How to Seal a Record for Free in Travis County (2026): Austin Nondisclosure Under Chapter 411
Travis County is one of the smoother Texas jurisdictions for a nondisclosure petition once the eligibility analysis lines up. The Travis Criminal District Attorney’s Civil Litigation Division reviews most § 411.0725 petitions on the papers rather than insisting on a contested hearing. The District Clerk distributes signed orders to DPS at among the faster rates in the state. But Travis has its own wrinkles: a dense overlay of state-property law enforcement (DPS, Capitol Police, state agency PDs), the UT Austin and ACC campus police departments, and federal property scattered through the county. This is the 2026 walkthrough for sealing a Travis County record: who qualifies, which Chapter 411 section to cite, where in Austin to file, and how to take the filing fee to zero.
- Sealing in Travis County means a Texas Order of Nondisclosure under Gov’t Code Chapter 411. It hides the record from most public view but keeps it visible to law enforcement and the authorized recipients in § 411.0765.
- Petitions are filed in the court of original jurisdiction — one of the Travis County District Courts (felony deferreds) or a Travis County Court at Law (Class A/B deferreds), all routed through the Travis County District Clerk at the Travis County Civil and Family Courts Facility, 1700 Guadalupe Street, Austin.
- The Travis Criminal DA’s Civil Litigation Division reviews petitions on the papers in most cases, and best-interest hearings are set less often than in Harris or Dallas.
- Arrests on Texas State Capitol Complex grounds or other state property follow ordinary Chapter 411 rules — but the order must name DPS, Capitol Police, and any state agency PD involved. Federal-property arrests (federal courthouse, federal buildings) are federal jurisdiction and not reachable by a Texas seal.
- The § 411.074(b) lifetime bars — family violence, sex-offense registration, stalking, trafficking, and others — are absolute. Pull the certified judgment and check for affirmative findings.
- Three concrete routes to a $0 filing fee: automatic § 411.072 entry, SB 537 for specialty-court completers, and the TRCP 145 indigency affidavit. Travis County honors all three.
1. The Travis County Sealing Landscape
Travis County is Texas’s fourth-most populous county at roughly two million residents. Austin is the county seat, and the criminal and civil filing infrastructure are consolidated around the Travis County Civil and Family Courts Facility at 1700 Guadalupe Street. The Travis County District Clerk maintains its civil filing window in the same complex, and most nondisclosures in 2026 are filed electronically through eFileTexas rather than walked in.
What makes Travis different from Dallas or Harris on a nondisclosure: the Travis Criminal District Attorney runs a dedicated Civil Litigation Division that handles record-clearing review. The Civil Litigation Division generally reviews § 411.0725 petitions through document review rather than contested hearings, and clean petitions with clear best-interest recitations move quickly. We see hearing settings in roughly a third of pro-se files we inherit — lower than peer counties of similar size.
The complications are structural rather than procedural. State Capitol arrests follow ordinary Chapter 411 rules. The greater Austin agency map — APD, Travis County Sheriff, ten-plus incorporated suburban departments, Austin ISD PD, UT Austin PD, Capital Metro Transit Police, and the rest — requires care in the proposed order. And Travis judges enter affirmative findings of family violence on AFV-related deferred judgments routinely, which is the single most common surprise on intake.
2. Sealing vs. Expunction in Travis County
Before drafting a nondisclosure petition, confirm sealing is actually the right remedy. Texas record clearing runs on two parallel tracks and choosing the wrong one is a denial.
| Expunction (Chapter 55A) | Nondisclosure (Chapter 411) | |
|---|---|---|
| What the order does | Destroys the record | Hides it from most public view |
| Who keeps access | No one — record is purged | Law enforcement and authorized recipients under § 411.0765 |
| Typical Travis eligibility | Dismissal, acquittal, no-bill, Class C deferred | Class A/B or felony deferred completed in a Travis County court; certain first-time misdemeanor convictions |
| Where you file | Travis County district court (civil action at 1700 Guadalupe) | The same Travis County court that handled the underlying case |
| Can you legally deny it? | Yes (narrow under-oath carve-out) | Generally yes, with carve-outs for authorized recipients |
The Travis rule of thumb is the same as everywhere else in Texas: if expunction is available, take it. Nondisclosure is the fallback when the case ended in a Class A, B, or felony deferred adjudication — or in one of the narrow first-time misdemeanor conviction scenarios under §§ 411.0735/0736. We walk through the choice in detail in our expunction vs. nondisclosure comparison.
