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Told Your DWI Could Never Be Expunged? A 2026 Court of Appeals Ruling Just Changed the Answer

By Jeff Lahann, Attorney · August 30, 2026 · Practicing criminal law in New Mexico since 1991

If you picked up a DWI in New Mexico and later asked a lawyer whether it could ever come off your record, you almost certainly heard the same answer I gave for years: no. The Criminal Record Expungement Act excludes DWI convictions, and that seemed to be the end of the conversation.

In July 2026, the New Mexico Court of Appeals said the conversation isn't over — not for everyone.

What the Court Decided

In In re Petition for Expungement for C.T., the Court of Appeals reversed a district court that had denied expungement to a man whose first-offense DWI was resolved by a deferred sentence. He completed every condition, and the case was dismissed. The district court still treated it as an unexpungeable DWI. The Court of Appeals disagreed.

In re Petition for Expungement for C.T., No. A-1-CA-41067 (N.M. Ct. App. July 7, 2026).

The court's reasoning comes down to one question: is a successfully completed deferred sentence a "conviction"? Under New Mexico's Motor Vehicle Code, the answer is no — the statute says a conviction "does not include a deferred sentence when the terms of the deferred sentence are met." NMSA 1978, § 66-1-4.3. Reading the statutes together, the court held that a person in that position was "released without conviction" — which puts them on the Act's non-conviction track, NMSA 1978, § 29-3A-4, the same track used for dismissals and acquittals.

Who This Ruling Helps

You are likely in the window this ruling opened if all of these are true:

• It was a first-offense DWI (the ruling addressed a first offense);
• You received a deferred sentence — the judge deferred sentencing while you completed conditions like DWI school, an interlock period, or probation;
• You completed every condition, and
• The case was dismissed at the end.

The non-conviction track has its own requirements — including a one-year wait after the final disposition and no other charges pending — but for qualifying petitions the statute says the court shall grant the expungement if the requirements are met. Many people who finished a deferred DWI years ago have long since satisfied the waiting period. They've simply been told, over and over, that applying was pointless. That advice is now outdated.

What This Ruling Does Not Do

I'd rather you hear the limits from me than be surprised later:

• It does not help DWI convictions. If you were sentenced on the DWI — no deferred sentence, or a deferred sentence you didn't complete — the conviction exclusion still applies.
• It is not erasure from law enforcement. Expungement removes your records from public access — background checks run by employers, landlords, and licensing boards. Courts and law enforcement retain the records, and prosecutors can still count a completed deferred DWI as a prior if there's ever a subsequent DWI.
• It is not automatic. Nothing happens unless a petition is filed, served on the right agencies, and granted by a district judge.

Why Acting Sooner Beats Waiting

Court decisions can be revisited, and statutes can be amended. What exists right now is a published appellate decision squarely holding that completed first-offense DWI deferred sentences belong on the non-conviction track. If your record has been keeping you from a job, a license, housing, or just the feeling of being done with it, this is the clearest path New Mexico law has ever offered you.

I've been in New Mexico courtrooms for 35 years, and I've filed expungement petitions since the day the Act took effect in 2020. The pattern I see most is people who assumed the answer was still no. It costs nothing to find out.