An arrest that never turned into a conviction can still follow you into a job interview, a lease application, or a background check years later. Our Southlake expungement lawyers help residents find out whether that record can be erased or sealed from public view, and we take the case through the Tarrant County court system from petition to final order.
If a dismissed charge, an old arrest, or a case that went nowhere is still showing up on searches of your name, call our office to talk through what happened in your case and where it stands under current Texas law. Some cases qualify for outright destruction of the record.
Others qualify for a narrower form of relief that still makes a real difference on background checks. Figuring out which applies and building the petition correctly the first time saves months of back and forth with a court clerk.
What Does Expungement Actually Remove From Your Record?
Expunction under Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 55A doesn't just hide a record from public search results; it requires every listed agency to destroy or return the file. The arresting agency, the court clerk, the district attorney's office, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and, in most cases, the FBI all have to remove the arrest from their systems once the order is final. After that happens, a person can generally answer "no" when asked on a job or housing application whether they've ever been arrested for the offense.
That's a meaningfully different outcome than a record that simply gets sealed. Sealing keeps the file intact but restricts who can see it. Expunction erases it.
Why an Old Record Still Matters Years Later
A lot of people assume that once a case is dismissed, the record quietly disappears on its own. It doesn't. Unless the situation falls under a narrow automatic-entry procedure, such as certain acquittals, the arrest stays visible on background checks until someone actually files a petition and a judge signs an order.
That visibility carries real consequences. A private background check company can still surface an old arrest, even a dismissed one, when a landlord runs a rental application or an employer runs a pre-hire screen.
Some professional licensing boards ask applicants directly whether they've ever been arrested, not just convicted, which puts people who assumed a dismissed case was behind them in an awkward position when they have to explain it during a licensing interview.
If an old arrest is still surfacing on searches of your name, call the Fulgham Hampton office nearest you. A short conversation about how the case ended is usually enough to tell whether expunction or nondisclosure is on the table.
Am I Eligible for Expunction in Texas?
Eligibility comes down to how the case ended, not how serious the original charge looked on paper. Under the current chapter, a person can generally qualify for expunction if they were arrested but never charged, if the charge was dismissed and the statute of limitations has since run, if a jury or judge found them not guilty, or if they received a pardon based on actual innocence. Class C misdemeanors that ended in deferred adjudication and completed community supervision also qualify.
Cases that ended in a conviction, a guilty plea, or a no contest plea generally don't meet the bar, with narrow exceptions for pardons. That is a hard stop for anyone assuming a resolved case is automatically eligible. Statutes of limitations also play a bigger role than most people expect, since a dismissed misdemeanor generally requires a two-year wait before the limitations period runs, while dismissed felonies carry longer windows depending on the specific offense.
The good news is that non-disclosure may be available even when expungement isn't, which covers a much larger share of Southlake cases than people expect.
Non-Disclosure: The Other Path When Expunction Isn't Available
Texas Government Code Chapter 411, Subchapter E-1 creates a separate remedy for people who completed deferred adjudication or, in certain circumstances, straight probation. An order of nondisclosure doesn't destroy the record the way expunction does. It seals the file from most private background check companies, employers, and landlords, while leaving it accessible to law enforcement, courts, and certain licensing boards.
Waiting periods vary by offense. Some nonviolent misdemeanors qualify immediately after community supervision ends, while other categories carry waiting periods of two or five years, depending on the offense type.
A specific pathway under Section 411.0726 also allows certain first-time DWI cases with a blood alcohol concentration under 0.15 to petition for nondisclosure after a waiting period, provided the case didn't involve a crash causing injury. Offenses involving family violence, several sex offenses, and a handful of other serious categories are excluded from nondisclosure entirely under Section 411.074, regardless of how the case is resolved.
What Kinds of Charges Qualify for Expungement in Southlake?
Charges that ended without a conviction are the ones that qualify, and a handful of patterns come up repeatedly. An arrest that never resulted in formal charges is one of the cleanest expunction cases, since there is no conviction or plea standing in the way.
A charge dismissed after a pretrial diversion program, or dismissed because the evidence did not hold up, generally opens the door as well, once the statute of limitations has passed without a refiling.
Drug possession charges dismissed through a deferred prosecution agreement, theft charges that never proceeded past the initial filing, and assault charges resolved through dismissal after mediation all come up in Southlake and the surrounding Tarrant County communities.
