Daily Archives: July 1, 2016

Petition of Non-Disclosure Case for an Out of State Client

It was a full day in the criminal courthouse today. A petition of non-disclosure case started my day off doing at one of the county courts.  My client was from out of state, so I had been working on this case for a while.  Sometimes when you are out of state, and depending on the situation, the judges will work with defense attorneys and waive the appearance of the defendant.  In this case, I told the judge we were simply trying to seal the record and the judge was willing to waive his appearance as long as the district attorney handling the case didn’t have any objections to the petition we were filing.

What is a Petition of Non-Disclosure?

A petition of non-disclosure is a special type of sealing of a criminal record that helps people who successfully complete a deferred adjudication.  Not all cases qualify, if anyone has a specific question on a particular case you can call me or see the list of cases that are disqualified on my website.  If a petition of non-disclosure is granted, the record is hidden from the general public, but it will always be visible to the government, governmental agencies, some places that are funded by the government, and law enforcement.  So while it is definitely not full proof, it does seal the record for most jobs, apartments, schools, etc.

Criminal Information on the Internet

In today’s world of the internet, there are some websites that compile criminal databases and post information online.  In my experience, some of these websites are cooperative if you contact them after the judge signs an order of non-disclosure (or expunction).   It is always best to contact these websites, because if you don’t, then the information of the arrest is there for everyone to see.

In this particular case the district attorney’s did not have any objections since it was fairly straight forward and by law my client was eligible.  The judge reviewed all of the information and signed the order prohibiting the release of his criminal record.  So that is great for my client, as he is about to start looking for new jobs.  This is just a small step in letting him move on from the mistake he made many years ago.

I also went on to court with a few other cases, but they were pretty much just reset for discovery purposes.

Case Results

• Petition of Non-Disclosure – Granted
• DWI – Reset to try to get into the pre-trial intervention program
• Terroristic Threat – Reset to get the evidence
• DWI – Reset to wait on results from a toxicology lab