An order of nondisclosure is a court order that seals a criminal record from public view. It is different from an expunction, which destroys the record. Texas treats nondisclosure as a sealing remedy: the record continues to exist, but the law prohibits its disclosure to the public and limits access to a narrow list of criminal-justice, public-safety, and licensing entities.

Section 411.072 is the most streamlined of the nondisclosure pathways. For a person who completed deferred adjudication community supervision on a qualifying nonviolent misdemeanor, it directs that the order issue automatically, without a petition and without a fee.¹ There is no separate waiting period after discharge for this pathway, and there is no contested hearing in the ordinary case. The remedy is meant to attach at the moment the community supervision is discharged and the case dismissed.

The automatic pathway is one rule with eligibility gates, and where those gates do not clear, a related petition-based pathway sometimes does. Knowing which one applies decides whether anything has to be filed at all.

The automatic order at discharge

When the offense is a qualifying nonviolent misdemeanor and the deferred adjudication was completed, Section 411.072 directs the order of nondisclosure to issue automatically, without a petition or a fee.¹ This is the cleanest outcome, because the relief attaches by operation of the statute.

The disqualifying-offense and clean-record gates

The automatic pathway does not reach offenses barred by Section 411.072 or by the general disqualifying-offense list in Section 411.074, and it does not reach a person who was convicted of or placed on deferred adjudication for another offense during the period in question.¹² An offense barred there falls outside the automatic order.

The petition-based deferred pathway

Where the automatic order does not issue, a deferred-adjudication case may still be eligible for a nondisclosure order on petition under Section 411.0725, on its own conditions and waiting period.³ Confirming which pathway fits is the threshold question for any deferred-adjudication matter.

This pathway reaches the person who completed deferred adjudication community supervision on a qualifying nonviolent misdemeanor and has stayed out of trouble since.¹ These are ordinary people who took a deferred-adjudication resolution precisely so that a completed case would not become a final conviction, and for whom the automatic seal is the back half of that bargain.

It does not reach an offense barred by Section 411.072 or by the Section 411.074 disqualifying list, including family violence and certain other offenses, and it does not reach a person who picked up another conviction or deferred adjudication during the relevant period.¹² It does not reach a straight conviction, which runs on the standard or DWI-first conviction pathways, and it does not reach a case eligible for the stronger remedy of expunction. Sorting which category a record falls into is the first question, and it is answered from the discharge order and the certified criminal history, not from memory.

A granted order of nondisclosure shields the record from the people most likely to run a background check. Once it is in force, the commercial vendors that resell criminal history are prohibited from disclosing the sealed entry, and a private employer or landlord running an ordinary background check will not see it. In many cases the person may lawfully decline to disclose the sealed matter on an application.¹

The limit is built into the remedy. Nondisclosure seals the record; it does not destroy it. Law enforcement agencies and the criminal-justice, public-safety, and licensing entities the statute lists retain access through a fingerprint-based check. And although the order is automatic in theory, in practice the agencies do not always seal the record cleanly, and a private database can keep reporting the entry until the Department of Public Safety index is corrected. Confirming that the seal actually took effect across every agency is the part of the matter that the word automatic tends to hide.

An automatic deferred order turns on two documents above all: the judgment placing the person on deferred adjudication, which shows the offense, and the discharge order ending community supervision, which is the event that triggers the seal. The certified criminal history then shows whether the seal actually took effect and whether anything during the period disqualifies the person.

A few steps make the matter cleaner. Gather the cause number, the court, the judgment, and the discharge and dismissal order. Order a copy of the certified Department of Public Safety criminal history, both to confirm eligibility and to verify that the record was sealed. Confirm that the offense is not on the Section 411.074 disqualifying list and that no other conviction or deferred adjudication landed during the relevant period, because either takes the matter outside the automatic pathway.² Do not assume the seal happened just because the statute calls it automatic; the criminal history is what shows whether it did.¹

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

The automatic order is meant to issue without a filing, but verifying it, and stepping in where it did not issue, follows a set order.

Confirming eligibility

The first step is reading the judgment and the discharge order against Section 411.072 and the Section 411.074 disqualifying-offense list to confirm the offense qualifies and nothing during the relevant period disqualifies the person.¹²

Verifying the seal at discharge

The certified Department of Public Safety criminal history is pulled to confirm whether the automatic order actually issued and the record was sealed across the agencies that hold it.⁴

Filing the petition-based order where needed

Where the automatic order did not issue but the case is eligible on petition, the petition is drafted to track Section 411.0725 and filed in the trial court that handled the original case, which for a Bexar County misdemeanor is the assigned county court at law, with filings handled through the Cadena-Reeves Justice Center on Dolorosa Street.³⁵⁶

Notice and the hearing

On the petition-based pathway, the prosecuting attorney and every agency holding the record are served, and the court sets a hearing where one is required; many uncontested petitions are decided on the papers.

Follow-through

The order, automatic or entered on petition, is confirmed against the Department of Public Safety index and the other agencies holding the record, and the confirmation is gathered as proof the record is sealed.⁴

The automatic pathway is built to attach at discharge, so the timing question is mostly about confirming that it did and acting where it did not.

The automatic pathway is the most procedurally elegant of the nondisclosure tracks, but it still has eligibility gates and the analysis is still the heart of the work.¹ Forrest Good PLLC begins every Section 411.072 matter with a written eligibility memo: the original judgment placing the person on deferred adjudication, the discharge order ending community supervision, the Section 411.074 disqualifying-offense check, and the full Department of Public Safety criminal history to confirm both eligibility and whether the seal actually took effect.²

Because the pathway is described as automatic, an unrepresented person may assume the record is sealed when the agencies never carried it out, or may file too early or on a barred offense where a petition is needed; the eligibility memo and the criminal-history check catch both. Where the automatic order did not issue but the case is eligible on petition, the petition is drafted to track Section 411.0725, filed in the trial court of the original case, and served on the prosecuting attorney and every agency holding the record.³ After the order is in force, the Department of Public Safety confirmation is filed in the matter so the client has documentary proof that the record has been sealed.⁴

The hour estimate

Forrest Good PLLC estimates this matter at 4 to 7 hours of attorney time, billed at $250 per hour. Records-relief work is front-loaded into eligibility analysis and verification; the lower end reflects a clean automatic seal that only needs confirmation, and the upper end reflects an automatic order that did not issue and has to be pursued on petition under Section 411.0725, a multi-agency record, or a written contest from the prosecutor's office.³ The pricing methodology explains how the eligibility analysis, the agency count, and the procedural posture drive the estimate.

The flat fee and what it covers

The starting flat fee is $1,500. It covers the eligibility memo run against the judgment, the discharge order, and the Section 411.074 disqualifying-offense list, pulling the certified court file and the Department of Public Safety criminal history to confirm both eligibility and whether the automatic seal took effect, and, where the automatic order did not issue, drafting and filing the petition under Section 411.0725, serving the prosecuting attorney and every agency holding the record, appearing at the nondisclosure hearing where the court sets one, preparing the proposed order for the judge's signature, and following up with each agency after entry to confirm the record was sealed and the index updated.³ The fee shown here is honored while this page is published, consistent with Texas Disciplinary Rule of Professional Conduct 7.02(d).⁷

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 confirm the offense qualifies under Section 411.072, check the discharge order and the Section 411.074 disqualifying list, and decide whether the automatic seal took effect or a petition is needed.¹² Bringing the judgment, the discharge order, and a copy of the criminal history 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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