A DWI charge can also be expunged if the case was dismissed or resulted in an acquittal, which surprises people who assume any DWI arrest is permanent. The specific facts of the dismissal matter here, since a case dismissed in exchange for a plea to a different offense does not carry the same expunction rights as one dismissed outright.
The Southlake and Tarrant County Expungement Process
Petitions for Southlake-area arrests generally get filed in the district court of the county where the arrest happened, which for most local clients means Tarrant County, though some cases originate in Denton or neighboring counties, depending on where the arrest occurred.
The petition has to identify every agency that might hold a record of the arrest, since the court's order only reaches agencies actually named and served.
Once the petition is filed, the court sets a hearing at least 30 days out, and each listed agency gets notice so they have a chance to respond before the judge rules. If the court finds the petitioner meets every requirement under Chapter 55A, it signs an expunction order, and the clerk sends certified copies to DPS, the Office of Court Administration, and each agency named in the petition. From there, agencies have a set window to destroy or return the records and confirm compliance.
Why Southlake Families Choose Our Office
Clearing a record involves more paperwork than most people expect, and a single missing agency on the petition can mean the record stays visible somewhere a background check company still pulls from. Our Southlake criminal defense team files expunction and nondisclosure petitions in Tarrant, Denton, and Parker counties, and the agency list a court expects is the detail we check first.
That work sits behind 100+ Years Combined Criminal Defense Experience, 3000+ Clients Helped, and 800+ Google Reviews.
We also defend the underlying criminal cases that later become expunction candidates, which means we often already know a client's case history when the record-clearing conversation starts. That continuity matters when a case involves multiple charges or moves through more than one court, since piecing together an old case file from scratch is a common reason a petition gets delayed.
Some Southlake residents already know they qualify and just need the petition filed correctly. Others aren't sure whether their case ended in a dismissal, a deferred adjudication, or something else, and we sort that out first, since the answer changes which remedy applies. Reach out to our office serving Southlake, Fort Worth, Arlington, Bedford, and Weatherford, and we'll tell you whether expunction, nondisclosure, or neither applies.
FAQs: Southlake Expungement Lawyer
These are the questions we hear most often from Southlake residents trying to work out whether an old arrest can come off their record.
How long does an expunction take once the petition is filed?
Most uncontested Tarrant County cases resolve within two to four months of filing. The court has to set the hearing at least 30 days out, and every agency named in the petition gets notice and a chance to respond before the judge rules. Contested petitions, or ones naming agencies in several counties, run longer.
Can I expunge more than one arrest at the same time?
Sometimes. Multiple arrests can be combined into a single petition, but each one still has to independently meet the eligibility requirements, so a petition covering three arrests can be granted as to two and denied as to the third. We look at each arrest separately before deciding how to file.
Does an expunged record ever show up again on a background check?
It should not. Once the order is final, every named agency is legally required to destroy or return the file. The gap is private data brokers who copied the record before the order was entered, which is why running your own background check a few months after the order is signed is worth doing.
What does a Southlake expunction attorney do that I cannot do myself?
Nothing stops you from filing a petition on your own. The risk is the agency list, because the court's order only reaches agencies actually named and served, so one omission leaves the record live somewhere a background check still pulls from. Fixing that afterward means starting the process over.
Do I need to live in Southlake to file here?
No. What matters is the county where the arrest happened, not where you live now, so a Southlake resident arrested in Denton County files there rather than in Tarrant County. Many Southlake arrests do fall in Tarrant County, but the petition follows the arrest, not the address.
Can a juvenile record be expunged the same way?
No. Juvenile records follow a separate track under the Texas Family Code, with their own eligibility rules and waiting periods, and the adult process under Chapter 55A does not apply. Some juvenile records may also be eligible for sealing without a petition, which is worth confirming first.
Talk to a Southlake Record Sealing Lawyer Today
An old arrest doesn't have to keep shaping how landlords, employers, and licensing boards see you. If you want to clear a criminal record in Southlake, TX, where background checks keep surfacing, we can review the case, confirm which agencies need to be named, and file the petition correctly the first time. Contact Fulgham Hampton Criminal Defense Attorneys to find out whether your case qualifies for expunction, nondisclosure, or both.