The Texas DWI Record Reality

If you've been charged with a DWI in Texas, the next question after "what happens to me?" is almost always "will this follow me forever?" The honest answer is: it depends on three things — what happened to the case, what your BAC was, and what you did during the sentence. Texas has not one but two separate statutes that can clear a DWI, and another that lets some DWIs use deferred adjudication. None of them is automatic, and most DIY filers pick the wrong door.

This is the plain-English map of every legal way to clear a Texas DWI in 2026 — under CCP Chapter 55 (expunction) and Gov't Code Chapter 411 (nondisclosure). It also explains the two traps that catch the most pro-se filers: the 0.15 BAC cliff and the federal CDL carve-out.

The Two Doors: Expunction vs. Nondisclosure

Texas treats record relief like a fork in the road. Expunction physically destroys the record — petitions are granted under Code of Criminal Procedure article 55.01, served on every respondent agency, and the file is shredded or returned. After expunction, you can deny the arrest ever happened on most applications.

Nondisclosure seals the record from public view but does not destroy it. Under Government Code §411.0726 (post-deferred) or §411.0731 (first-time DWI conviction), the record stays at DPS and the clerk's office, flagged "non-disclosed." Roughly 30 categories of agencies still have access — listed in §411.0765 — but private employers, landlords, and most credit checks see nothing.

For DWI specifically, the door you walk through depends entirely on the case outcome:

When a Texas DWI Can Be Expunged

Expunction is the cleaner path. If your DWI ended without a conviction — dismissed, no-billed, or acquitted — you almost certainly qualify under CCP Chapter 55. The waiting period before you can file is set by the statute of limitations on the underlying offense, not by the disposition date:

• Class A or B misdemeanor DWI (Penal Code §49.04(a)–(d)): 2-year statute of limitations
• Felony DWI (DWI 3rd+, intoxication assault, intoxication manslaughter): 3-year limitations period

The clock runs from the date of the offense, not the date of dismissal. If your DWI was dismissed three months after the arrest, you still have to wait out the rest of the limitations period before the clerk can grant the expunction. We see pro-se petitions denied every month for filing too early — the clerk's intake doesn't catch the date math, but the DA's office does.

Once limitations runs and the petition is granted, the order is served on Texas DPS, the FBI (through DPS), the arresting agency, the county sheriff, the DA, the district clerk, TxDOT (because it's a DWI), and every private background-check vendor that may have pulled the record — typically Checkr, HireRight, Sterling, First Advantage, GoodHire, and Truework. The full Chapter 55 walkthrough is in our complete Texas expungement guide; the DIY pro-se path is in our how to expunge for free in Texas pillar.

When a Texas DWI Can Be Sealed Under §411.0731

If you were convicted of a Texas DWI — meaning you pleaded guilty or were found guilty after a trial — expunction is off the table. The remedy is nondisclosure under Government Code §411.0731, and the eligibility test is strict.

To qualify under §411.0731, every one of the following must be true:

• It was a first-time conviction for DWI under Penal Code §49.04 — no prior DWIs of any kind, in any jurisdiction.
• The BAC, if measured, was under 0.15. If the case file shows a BAC of 0.15 or higher, the door closes.
• The DWI did not involve an accident with another person. A solo accident — running into a tree, a guardrail, a fence — does not disqualify; an accident "involving another person" does.
• You were not the holder of a commercial driver license at the time of the offense.
• You completed your community supervision (probation), including all conditions, with no revocations.
• You have no other convictions or deferred adjudications during the waiting period (other than minor traffic).
• The court has not made an affirmative finding of family violence on the judgment.

Hit all seven and §411.0731 is your path. The petition is filed in the convicting court, fees are typically $280–$325, and DPS updates the record within 30–60 days of the signed order.

The 0.15 BAC Cliff

This is the single most important number in DWI nondisclosure analysis. Texas Penal Code §49.04(d) elevates a DWI from Class B to Class A misdemeanor if the BAC at the time of analysis was 0.15 or higher. Section §411.0731(b)(1) excludes the elevated Class A version from nondisclosure eligibility.

Practical consequences:

• BAC 0.149 measured at the station — eligible for §411.0731 nondisclosure.
• BAC 0.150 measured at the station — ineligible. The door is closed for the lifetime of that conviction.
• No BAC reading (refusal of breath and blood, or test never performed) — eligible. The cliff only applies when there's a recorded BAC.
• BAC measured by retrograde extrapolation but not by chemical test — depends on what's in the judgment. The §49.04(d) finding has to be pleaded and proved at the time of the conviction. If the judgment doesn't list it, you may still be eligible.

The Interlock Rule — 6 Months Saves 3 Years

The single most overlooked clause in §411.0731 is subsection (c), which sets the post-completion waiting period before you can file the petition:

• 5 years after community supervision ends — the default.
• 2 years after community supervision ends — if you used a court-ordered ignition interlock device for at least six months as a condition of the probation.