3. The § 411.074 Lifetime Bars
Section 411.074(b) of the Government Code is the absolute eligibility filter on every nondisclosure pathway. If the underlying offense — or any affirmative finding attached to the judgment — is on this list, the petition is dead on arrival regardless of how cleanly the deferred completed and regardless of how strong the rest of the file looks.
The permanently barred categories include:
- Any offense requiring sex offender registration under CCP Chapter 62
- Murder and capital murder
- Aggravated kidnapping
- Trafficking of persons and continuous trafficking
- Injury to a child, an elderly individual, or a disabled individual
- Abandonment or endangerment of a child
- Violations of protective orders or bond conditions in family-violence cases
- Stalking
- Any offense with an affirmative finding of family violence under Family Code § 71.004 or CCP art. 42.013
Travis criminal courts enter affirmative findings of family violence under CCP art. 42.013 routinely on assault-FV deferreds — including on cases originally charged as Assault Class A, Terroristic Threat, or Disorderly Conduct that don’t obviously read as “family violence” cases on the docket. A single line on the judgment — “the Court finds family violence,” “affirmative finding under Article 42.013,” or similar — permanently disqualifies the case under § 411.074(b). Order a certified copy of the judgment from the Travis County District Clerk before drafting anything. Some pro-se petitioners learn the finding is there only when the Civil Litigation Division’s objection arrives weeks later.
DWI — the § 411.0726 carve-out
Misdemeanor DWI deferred adjudication has its own sealing analysis under § 411.0726, with an ignition-interlock requirement during supervision and a hard exclusion for BAC of 0.15 or higher from the automatic track. We cover the DWI-specific analysis in our DWI guide.
4. The Chapter 411 Sections Austin Filers Actually Use
Unlike Chapter 55A expunction, which has one primary statute, Chapter 411 nondisclosure is spread across several sections of Subchapter E-1. Citing the wrong section is a facial denial. In Travis County, the sections we most often plead on intake are:
§ 411.072 — automatic nondisclosure
For first-time deferred-adjudication completers on non-violent Class A or B misdemeanors, the statute directs the court to enter the nondisclosure order automatically at the time the case is discharged and dismissed. No petition. No filing fee. The Travis County District Clerk’s office generates these orders 60 to 90 days after deferred completion in qualifying cases. If your DPS criminal-history search shows the deferred but no “non-disclosed” notation 90 days post-completion, a Motion to Compel Distribution back in the original Travis criminal court is faster than re-filing as a fresh petition.
§ 411.0725 — petition-based nondisclosure for deferreds
The workhorse Travis County section. Used for any deferred-adjudication completion that doesn’t qualify for automatic relief — most felony deferreds, Class A/B deferreds outside the § 411.072 safe harbor, and older deferreds that completed before the automatic provision’s effective date. Requires a written petition, the filing fee (unless waived), service on the State through the Travis Criminal DA’s Civil Litigation Division, and an independent best-interest-of-justice finding by the court.
§ 411.0726 — DWI deferred adjudications
The DWI-specific track for first-time non-CDL misdemeanor DWI deferreds. Requires completion of the deferred and (typically) ignition-interlock during supervision. BAC ≥ 0.15 cases are excluded from the automatic track; petition-based relief may be available in narrow circumstances.
§§ 411.0735 / 411.0736 — first-time misdemeanor convictions
The two narrowest sealing remedies: misdemeanor convictions (rather than deferreds), distinguished only by whether the sentence included jail time. Two-year wait from sentence completion either way. Both are subject to the One-and-Done rule under § 411.0745(e), meaning you only get one misdemeanor-conviction sealing in your lifetime.
§ 411.0765 — the authorized-recipient list
Not a sealing section, but worth knowing before you file. Recipients who can still see a sealed record include law enforcement, the State Board of Educator Certification, public-school districts, banks regulated by the Texas Department of Banking, certain transit authorities (relevant to Capital Metro-related cases in Austin), and a long tail of federal agencies. If your next step is a teaching license, healthcare licensure, federal employment, or a regulated-industry role, the sealed record will still appear on the relevant background check.
