Seal Your Denton County Criminal Record Today

Trust in Our Denton County Criminal Defense Lawyers

A criminal record follows you throughout life and can cause significant harm, personal loss, and embarrassment. There are circumstances in which the law requires you to disclose your criminal record. The disclosure of a criminal record can greatly impact your ability to attain employment, receive credit or financial assistance, rent or purchase a home, and can adversely affect your ability to successfully move forward with your life.

The consequences of having a criminal record will last with you as long as the criminal record exists. The process of entirely removing a person's criminal record after one has successfully completed deferred adjudication probation is called a non-disclosure. Having your record swept clean through non-disclosure - occasionally referred to as record sealing - is a way to start fresh and remove the obstacles a criminal record will place in your future. If you have a criminal record then contacting our Denton County criminal defense attorneys at the Law Offices of Tim Powers may be the answer for you.

If having a criminal record is adversely affecting your life, it is imperative that you speak with our firm about criminal record non-disclosure. We can discuss your criminal record with you and explore the possibility of erasing your embarrassing and undesirable past. Our office concentrates in criminal defense law in Denton County, and we are dedicated to achieving criminal record non-disclosure for our qualifying clients.

A new Texas law may allow you to clear your criminal record!

Have you successfully completed deferred adjudication probation in Texas? If you think no one can find out about your criminal case, think again! Your case is a matter of public record, even if it was dismissed when you completed your probation.

As of September 1, 2003, an "Order of Non-disclosure" is a legal procedure through which, under certain circumstances, a court order can be obtained which prohibits governmental agencies from disclosing the existence of your case. This remedy is available for both misdemeanors and felonies.

Misdemeanors – in most cases, you can petition the court for an order of nondisclosure immediately upon successful completion of your deferred adjudication probation. For certain crimes, a five year waiting period applies.

These include:

• Unlawful restraint or transport
• Public lewdness or indecent exposure
• Assaultive offenses (assault, deadly conduct, terroristic threat)
• Offenses against the family (e.g., harboring a runaway, bigamy)
• Riot, obstructing a highway, cruelty to animals
• Weapons offenses (e.g., unlawfully carrying a weapon)

Felonies – in most cases, you must wait 10 years after successful completion of your deferred adjudication probation before you can petition the court for an order of nondisclosure.

Certain offenses cannot be sealed with an order of nondisclosure:

• Any offense requiring sex offender registration
• Aggravated kidnapping
• Murder
• Capital murder
• Injury to a child, elderly individual, or disabled individual
• Abandoning or endangering a child
• Violation of a protective order
• Stalking
• Other family violence offenses (family violence is violence or the threat of violence against a relative or a current or former housemate)

Interested in obtaining an order of non-disclosure?

If you are eligible for a non-disclosure of your Denton County criminal records, call an attorney who practices in the county where your case was handled. Lawyers who don't practice in your county won't know the local practices on some of the finer, but still important, points.

Having your criminal record removed through non-disclosure is the first step in moving beyond your past, but the process can be challenging and complicated. Our firm can assist you through this daunting legal process and help you attain non-disclosure. Our legal team is here to assist you and will fight on your behalf to remove and destroy a criminal record that is holding you back in life.

*Each petition for an order of non-disclosure must be judged on its own merit. The judge will consider a number of factors when determining whether to grant any such request. Under Texas law, an order of non-disclosure cannot be obtained on an offense for which you have been served deferred adjudication probation.