Houston Offense Guide
Expunging Assault — Family Violence in Houston
How a family violence charge from Houston gets erased through the Harris County courts — eligibility, local practice, and why it's worth doing now.
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Statute
Tex. Penal Code § 22.01; Tex. Fam. Code § 71.004
Offense level
Class A misdemeanor to felony, with enhanced consequences
About the charge
Assault involving a family member, household member, or dating partner carries a 'family violence' designation that follows the case everywhere. These charges are filed aggressively — often on an officer's mandatory-arrest judgment call during a chaotic scene — and a large share are later dismissed when the full picture emerges.
Texas treats family violence records more severely than almost any other misdemeanor: an affirmative finding of family violence permanently bars sealing, enhances future charges to felonies, and federally prohibits firearm possession after conviction.
Where your Houston case gets cleared
A Houston arrest for a family violence charge is cleared through the courts of the county of arrest — for most of Houston, Harris County (with parts of the city in Fort Bend County, Montgomery County, Waller County).
Harris County is the largest criminal jurisdiction in Texas. Expunction petitions are civil filings made in the Harris County district courts in downtown Houston, with most criminal matters centered at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center. Felonies are prosecuted in the county's criminal district courts and misdemeanors in the County Criminal Courts at Law — and knowing which court handled the underlying case matters when assembling the expunction petition.
Because of Harris County's caseload, expunction hearings are typically set further out than in smaller counties, and agency response times run longer — there are simply more records-holding agencies in the Houston area to serve, from HPD and the Sheriff's Office to dozens of municipal departments.
Local practice notes
Harris County has operated a Misdemeanor Marijuana Diversion Program since 2017, under which many low-level possession cases are diverted and never filed — arrests and detentions handled that way are frequently expungable. The county has also worked through significant docket backlogs in recent years, which affects hearing timelines. We track the current settings practice in the district courts and build the petition's agency list for the full Houston-area law enforcement landscape.
Can a family violence charge be expunged?
Like nearly every Texas offense, eligibility turns on how the case ended. An arrest for this charge is generally expungable under Chapter 55A of the Code of Criminal Procedure if:
- The charge was dismissed and the applicable waiting or limitations period has passed
- You were acquitted at trial
- A grand jury declined to indict (felony no-bill)
- You were arrested but never charged, once the waiting period runs
- You completed a Class C deferred disposition and the charge was dismissed
Here's what makes expunction critical for these cases: because a family-violence record can never be sealed with a nondisclosure order — even after successful deferred adjudication — expunction of a dismissed, no-billed, or acquitted charge is the only path to a clean record. If your case was dismissed and the limitations period has run (or the dismissal shows a lack of probable cause), the arrest can be erased entirely. If you're offered deferred adjudication on a family-violence case that could be beaten, that trade-off deserves very careful thought.
If expunction isn't available: sealing
Not available. Texas law excludes any offense with a family-violence finding from nondisclosure — including completed deferred adjudication. This is the harshest sealing exclusion in the statute and the reason dismissed cases should always be expunged. Learn how orders of nondisclosure work →
Why clearing this record matters
A family violence record is uniquely destructive: it appears in custody and divorce proceedings, triggers the federal firearm ban if it ripens into a conviction, bars many housing applications, and reads as the most serious possible misdemeanor to any employer. For a charge that was dismissed, leaving the arrest on your record means carrying all of that stigma for something the state chose not to prosecute.
Common questions
My family violence case was dismissed. Why do I need to act?
Because the arrest remains public and — uniquely — can never be sealed, only expunged. Expunction is the single available remedy, and it erases the record completely.
I completed deferred adjudication on a family violence case. Can it be cleared?
Unfortunately, no. Deferred adjudication with a family-violence finding is excluded from both expunction and nondisclosure. We can review your judgment to confirm whether a family-violence finding was actually entered — sometimes it wasn't, which changes the analysis.
Does a dismissed family violence arrest affect gun purchases?
A dismissed charge is not a conviction and doesn't trigger the federal ban, but the arrest can still surface in background investigations and cause delays or denials — another reason to expunge it.
County guide
Assault — Family Violence in Harris County →
Statewide guide
Assault — Family Violence expunction in Texas →
Disclaimer: This page is general legal information about Texas law, not legal advice about your case, and reading it does not create an attorney‑client relationship. Eligibility depends on the complete details of your criminal history — get a free case review for a definitive answer.
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