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Criminal Records
If you are arrested or charged with a crime you could end up spending time in jail, being on probation, performing community service, or paying a fine. Any sort of criminal history—an arrest, deferred adjudication, or conviction—is very likely to end up on your criminal record.
Even arrests that did not result in a conviction or even formal charges are public information in Texas.
Your criminal record will be accessed and reviewed by potential employers, landlords, and even colleges. Your criminal history can keep you from getting a job, renting an apartment, being admitted into a school, or getting food stamps. Certain charges can prevent you from getting certified or licensed for all sorts of jobs, including those in law enforcement or health care.
There is a lot of misinformation about what will or can show up on your criminal record. It is important for you to understand that most arrests and criminal charges will probably show up unless you go to court and a judge orders the records to be destroyed or sealed.
Once you are 17 years old, if you are arrested you will go to adult jail and your court case will be in the adult criminal court system. Even if you are under 17, you can be treated as an adult for serious crimes and the case will be handled in adult criminal court, which means the consequences will be more severe.
When you are charged with a crime at age 17 or older, you will have an adult criminal record. Most adult criminal information will be on your record forever. There are very limited options to have your records erased or sealed.
- You may qualify for an expunction, which is a court order requiring your records to be destroyed, if the charges were dismissed without you having to pay a fine or do community service, if you were found not guilty, or if you completed pretrial diversion.
- If you don’t qualify for an expunction, you may be able to get an order of nondisclosure, which is a court order sealing your records from the public, if you have only had one misdemeanor conviction or if you successfully completed deferred adjudication and didn’t get another criminal charge while on probation or during the waiting period.
You need to have a lawyer review your case to see if you can expunge or seal your criminal records and to handle filing your request with the court. Before you enter a plea, discuss with your defense attorney what will go on your criminal record.
Find out if and when it will be possible to get the records expunged or sealed. You should fully understand the long-term consequences before you agree to any plea. A criminal record will come up when you apply for employment, apartments, colleges, and licenses for jobs and firearms. Criminal records do not automatically go away.
DO YOU HAVE CRIMINAL RECORDS THAT CANNOT BE EXPUNGED OR SEALED?
See the Collateral Consequences Resource Center for updated news and resources regarding the barriers resulting from involvement in the criminal justice system.
Juvenile Court Records
If you are arrested or charged with a crime before you turn 17 years old, you will probably have a juvenile record. Generally, juvenile records are confidential and are not allowed to be released to the public. They should not be shared with potential landlords or employers, unless you apply to work for a federal government agency. If the case is in a juvenile court or with juvenile probation, those juvenile records can usually be sealed, meaning they are no longer accessible to anyone and cannot be used against you for any reason.
Sealing records is a complicated process that involves a judge signing a court order. Some records should be sealed by the court after a certain period of time without you having to do anything. Other records require you to file an application with the court to request sealing. Before you can ask the court to seal a record, certain things must happen, such as a certain amount of time passing. There are certain things that can disqualify you from sealing your juvenile records, like getting an adult felony conviction or having a “determinate sentence”.
Class C Misdemeanors
Some criminal matters involving those under the age of 17 are in a justice of the peace court or municipal court. These cases usually involve minor criminal matters called Class C misdemeanors. The rules regarding expunging and sealing Class C misdemeanors are different than the rules of juvenile court and are more flexible for certain Class C offenses you may be charged with before you turn 17. If you are convicted in one of these cases, you may be ordered to pay a fine. It is important to tell the judge you are in foster care or extended foster care at the time of the offense and that the judge cannot order you to pay any amount of fines or costs. However, the judge can still order you to do community service.
You can fill out this form with your caseworker and give it to the judge if you were in foster care or extended foster care when you were charged with a Class C misdemeanor.
If you were not in foster care when you were charged with a Class C misdemeanor, you can use the resources found at Ticket Help Texas.
If you had some sort of criminal matter that was never resolved, it may come back as a bigger issue if you don’t show up for court. This often happens with justice of the peace court or municipal court cases. Youth in foster care may be charged with a Class C misdemeanor for something like a fight, drinking alcohol, or shoplifting, and not attend court for it because their placement changed. Some youth may not tell anyone about the ticket, or the people who were supposed to help them take care of it don’t follow through. Once youth turn 18, a warrant can be issued for their arrest and a hold may be placed on obtaining a driver license.
Don’t assume no news is good news. Ask your caseworker, attorney, CASA, and caregiver to help you find out what happened to those cases you had, even if it was for something minor. Even Class C misdemeanors can impact your future employment and housing opportunities. Contact the Texas Foster Youth Justice Project at (877) 313-3688 for assistance in determining what you can do about a criminal record.
It’s what you do in the present that will redeem the past and thereby change the future. — Paulo Coelho