An expunction is a court order that destroys the records of an arrest. It is the strongest form of records relief Texas offers, and it is different from an order of nondisclosure, which only seals a record from public view. A combined expunction is not a separate remedy; it is the same Article 55.01 relief, packaged so that several eligible arrests in the same district court's jurisdiction move together in one petition.¹

The advantage is efficiency. Instead of filing, serving, and setting a hearing for each arrest separately, the eligible arrests are listed in a single integrated petition, served on the agencies once, and decided together. Once the orders are final, Article 55.03 prohibits any agency from releasing or using the expunged records for every covered arrest, and the person may deny that those arrests occurred.² The combined form changes the packaging, not the legal effect.

A combined petition is only as strong as each arrest on it, because every arrest has to clear Article 55.01 independently and under its own subsection.¹ The combined filing usually mixes more than one of these routes.

Arrests eligible after an acquittal

An arrest that ended in a trial acquittal, or an appellate reversal that became final, qualifies under Section 55.01(a)(1) and can be combined with the others.³ These are the cleanest entries, because eligibility is on the face of the judgment.

Arrests eligible after a dismissal or with limitations run

An arrest dismissed with the prosecutor's certification, or one where no charge was filed and the limitations period has run on every offense the arrest could have supported, qualifies under Section 55.01(a)(2).⁴ Where a no-filing arrest is included, the limitations analysis under Articles 12.01 and 12.02 has to clear for that arrest before it goes on the petition.⁵⁶

Mixed-disposition combinations

A single combined petition often carries arrests of different kinds, an acquittal alongside a dismissed case alongside a completed Class C deferred disposition. Each is analyzed on its own subsection, and any arrest that does not clear is removed before filing so it cannot drag down the rest.¹

A combined expunction reaches the person who has more than one eligible arrest on file in the same county, often accumulated over several years, where each ended without a final conviction.¹ These are ordinary people whose criminal history shows a handful of old entries, none of which became a conviction, and who want all of them cleared at once rather than one petition at a time.

It does not reach a conviction, and it does not bundle in an arrest that is not independently eligible; an ineligible arrest is simply left off and pursued separately if it later qualifies. Arrests scattered across different counties may not share a single district court's jurisdiction and can require their own filings.⁷ Sorting which arrests can travel together is the first question, and it is answered from each disposition and the certified criminal history, not from memory.

A granted combined expunction is close to complete for every covered arrest. Once the orders are final, Article 55.03 bars every agency from releasing or using the records, and the private background-check companies that bought the data from the State are obligated to remove it as the State purges its index.² The person can lawfully answer, on a job or housing application, that those arrests did not happen.

The limits track the single-petition version, multiplied across arrests. The relief reaches only the records named in the petition and the orders, so the agency list has to be complete for every arrest, and an arrest that does not clear Article 55.01 is not reached at all.¹ Private databases can also lag the State's purge by months. The combined form does not lower any arrest's eligibility bar; it only lets the eligible ones move together.

A combined expunction turns on the same two documents as any expunction, gathered for each arrest: the disposition for every case, and the certified criminal history that ties the arrests together and shows who holds each record. The dispositions set which subsection each arrest qualifies under; the criminal history sets the integrated agency list.

A few steps make the filing cleaner. Gather the cause number, the arresting agency, and the date for each arrest. Order a copy of the certified Department of Public Safety criminal history, because it is the single document that shows every arrest and often lists agencies the person never knew were involved. Keep the dismissal or judgment paperwork for each case. Do not assume every arrest is eligible just because most are; each one is analyzed independently, and an ineligible arrest is removed before filing rather than risking the petition.¹

This is general information about how expunctions work in Texas. It is not legal advice about any specific record, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.

A combined expunction is a civil proceeding filed in a district court, even though it clears criminal records. It follows the single-petition order, with the eligibility work done arrest by arrest first.

