COMMENTS ON THE LAW IN TEXAS Sealing Juvenile Records Texas Family Code Section 58.003 In Texas, juveniles may have their records sealed. The records may be sealed if the juvenile applies to the Court to seal the records, or the Court may seal the records on its own. Most likely a Court will only seal records on its own if the records are very old, and the Court lacks the storage capacity to continue to hold the records open. In addition to this, juvenile records in Texas are confidential. That means that the Court proceedings, and the documents produced from and in the proceedings are not available for the public to view. In adult criminal cases in Texas, the proceedings are typically open to the public, and the records are available for public review. In order to have juvenile records sealed, there must have been at least a two years lapsed since the juvenile was finally discharged from probation, or since the last official action by the Court in the case, if the person was not adjudicated (Adjudicated has the same meaning as convicted as far as gulit and innocence goes. However, a juvenile adjudication is not a conviction in the same sense as an adult conviction. A juvenile adjudication is not a conviction. Thus, a juvenile conviction cannot be used in the adult system to enhance an adult offense, or in order to make a person ineligile for probation in the adult system.). In addition to the two year waiting period, the juvenile cannot have been adjudicated of a misdemeanor or felony within those two years. Furthermore, there can be no pending charges against the juvenile at the time the sealing of the records is requested. The Court cannot order the sealing of records of a juvenile that was given a determinate sentence (This means that the crime was very serious and the juvenile will spend time in the Texas Youth Commission, the juvenile equivalent of the adult penitentiary, and is then transferred to the adult penitentiary at some point.).
Furthermore, the Court cannot seal juvenile records for a felony adjudication unless the juvenile is 21 years when he or she requests the sealing, the case was never transferred to an adult court (this only occurs in certain serious crimes when the child can be treated as an adult under the law), the records have not been used as evidence in the punishment phase of an adult trial (although juvenile records are sealed and confidential, if a juvenile gets in criminal trouble as an adult, the prosecutor can present unsealed records, and/or unseal sealed records, and present those to the Court in order to attempt to increase the punishment/sentence in a case), and the juvenile has not been convicted of a felony as an adult (age 17 and older). In the above situations the Court has to seal the juvenile records if the criteria is met. However, the Court has discretion to immediately seal juvenile records if the case was dismissed or the juvenile is found not guilty by a jury or the Court. In addition, once the child has completed a misdmeanor probation, the Court also has the discretion to seal juvenile records immediately upon such completion of probation. DID YOU KNOW... ...that under Article 42.12, Section 13(i) of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, that if you provide a breath or blood specimen over .15 (the legal limit is .08) in a DWI arrest and investigation, that the Court must order you to get an ignition interlock (this an instument you have to blow into to start your car) on your vehicle for a period not less than 50% of the length for which you are placed on probation (this is only if you plea or are found guilty). MORE TO COME AT A LATER DATE...... Law Offices of James H. Horton, PC
101 South Locust Street, Suite 700
Denton, TX 76201
Telephone: (940) 566-3164
Fax: (940) 484-2128
E-mail Experienced lawyers providing adult and juvenile criminal defense representation and family law services in Denton, Texas, and the surrounding area, including Lewisville, Flower Mound, Carrollton, The Colony, Sanger, Pilot Point, Roanoke, and throughout Cooke County. | 
