Expunging a criminal record in Texas usually costs between $1,500 and $3,500 when you hire an attorney. The bulk of that is legal fees, generally $1,000 to $3,000 for a straightforward case. Court filing fees, certified mailings, and service on the agencies holding your records add a few hundred dollars on top. Filing on your own drops the total well under $500, but the paperwork is unforgiving and a mistake can cost you the petition.
What Attorney Fees Actually Cover
Legal representation is the biggest expense by a wide margin. Most Texas attorneys who handle expunctions charge a flat fee somewhere between $1,000 and $3,000. That fee typically covers drafting the petition, gathering supporting documents, attending the hearing, and following up with the agencies that have to update their records. Some lawyers bill hourly instead, which makes the final number harder to predict if the prosecutor objects or the case gets complicated.
A few things push fees toward the higher end. Multiple arrests mean either multiple petitions or a longer single one. A contested case adds court appearances and legal argument. Attorneys with heavy criminal defense experience in your county tend to charge more, though they often move things through faster. When you compare quotes, ask directly whether the flat fee includes the court’s filing costs and service charges, or whether those are billed separately.
Court Filing Fees in Texas
What the clerk charges depends on which court hears your petition. Most expunctions are filed in district court, where the fee matches what you’d pay for an ex parte petition in a civil case. It’s built from a base filing fee, records management charges, and an archiving fee set by the county. In most Texas counties, that comes out to roughly $250 to $400, though the exact number varies.1State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 102.006 – Fees in Expunction Proceedings
Petitions filed in a justice court or a municipal court of record carry a flat $100 fee, which covers the cost of notifying state agencies about the order.1State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 102.006 – Fees in Expunction Proceedings
Service and Mailing Costs
Every government agency that holds records of your arrest has to be formally notified. That list always includes the Texas Department of Public Safety, the arresting agency, and the prosecuting attorney. Depending on the case, it can also reach the FBI, the county jail, a magistrate court, and the booking facility.
Electronic service through the court’s e-filing system is the cheapest way to reach each agency. Certified mail costs more per agency. On top of that, Article 102.006 sets specific clerk charges: $1 plus postage for each certified mailing of the hearing notice, and $2 plus postage for each certified mailing of the expunction order itself.1State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 102.006 – Fees in Expunction Proceedings The individual charges are small, but with five or more agencies to notify the total tends to land somewhere between $50 and $150.
When Filing Fees Are Waived
Two situations trigger automatic waivers of the filing fee. If you were acquitted at trial and file your petition within 30 days of the acquittal, filing fees are waived entirely. The same applies if you’re filing after successfully completing a veterans treatment court program or mental health court program.1State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 102.006 – Fees in Expunction Proceedings
If neither of those applies and you can’t afford the costs, you can submit a Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs.2Texas Courts. Statement of Inability to Afford Payment of Court Costs or an Appeal Bond The form asks about your income, dependents, and expenses, and you can qualify automatically if you’re receiving benefits like SNAP, Medicaid, or TANF. Approval waives filing fees and can waive some service costs. It does not touch attorney fees.
Filing Without a Lawyer
Texas lets you file a petition on your own. The Texas State Law Library, TexasLawHelp.org, and the Texas Justice Court Training Center publish sample forms and guides for self-represented filers.3Texas State Law Library. Expunction and Nondisclosure – Commonly Requested Legal Forms Texas doesn’t issue standardized fill-in-the-blank expunction forms through the courts, so you’ll usually be drafting your own petition using those templates as a starting point.
Going pro se drops the total to filing fees plus service, often under $500. The tradeoff is real. You have to identify every agency that holds your records, serve each one correctly, meet the statutory deadlines, and be ready to argue at a hearing if the prosecutor objects. Missing an agency or citing the wrong basis in the petition can get it denied and burn your filing fee. For a single dismissed misdemeanor, self-filing is workable. For anything with multiple charges or arrests, the money saved can easily be lost to a rejected petition.
One boundary worth flagging before you spend anything: expunction is not available for most convictions, and it’s generally not available for cases that ended in deferred adjudication community supervision. A separate process called an order of nondisclosure may fit those cases instead, and its filing costs run from as little as $28 up through the regular civil filing fees depending on which section of the Government Code applies.4Texas Courts. An Overview of Orders of Nondisclosure
Getting Filing Fees Back
When a court grants your petition, the judge has discretion to order that some or all of the filing fees be returned to you.1State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 102.006 – Fees in Expunction Proceedings The refund isn’t automatic and it doesn’t cover attorney fees, but it’s worth asking your lawyer to write the request into the proposed order. A partial refund on a few hundred dollars is worth the sentence it takes to ask.
The Cost People Forget: Cleaning Up Background Checks
The court order is only half the fix. Commercial background check companies pull from their own databases, and an old arrest can keep showing up in employer searches after expunction. Under federal law, consumer reporting agencies have to follow reasonable procedures to ensure maximum possible accuracy in what they report.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681e – Compliance Procedures Reporting an expunged arrest fails that standard.
If your record still shows up, dispute it directly with the screening company: send a copy of the expunction order and demand removal. If they don’t correct the report, you may have a claim under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Some people also pay data-removal services to scrub arrest information from people-search sites. Those services charge ongoing subscription fees and don’t carry the legal weight of a direct FCRA dispute, so factor that in before adding another recurring bill on top of the expunction itself.