The Dallas County Expunction Expo is a free annual legal clinic where volunteer attorneys help eligible residents permanently erase a Dallas County arrest from their criminal history, from paperwork through a judge’s signature, at no charge for legal representation. It is organized by the Dallas County Criminal District Attorney’s Office together with the District Clerk’s Office and the Public Defender’s Office.1Dallas County. 2025 Expunction Expo Kick Off Press Release Once a judge signs an expunction order, the arrest is destroyed from government databases and you can legally deny the arrest ever happened.
Who Qualifies
Only Dallas County cases are eligible for the expo.2Dallas County. Dallas County Expunction Expo 2025 Frequently Asked Questions and Answers Beyond that, Texas expunction law controls who qualifies. You are generally eligible if:
- You were arrested but never charged. If the prosecutor never filed a case, the arrest record itself can be wiped.
- Your case was dismissed. Dismissed felonies carry an additional rule discussed below.
- You were acquitted at trial.
- You completed deferred adjudication for a Class C misdemeanor. This is the only level where deferred adjudication leads to expunction eligibility. Higher-level offenses resolved through deferred adjudication do not qualify for expunction, though they may qualify for a nondisclosure order.
The clearest disqualifiers are convictions and community supervision. If you pleaded guilty or were found guilty and received any sentence, including probation or jail time, you cannot expunge that record.3State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 55.01 – Right to Expunction Court-ordered community supervision for anything above a Class C misdemeanor also blocks eligibility. Being accepted into the expo does not guarantee an expunction. After a volunteer attorney reviews your case, the Dallas County respondents conduct their own review and can oppose the petition if they believe the law doesn’t support it.2Dallas County. Dallas County Expunction Expo 2025 Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
Waiting Periods Before You Can File
Even when an arrest qualifies on paper, Texas law requires time to pass before you can file. These windows run from the date of arrest:
- Class C misdemeanors: 180 days
- Class A and B misdemeanors: one year
- Felonies: three years
The waiting periods exist so the prosecutor has time to decide whether to pursue charges. For dismissed felony cases, there is an added catch: if the statute of limitations for the offense has not expired, you generally cannot file for expunction unless the prosecutor certifies that the records are no longer needed for any investigation or prosecution.3State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 55.01 – Right to Expunction The expo setup helps here, because the office that would need to provide that certification is already at the table.
How to Apply
The expo runs on an annual cycle. Applications open in summer for a short window, volunteer attorneys review cases over the following months, and expunction orders are signed in early January.1Dallas County. 2025 Expunction Expo Kick Off Press Release The application window is brief, so watch for the Dallas County DA’s announcement each summer.
Submissions come in three ways during the open window:
- Online through the Dallas County website at dallascounty.org/expunction.
- In person at designated community locations announced for that year’s expo.
- By phone with the Dallas DA’s Office at 214-875-4999 during business hours.
Have your identifying information ready: date of birth, Social Security number, and current address. Gather as much case information as you can, including the date of arrest, the offense charged, and any case numbers. If you have more than three qualifying cases, the DA’s office and your volunteer attorney will track down the additional information after you are accepted.2Dallas County. Dallas County Expunction Expo 2025 Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
If you need to pull your own case history first, the District Clerk’s online court records portal shows felony and misdemeanor filings, disposition dates, and charge details without requiring registration.4Dallas County. Online Record Search
What It Costs
The expo assigns a volunteer attorney to every accepted applicant at no charge. The legal work is free. You will still owe the $350 court filing fee to file the expunction petition, plus possible service costs for the respondent agencies that hold your records. If you cannot afford the fee, your assigned attorney can help you request a waiver based on your financial situation.2Dallas County. Dallas County Expunction Expo 2025 Frequently Asked Questions and Answers Hiring a private attorney for the same work typically runs several hundred to several thousand dollars on top of that filing fee.
What Happens After You Apply
Once the window closes, volunteer attorneys and paralegals review submissions and cross-reference criminal history records to confirm you have no disqualifying convictions and that the waiting periods have passed. This takes several months. If you are accepted, you receive a notification and are assigned a specific volunteer attorney.
You then meet with your attorney to review the petition for expunction and sign the filing. The attorney prepares and files the legal documents. After filing, Dallas County respondent agencies conduct their own review and decide whether to agree or oppose. If no one objects, a judge signs the expunction order on the scheduled signing date in early January.2Dallas County. Dallas County Expunction Expo 2025 Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
After the Order Is Signed
Once the judge signs, every government agency named in the order must either return all records related to the arrest to the court or permanently redact identifying information if return is impractical. The District Clerk holds any returned files in a restricted area closed to inspection and may ultimately destroy them.5Office of the Attorney General of Texas. Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0402 Respondent agencies in the expo cycle generally begin expunging records roughly six weeks after the signing date, and the full clearing process typically needs at least three months and often longer due to volume.2Dallas County. Dallas County Expunction Expo 2025 Frequently Asked Questions and Answers You receive a copy of the signed order for your own records.
Private Background Check Databases
This is where most people get tripped up. The court order binds government agencies, but commercial background check companies and people-search websites are not automatically notified. These private aggregators pull data from public records, and their databases can lag months or years behind a court order. You may need to contact each company directly, send a copy of your expunction order, and request removal. Without that step, a prospective employer running a third-party background check could still see the arrest the court already ordered destroyed.
If You Don’t Qualify for Expunction
Many people who come to the expo expecting an expunction discover they actually qualify for a different form of relief: an order of nondisclosure. The two protections are not the same.
An expunction permanently destroys the arrest record. Government agencies must delete or return their files, and you can legally deny the arrest happened on job applications and housing forms. A nondisclosure order seals the record from public view but does not destroy it. Law enforcement agencies, licensing boards, and certain government entities can still see a sealed record.
Nondisclosure covers offenses that ended in deferred adjudication, and dismissals for Class A and B misdemeanors and some felonies. If you successfully completed deferred adjudication for anything above a Class C misdemeanor, expunction is off the table, but nondisclosure may still be available. Waiting periods differ: misdemeanors involving certain Texas Penal Code offenses such as assault, stalking, or weapons charges require a two-year wait, felonies require five years, and most other misdemeanors have no waiting period.
Some offenses are permanently disqualified from nondisclosure, including murder, aggravated kidnapping, any offense requiring sex offender registration, offenses involving injury to a child, and family violence offenses. You also cannot get a nondisclosure order if you have ever been convicted of or placed on deferred adjudication for any of those disqualifying offenses, even if the current petition involves an unrelated charge.
With a nondisclosure order you are not required to disclose the offense on job applications. Because the record still exists in law enforcement databases, a licensing board such as the Texas Board of Nursing can access it and may ask about the underlying conduct when evaluating a professional license.
Limits of a Texas Expunction
A Texas expunction is powerful but it has limits. FBI fingerprint databases operate independently of state court orders. An FBI background check, particularly the thorough variety used for security clearances, law enforcement positions, immigration proceedings, and jobs involving children or the elderly, can reveal arrest records that a Texas court has ordered destroyed. Level 2 FBI checks are designed to surface a person’s full criminal history regardless of state expunction orders.
If you are applying for a federal security clearance, a concealed handgun license, or immigration benefits, be prepared for the possibility that the arrest will still appear. Keeping a copy of the expunction order on hand helps you explain the situation, though the federal system does not treat state expunction orders as binding on its own databases. For most private-sector jobs and housing applications, a completed expunction effectively removes the record from view, provided you have also addressed the private background check companies.