5. Where to File in Travis County
Nondisclosure petitions go back to the court of original jurisdiction — the same Travis County court that handled the underlying deferred. Not a new court. Not a different division. The Travis County District Clerk rejects rather than reassigns, and refile after rejection often means re-paying the civil filing fee.
| Your Deferred Was In | File Your Nondisclosure In |
|---|---|
| Travis County District Court (felony deferred) | The same District Court at the Travis County Civil and Family Courts Facility, 1700 Guadalupe St., Austin, TX 78701 |
| Travis County Court at Law (Class A/B misdemeanor deferred) | The same Court at Law at 1700 Guadalupe St. |
| Austin Municipal Court (Class C deferred) | Austin Municipal Court, under § 411.0728 |
| Travis County JP court (Class C deferred in a precinct court) | The same JP court in the originating precinct |
| Suburban municipal court (Pflugerville, Lakeway, West Lake Hills, etc.) Class C deferred | The same suburban municipal court, under § 411.0728 |
Civil filings on the petition itself are addressed to the Travis County District Clerk at the Travis County Civil and Family Courts Facility, 1700 Guadalupe Street, Austin, TX 78701, but in 2026 essentially all nondisclosures are filed electronically through eFileTexas. The clerk routes the petition to the originating criminal court for the judge to consider. Service on the Travis Criminal District Attorney’s Office — specifically the Civil Litigation Division — is required.
6. State and Federal Property in Travis County: A Quick Jurisdictional Note
Travis County sits at the political center of Texas. The State Capitol Complex, the LBJ State Office Building, dozens of state agency campuses, the federal courthouse, the LBJ Federal Building, the FBI Field Office, and large stretches of federal parkland (Lake Travis recreation areas) all sit inside the county line. Most of the time none of this matters for a nondisclosure analysis. When it does, the rules are tight.
State property arrests. An arrest on Capitol Complex grounds, at the Governor’s Mansion, at a state agency building, or on Texas DPS-patrolled state property is usually handled by DPS, Capitol Police, or a state agency’s enforcement arm. The charge still flows through a Travis County district court or county court at law. The Chapter 411 analysis is ordinary, but the proposed order needs to name DPS, Capitol Police, the Travis County Sheriff, and any state agency police force involved (UT System Police, ACC PD, Texas DPS Capitol Region, etc.) so the record purges at every node.
Federal property arrests. The federal courthouse, federal buildings, U.S. Marshals operations, federal parkland, and Lake Travis recreation areas managed by the Corps of Engineers are all federal jurisdiction. A Texas Chapter 411 nondisclosure does not reach federal-only records. If your arrest involved a federal officer or a federal building, pull the case caption and verify which sovereign actually prosecuted before assuming a Texas seal will reach the record.
UT Austin and ACC arrests. The UT Austin Police Department and Austin Community College Police Department are state-commissioned law-enforcement agencies. Their reports usually end up with the Travis County District Attorney for charge decisions. The proposed order needs to name the campus PD specifically — their internal records system is independent from APD’s.
7. Three Ways to Pay Nothing
The Travis County District Clerk’s civil filing fee on a nondisclosure petition typically lands in the $250–$450 range depending on case posture. Confirm the current schedule on the clerk’s public fee page before filing. Three concrete pathways take that line item to zero in 2026.
Path A — Automatic § 411.072 entry
If your case qualifies for automatic nondisclosure, there is no petition and no filing fee at all. The Travis County District Clerk generates these orders 60 to 90 days after deferred completion in qualifying matters. If the automatic order failed to issue, a Motion to Compel Distribution back in the original Travis criminal court is the right next step and does not carry a fresh civil filing fee.
Path B — SB 537 specialty-court waiver
Senate Bill 537, effective September 1, 2025, waives the filing fee by operation of law for nondisclosure petitioners whose case completed through a Veterans Treatment Court (Gov’t Code Ch. 124), Mental Health Court (Ch. 125), or authorized pretrial intervention program (Gov’t Code § 76.011). Travis County operates established specialty courts in all three categories, including a Veterans Treatment Court with deep ties to state-property cases in Travis County community. Attach proof of program completion to the petition and cite the bill on the cover page — the clerk has no discretion to charge.
Path C — TRCP 145 indigency affidavit
A sworn Statement of Inability to Afford Payment under Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 145 waives the filing fee for petitioners who genuinely cannot afford court costs. Receipt of SNAP, Medicaid, TANF, SSI, or VA pension typically qualifies. The Travis County District Clerk reviews indigency affidavits carefully — expect to submit full supporting documentation, and don’t be surprised by a follow-up request for verification before the waiver is granted.
Before you file in Travis County, confirm eligibility.
The two most common ways pro-se petitioners lose money in Austin are missing a family-violence finding on the judgment and confusing a federal-property arrest in Travis County for a state-court matter. A free 10-minute review catches both before you pay the District Clerk anything.
