Legal Question in Criminal Law in Texas

Re: After deferred adjudication

Yea, for once people are telling you correctly, a Deferred Adjudication that has been successfully completed is not a final conviction. Second, if the job application requests whether you have been convicted of a felony offense or a crime of moral turpritude, the answer is no. Now, if the question is whether or not you have ever been arrested or received a deferred adjudication the answer would have to be yes.

Finally, fortunately for you, one of the few good things the Texas Legislature did this past session was pass a law whereby you can have a deferred adjudications sealed. This is not the same thing as expunged, although it is similar in nature. Unfortunately, when someone is placed on Felony Deferred Adjudication, and they have successfully completed that deferred adjudication, they are not eligible to have the record sealed until ten (10) years following the date they are discharged from their probation. The difference between sealed and expunged is that having the record sealed keeps third partys, i.e., employers, friends, "John Q Public" from being able to discover a person's criminal history. However, the criminal history is still present for those persons in law enforcement, when they are conducting an investigation. Whereas with expunged the records do not exist that the person was ever even arrested.

I hope this answers your questions.