferred or that imposed the original conviction.
- Pay the filing fee (varies by county; typically $250–$350).
- Serve the DA's office. Most DAs review and either consent, agree to a setting, or oppose.
- Hearing — if contested. Many counties allow uncontested petitions to be granted on submission without an oral hearing.
- Signed Order. The clerk distributes certified copies to DPS and the agencies on the statutory service list.
Typical timeline: 90 to 180 days from filing to a signed order, depending on county.
Common Reasons Petitions Get Denied
- Waiting period not yet satisfied — counted from discharge, not from plea.
- Intervening offense during waiting period — even a new minor case will block relief.
- Offense on the § 411.074 exclusion list, sometimes hidden behind a finding the petitioner didn't realize was made.
- DWI petition filed under the wrong section — 411.0726 vs. 411.0735 vs. 411.073 distinctions matter.
- Petition filed in the wrong court.
- Missing or inaccurate identifying information (DPS will not seal a record it can't match).
Stacking Nondisclosure with FCRA Cleanup
Even after a nondisclosure is signed, private background check companies sometimes continue to report the sealed record — either because they haven't updated their database, because they're sourcing from a non-DPS feed, or because they're misclassifying the dismissal entry. Federal law (the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681) gives you tools to force corrections. We coordinate the court-side nondisclosure work with FCRA-side dispute and demand work under our FCRA Coordinated Clearance service so the result is consistent across every place your record is being read.
Typical Cost and Timeline
Statewide flat-fee pricing:
- Standard: $1,395. 150–180 days from filing to a signed order.
- Rush: $2,000. 60–150 days when there's a hard deadline.
Both include the eligibility analysis, petition drafting, filing, service on every required state agency, and order distribution. County filing fees are typically separate.
Next Step
Eligibility for nondisclosure depends on the exact statute that fits your case. Send us the basic facts — offense, county, year, disposition, whether interlock was used (if DWI) — and we'll tell you which section applies, what the waiting period is, and whether anything on your record disqualifies you.