Confirming eligibility for each arrest

The first step is reading each disposition against Article 55.01 to confirm which subsection applies and whether that arrest is eligible, removing any arrest that does not clear.¹ For no-filing arrests, the limitations analysis under Articles 12.01 and 12.02 is worked out here.⁵⁶

Building the integrated agency list

The certified Department of Public Safety criminal history is pulled to identify every agency that holds a record of any covered arrest. The petition has to name each one, because the orders only bind the agencies that are served.

Drafting and filing the combined petition

The verified petition is drafted to track Article 55.02, listing every arrest, offense, cause number, and disposition in a single integrated document, and it is filed in the district court of the county of arrest, which for a Bexar County matter is the Bexar County District Clerk at the Cadena-Reeves Justice Center on Dolorosa Street.⁷⁸

Notice to the agencies

Every named agency is served once for the combined petition, including the arresting agencies, the Bexar County Criminal District Attorney, the trial courts, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the FBI Identification Division, each of which has a right to appear and be heard.⁷⁹

The hearing and the orders

The court sets a combined hearing where one is required, and on qualifying records it signs an order for each covered arrest. Many uncontested combined petitions are decided on the papers without testimony.

Destruction and follow-through

Once the orders are final, each agency must destroy or return its records for every covered arrest, and Article 55.03 prohibits any further use of them.² The destruction certificates and the Department of Public Safety confirmation are gathered as proof the records are gone.

On a combined petition, timing is driven by the slowest arrest, because the petition usually waits until every included arrest is eligible.

The eligibility memo is the load-bearing document on a combined petition, because every arrest has to clear Article 55.01 independently and any arrest that does not clear is removed before filing.¹ Forrest Good PLLC begins every combined matter with a written eligibility memo for each underlying arrest: the judgment or dismissal order, the certified Department of Public Safety criminal history, the limitations analysis where it applies, and the Article 55.01 subsection each arrest qualifies under.³⁴⁵⁶

Once the eligible arrests are identified, the combined petition is drafted to track Article 55.02 precisely, with every arrest, offense, cause number, and disposition listed in a single integrated document.⁷ The agency list is pulled from the Department of Public Safety report rather than from memory, because arrests in different years often appear with different agencies. After the orders issue, the destruction certificates and the Department of Public Safety confirmation are filed in the matter as documentary proof, the effect Article 55.03 requires.²

The hour estimate

Forrest Good PLLC estimates this matter at 8 to 14 hours of attorney time, billed at $250 per hour. Records-relief work is front-loaded into eligibility analysis and petition drafting, and a combined petition multiplies the eligibility work across arrests; the lower end reflects a small set of clean post-acquittal arrests, and the upper end reflects several arrests including no-filing limitations analysis, a large integrated agency list, or a written contest from the prosecutor's office.⁴ The pricing methodology explains how the number of arrests, the eligibility analysis, and the procedural posture drive the estimate.

The flat fee and what it covers

The starting flat fee is $2,500, reflecting the additional eligibility, drafting, and service work a multi-arrest petition requires. It covers an eligibility memo for each underlying arrest, pulling the certified court files and the Department of Public Safety criminal history, drafting the combined petition under Article 55.02 with the integrated agency list, filing with the Bexar County District Clerk, serving every named agency, appearing at the combined expunction hearing where the court sets one, preparing the proposed orders for the judge's signature, and following up with each agency after entry to confirm the records were destroyed and the index updated.⁷ The fee shown here is honored while this page is published, consistent with Texas Disciplinary Rule of Professional Conduct 7.02(d).¹⁰

Any work outside the scoped fee is billed at $250 per hour and is disclosed in the written engagement letter before it begins. The engagement letter is the binding contract for the matter.

The first step is a conversation. The initial 30-minute consultation with Forrest Good PLLC is free and is scheduled through the office's Google Booking page. It is the time to inventory the arrests, confirm which can travel together in one district court, and identify the Article 55.01 subsection each qualifies under before anything is filed.¹ Bringing a copy of the criminal history and the disposition paperwork for each case makes the half hour far more useful.

No attorney-client relationship is formed until a written engagement letter is signed; the consultation itself carries no obligation.

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