8. Naming the Right Agencies on a Greater Austin Record
A nondisclosure order doesn’t require listing every private background-check vendor in the chain — that’s a Chapter 55A expunction requirement. But the order does direct DPS and the originating criminal-justice agencies to seal the record, and the Travis County agency map is denser than people expect.
Common arresting agencies on Travis County records include:
- Austin Police Department (APD) — the largest single arresting agency in the county and the source of most central Austin cases.
- Travis County Sheriff’s Office (TCSO) — unincorporated areas and most jail bookings for the county.
- Pflugerville PD, Manor PD, Lakeway PD, Bee Cave PD, Sunset Valley PD, Rollingwood PD, West Lake Hills PD — Travis County suburban municipal departments serving the unincorporated/incorporated patchwork inside the county.
- Pflugerville PD, Lakeway PD, West Lake Hills PD, Rollingwood PD, Sunset Valley PD, Manor PD, Bee Cave PD, Jonestown PD, Lago Vista PD — the “enclave” municipalities inside Austin.
- Sunset Valley PD, Rollingwood PD, West Lake Hills PD, Bee Cave PD — far-north Travis suburbs.
- Capital Metro Transit Police — Austin’s transit authority police force.
- UT Austin PD, ACC PD, St. Edward's University PD — campus law enforcement.
- Austin ISD PD, Austin ISD PD, Leander ISD PD (Travis portion) — large public-school district police forces.
Pull the original offense report through the Travis County District Clerk’s case file or directly from the arresting agency before drafting the proposed order. The order needs to direct sealing at that specific agency’s records. Generic “all law enforcement agencies” language is insufficient.
9. The Civil Litigation Division and Best-Interest Review
The Travis Criminal District Attorney’s Civil Litigation Division is the operational reason Travis reads as filer-friendly. The division reviews § 411.0725 petitions through document review rather than insisting on a contested hearing on every file, and clean petitions with clear best-interest recitations frequently move to a signed order without ever setting a court date.
That doesn’t make the best-interest analysis optional. Section 411.0725 still requires the court to make an independent best-interest-of-justice finding before granting relief. The Civil Litigation Division’s decision not to object doesn’t bind the judge. Where a hearing is set — for a contested case, a felony deferred, or simply because the court wants to build a record — the petitioner has to come ready to prove why sealing serves the public interest. Bring:
- A current pay stub or employment-verification letter showing stable work since the deferred discharged
- Letters from supervisors, mentors, faith-community leaders, or longtime employers speaking to character and rehabilitation
- Proof of completion of any community service or treatment beyond what the deferred required
- Documentation of educational progress, certification, or licensure attempts
- A short, written, factual personal statement describing what changed since the underlying offense
On Travis hearings: tend to be brisk, 10 to 20 minutes in front of the same judge who handled the underlying deferred. The court has read the file. The judge is looking for a coherent rehabilitative narrative supported by evidence.
The Civil Litigation Division didn’t oppose the petition. We submitted the § 411.0725 packet with the employer letters, the GED certificate earned during the deferred, and a short personal narrative. The Travis court signed without setting a hearing — we had a signed order on the docket inside ninety days. — Client, Travis County, 2026
10. Timeline — Filing to Distribution in Travis County
What we’re seeing in Travis County this spring from filing to fully distributed seal:
Two variables drive most of the variance. The first is whether the Civil Litigation Division objects or requests a hearing — this adds 30 to 60 days on the front end. The second is the originating criminal court’s scheduling docket. The back end is reliably quick by Texas standards: Travis’s post-grant clerk distribution to DPS runs in the 30 to 45 day range, comparable to Tarrant and faster than Harris.
11. Five Travis County Sealing Mistakes
- Missing the family-violence finding on the judgment. Travis criminal courts enter affirmative-finding language on assault-FV deferreds routinely. Pull the certified judgment from the Travis County District Clerk and read it before drafting; a finding under Family Code § 71.004 or CCP art. 42.013 is an absolute § 411.074 bar.
- Treating a federal-property arrest in Travis County as a state matter. An arrest on federal property in Travis County (the federal courthouse, LBJ Federal Building, federal parkland) is federal jurisdiction. Chapter 411 does not reach the federal record. Only state-court referrals are sealable under Texas law. Confirm the prosecuting authority before paying the District Clerk anything.
- Filing in the wrong Travis County court. Nondisclosures go back to the court of original jurisdiction. A felony deferred from a Travis District Court cannot be sealed by a petition filed in a Travis Court at Law, and vice versa. The District Clerk rejects rather than reassigns.
