Sign Texas NDA Now

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hey folks tony ross with ross law firm in denton texas uh i wanted to talk with you all today about uh something that comes up uh on occasion fairly often uh i certainly wouldn't say every week or anything but it definitely is a question that comes up and it's something that we bring up to clients uh when we feel it's necessary and that is uh when can my record be sealed erased cleared uh it's referred to as all kinds of things by the by the general public but uh typically in texas we refer to it as either an expunction uh or expunge going through the process of expungement uh or a non-disclosure or an order of non-disclosure those are the two typical ways to clear up uh quote erase seal or get rid of a record in texas and i i want to talk with you guys about those two those two things because they are different uh they have different rules and eligibility requirements that apply to each and different processes to go about obtaining each so the first that i'm going to talk about is an expunction an expunction is essentially the legal erasing or getting rid of all records pertaining to the arrest the charge any information relating to that offense that that you dealt with and if an expunction is granted an expungement order is entered then essentially those records are cleared with with all state agencies with all official government and state agencies that have any records pertaining to that offense that charge an expunction is applicable one if somebody has been to jury trial and a jury has returned a verdict of not guilty in other words you've been acquitted of an offense you are immediately eligible to file a petition for expunction uh if you have been through a pre-trial diversion program or another type of diversion program in some other counties wherein you went through the program and after successful completion of that program the d.a dismissed the charge typically you are immediately entitled to file an application or a petition for expunction uh and at the very latest after the statute of limitations has run on that particular charge you would be able to are eligible to file that petition for expunction seeking an order of expunction it's about a four to five month process from beginning to end it's definitely something that you want the assistance of an attorney with there's just a lot of paperwork there's specific entities uh that need to be notified via proper service in in texas and throughout beyond texas it's something that you want to make sure you get all entities properly served and listed in that petition so that once the expunction order is granted the proper parties are put on notice and whatever records and uh and other information they have regarding and relating to that charge are then uh either immediately destroyed or sent back to the the clerk for for destroying um there's some other on class c tickets for example uh dui drug paraphernalia minor and possession minor consumption tickets but there's really no need to expunge tickets in in our opinion uh those types of class c's if a person does a deferred adjudication uh probation then typically 180 days after that offense and after the completion of the deferred adjudication they can file a petition for expunction to get the records pertaining to that that arrest and or charge expunged another common one is pi public intoxication uh generally you're arrested for pi and so people don't want uh other people going in and doing a general background search whether it's through public data or some other dps or some other agency and being able to see those records so an expunction is is very helpful in those kinds of instances yeah the other type of record sealing destroying out again i hate to use the term destroying because it's not destroying it's it's simply sealing the matter uh is through again what's called a a non-disclosure and that started with the attorney filing a petition for non-disclosure petition for non-disclosure is applicable on certain types of offenses not all of them are applicable and so you need to talk with your attorney to see whether or not you can even apply for a non-disclosure for example assault family violence is not a offense to where you can then seek a non-disclosure after doing a deferred probation so there's certain offenses where it is applicable i'll tell you most are applicable but but again certain ones are not so make sure and check with your attorney any attorney that knows expunction and nondisclosure law should be able to answer that question fairly quickly but if you are eligible to file that that non-disclosure which is essentially uh you've completed a deferred probation on an eligible offense and you have not been in trouble since those are the general requirements for filing a petition for non-disclosure if you if you if you meet those and you've weighted the proper statute of limitations and it varies per offense uh your attorney is ineligible to file that petition for non-disclosure typically uh and here in denton almost always in most other counties a hearing will be set on the nondisclosure wherein you will need to appear with your attorney we'll go over everything that you need to know for that court hearing typically we're going to call you as a witness and go over the reasons why that expunction should be granted so for example we'll go over what you do for a living are you in school what's the family situation exactly why are we requesting and why should the court grant that non-disclosure it's very important that your attorney effectively show the court show the judge why he or she should grant that non-disclosure because with a non-disclosure typically that's something where you have one bite at the apple you've got one shot at it once you have that non-disclosure hearing if a judge denies the non-disclosure and says no i'm not going to grant it for whatever reason typically you're not eligible to re-bring that motion to have it filed again so it's something that you want to make sure that that you and your attorney prepare for and and do correctly the first time around to give you the best shot at getting that non-disclosure granted uh again at that hearing at probably the only hearing that you're going to have the opportunity to be heard and have that that motion granted if an order of non-disclosure is granted essentially what it does is it seals that offense up to the general public state agencies government agencies da's officers they're still going to be able to see those records and so what we generally tell people is that if you're filling out a background check an employment application something like that it's generally still our advice that you disclose that charge even if it has been non-disclosed because it's very likely that they're going to see it anyway and so if you try to hide it if you try to to to go by the fact that it has been non-disclosed and decide to not put it down on the application it could come across to an employer or an hr person whoever's running that background check as you trying to be deceiving or trying to to hide something as opposed to you just coming forward and saying you know yeah i did have this uh it's been non-disclosed and i want to be 100 truthful and and and uh fair with with whoever is looking at my record and let you know that that yeah even though this did happen it's since been non-disclosed a court found it appropriate did not disclose this matter so it's been sealed up to the general public and we found that most uh employment agencies people that are looking at background records appreciate the fact even if they do see it they appreciate the fact that it's been non-disclosed because they know that again the general public if they're doing a background check on you are generally not going to see those records so those are the two types of of uh quote sealing destruction uh getting rid of records that that people often come to us and ask about or refer to we hear it out in in the public all the time you know has your record been quote sealed or expunged again expunction and non-disclosure are the two terms and those are the two types of ways we go about protecting somebody's record here in texas so if you have any questions as to whether or not you may be eligible for one of these you know speaking of eligibility there's no time limit to where it's too long where you've waited too long so if something happened in your 20s and you're now 30 something or 40 something and you want to get that that offense expunged or possibly not disclosed if you're eligible for it you can most likely still seek that so if it's something that uh you guys have any questions about if if you are wondering if you are eligible for an offense that you're currently facing or that you faced in the past please feel free to contact us anytime we sit down with a prospective new client or a current client that's one thing that we're just automatically going to talk about is which one if either will apply to whatever we decide to do with that case but for but for folks that haven't worked with us on their case and they want to know whether or not something in their past is eligible to be expunged or not disclosed we're happy to look into that and see if that's something that we can help you with so again please feel free to call us with any questions we're happy to help you out answer any questions that you might have i hope this video has been helpful for you guys and and if you have questions general type questions feel free to post those in the comments i'll answer those if i can uh specific comments we'd rather talk with you in person and and make sure that that uh attorney-client privilege is protected and and we don't get into any kind of issues that we don't want out there in the public so uh again my name is tony ross with ross law firm here in denton texas and i hope this has been of help and hope everybody's doing okay thanks bye