Your Situation
DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) Conviction in Texas — What Are Your Options?
A DWI conviction is permanent in the expunction sense — it can't be erased. But Texas law changed in 2017: many first-time DWI convictions can now be sealed from public view, and most eligible Texans have never heard of the law that helps them.
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Statute
Tex. Penal Code § 49.04
Offense level
Class B misdemeanor (Class A at 0.15+ BAC); felony for repeat offenses
What a conviction forecloses — and what it doesn't
Expunction is reserved for cases that ended without conviction, so the conviction itself stays. For a qualifying first-time DWI — BAC under 0.15, no accident involving another person — an order of nondisclosure becomes available two years after sentence completion with six months of ignition interlock, or five years without.
The records-review angle people skip
Convictions rarely travel alone. Companion charges dismissed at plea, earlier arrests that never filed, deferred entries from other years — records are messier than memory, and the other entries often have remedies even when the conviction doesn't. A DWI record raises auto insurance costs for years, blocks jobs that involve driving, and draws scrutiny from professional licensing boards from medicine to real estate. It's also the record employers most commonly ask about directly. Because DWI sealing is newer law, many eligible Texans with old first-time DWIs have no idea their record can now be hidden from public view.
The review is free, and it produces a definitive map: what seals, what expunges, what stays, and in what order.
Common questions
Can a dwi (driving while intoxicated) conviction ever be expunged in Texas?
Only through a pardon or a finding of actual innocence — otherwise no. Sealing is the realistic remedy to evaluate.
What disqualifies a DWI conviction from sealing?
A BAC of 0.15 or higher, an accident involving another person, prior DWI history, or an incomplete waiting period. If sealing is off the table, we'll say so plainly.
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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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One short conversation and a records pull tells you exactly what clears, what seals, and what it costs.