- Citing the wrong Chapter 411 section. § 411.072 (automatic) versus § 411.0725 (petition) versus § 411.0735/0736 (first-time misdemeanor conviction) versus § 411.0728 (Class C) are not interchangeable. The wrong citation reads as a fundamentally misanalyzed petition.
- Naming the wrong arresting agency. Travis County’s suburban agency map is dense. Pull the original offense report and name the specific arresting department — APD, TCSO, UT Austin PD, ACC PD, Capital Metro Transit Police, Pflugerville PD, whichever applies — on the proposed order.
12. Frequently Asked Questions
In our practice, petition-based Travis County nondisclosures run 80 to 140 days from filing to signed order in uncontested matters, with another 30 to 45 days for DPS to update the state Computerized Criminal History database and roughly 90 days for private background-check vendors to refresh. Contested petitions or hearing-required matters add 30 to 60 days at the front end.
Yes, in three concrete scenarios: automatic nondisclosure under § 411.072 carries no filing fee at all; SB 537 waives the fee for completers of Veterans Treatment Court, Mental Health Court, or authorized pretrial intervention; and a TRCP 145 indigency affidavit waives the fee for petitioners who genuinely cannot afford court costs. The Travis County District Clerk honors all three routes.
Generally yes — arrests on Capitol Complex grounds, at the Governor’s Mansion, or on DPS-patrolled state property are state arrests and the case ends up in Travis County district court or county court at law. The Chapter 411 analysis is ordinary. The proposed order needs to name DPS, Capitol Police, the Travis County Sheriff, and any state agency police force involved so the record purges everywhere. If the arrest happened on federal property (the federal courthouse, LBJ Federal Building, FBI Field Office, federal parkland), that piece is federal jurisdiction and outside the reach of a Texas Chapter 411 order.
Less often than Harris or Dallas. The Travis Criminal District Attorney’s Civil Litigation Division reviews § 411.0725 petitions through document review in most matters and signs off without insisting on a contested hearing. Hearing settings are more common on felony deferreds, cases with intervening offenses, and matters that touch the § 411.074 list.
Both, usually, plus the Travis County District Clerk and DPS. The proposed order needs to direct sealing at the actual arresting agency (APD, UT Austin PD, ACC PD, Capital Metro Transit Police, Pflugerville PD, Lakeway PD, or whichever department made the arrest), the Travis County Sheriff’s Office (which typically holds jail booking records), the originating criminal court’s clerk, and DPS. Generic “all law enforcement” language is not sufficient.
No. Texas does not allow nondisclosure of any final felony conviction. A Travis County felony deferred adjudication (placed on community supervision and ultimately discharged without a final conviction) is sealable under § 411.0725 after the 5-year wait, subject to the § 411.074 bars and a best-interest finding. A final felony conviction remains on the record permanently — pardon and habeas relief are separate remedies.
If the petition is uncontested, the Civil Litigation Division does not object, and the judge is satisfied with the written best-interest record, no — the order is signed on submission. Where the matter is set for a hearing, yes. We appear for clients at Travis County hearings and prepare the full exhibit packet in advance; pro-se petitioners should plan to attend in person, arrive 30 minutes early for security at 1700 Guadalupe, and bring originals plus copies of every supporting document.
Bottom Line
Travis County is one of the smoother Texas counties for a nondisclosure petition once the eligibility analysis lines up. The Civil Litigation Division reviews most petitions on the papers. The District Clerk distributes signed orders quickly. The automatic § 411.072 track is reliably processed by the clerk’s office. None of that helps if you miss a family-violence finding on the judgment, mistake a federal-property arrest in Travis County for a state matter, or file in the wrong court at 1700 Guadalupe — the technical work still has to be done carefully.
The fee picture is the bright spot. Between automatic § 411.072 entry, the SB 537 specialty-court waiver (Travis’s Veterans Treatment Court is well-suited to state-property cases in Travis County), and the TRCP 145 indigency affidavit, a meaningful slice of Austin petitioners pay nothing to the Travis County District Clerk. If you completed a deferred adjudication in a Travis County state court and you’re wondering whether sealing it is worth the effort, the answer is almost always yes — starting with a careful eligibility check against the § 411.074 list, the One-and-Done rule, and state-vs-federal jurisdiction question in Travis County.
This article is general information about Texas record-clearing law as applied in Travis County, not legal advice. Specific cases require specific counsel. The statutes and 2025 session changes referenced above reflect Texas law as of May 18, 2026.
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