For most clients, that interlock condition was already on the table during the original sentencing. Many DAs offer it routinely. The defendant agrees because the alternative is jail time or a longer license suspension. What no one tells them: that same interlock condition also cuts three years off their record-clearing wait. We see DWI clients every month who completed the interlock period in 2023 and have been sitting on a sealable conviction for two years without realizing they were eligible to file.

If you're currently negotiating a DWI plea, the interlock condition is leverage. Insist on six months minimum. If you've already completed your sentence and the order included interlock for at least six months, count two years — not five — from the end of probation.

Deferred Adjudication After HB 3582

Until 2019, Texas was the only state in the country where DWI was statutorily ineligible for deferred adjudication. House Bill 3582, effective September 1, 2019, changed that — but with strict conditions. A first-time DWI is now eligible for deferred adjudication only if:

• It is a Penal Code §49.04 DWI (not §49.045 with a child passenger, not intoxication assault).
• BAC, if measured, was under 0.15.
• No accident with another person.
• The defendant did not hold a commercial driver license at the time.
• The defendant has no prior DWI of any kind.

If the court grants deferred and the defendant successfully completes it, the case is dismissed — and the dismissal qualifies for nondisclosure under §411.0726, not §411.0731. The waiting period after dismissal is 2 years. So an HB 3582 DWI deferred can be sealed roughly 2 years after the deferred period ends — a faster path than a §411.0731 conviction-based nondisclosure for most filers, even with the interlock.

Practical takeaway: if you're being charged today with a first-time DWI, BAC under 0.15, no accident, no CDL — push for deferred. The downstream record-clearing math is markedly better.

The CDL Trap (and the FMCSA Lifetime Database)

If you have a CDL, the calculation changes. A nondisclosure still helps with private hiring, lease applications, and credit checks — but it will not let you pass a federal motor-carrier background check. If your livelihood depends on driving commercially, the realistic options are: never get the DWI on the record in the first place (fight the case), let the conviction stand and find a non-CDL path, or pursue federal pardon — a process so rare it's effectively unavailable.

Five Things DIY Filers Miss on a Texas DWI Petition

1. The 0.15 finding has to be in the judgment, not the police report

If the breath test came back at 0.18 but the DA dropped the §49.04(d) enhancement during plea negotiations, you may still be eligible for §411.0731 — because the eligibility test reads the judgment, not the offense report. We pull the judgment from the district clerk before assessing this. Most pro-se filers assume the BAC bar is determined by what the lab said, not by what the court found.

2. Refusal cases are sometimes easier than test cases

Refused the breath and blood test? There's no recorded BAC, so the 0.15 cliff doesn't apply. Eligibility under §411.0731 collapses to: was it a first-time, no-accident, non-CDL Class B DWI? If yes, you qualify. Refusal can actually preserve nondisclosure eligibility that a test result would have destroyed.

3. The "no other conviction" clock includes the waiting period itself

Section §411.0731(d) requires you not be convicted of (or placed on deferred for) any offense — except minor traffic — during the waiting period. That clock continues running until you actually file. A Class A misdemeanor in 2024 disqualifies a 2026 DWI nondisclosure petition. We've seen clients who would have qualified two years ago disqualified by a recent shoplifting deferred. Time matters.

4. ALR is separate from the criminal case

The Administrative License Revocation hearing — the civil 90-day suspension after a DWI arrest — is a different proceeding from the criminal DWI. An ALR loss does not show up on a criminal background check, but it does show up on the driving record. Sealing the criminal DWI under §411.0731 does not clear the ALR finding from the driving record. Some employers run separate driving-record checks; for those, the ALR finding will be visible until it ages off (typically 7–10 years on the TxDOT driving record).

5. Out-of-state employers may pull federal records anyway

Even for non-CDL jobs, employers in regulated industries (defense, banking, healthcare) often pull FBI fingerprint-based background checks rather than state-only checks. An FBI check still shows the original arrest and conviction unless the underlying record was expunged — not nondisclosed. For these high-clearance roles, only an expungement (rare for a DWI conviction) actually clears the record. A §411.0731 seal hides it from most private checks but not from federal ones.

A 90-Second DWI Decision Tree

1. Was your DWI dismissed, no-billed, or were you acquitted? → Expunction under CCP §55.01. File once limitations runs (2 years for misdemeanors, 3 for felonies).
2. Did you successfully complete deferred adjudication on a first-time DWI under HB 3582? → Nondisclosure under Gov't Code §411.0726, after a 2-year wait.
3. Were you convicted, BAC under 0.15, no accident with another person, no CDL, first-time? → Nondisclosure under §411.0731.
   • Did you do at least 6 months of interlock? → File 2 years after probation ends.
   • No interlock, or under 6 months? → File 5 years after probation ends.
4. Were you convicted with BAC 0.15+, or with an accident, or it was DWI 2nd / DWI 3rd+ / felony DWI? → Neither expunction nor nondisclosure is available. The conviction stays.

If you're in scenario 4, your remaining options are limited: a governor's pardon (Texas does grant them, but rarely), or — if the conviction can be challenged on legal grounds — a writ of habeas corpus that vacates the underlying judgment. Both are far outside the scope of pro-se filing.

Frequently Asked Questions