Cleaning Your Criminal Record
Can You Erase Your Criminal Record?
Contrary to popular belief, your criminal record is for ever. For the most part, your prior criminal record is not something that can be erased for you to start over. But there is hope of cleaning things up a bitt if you have a knowledgeable attorney who knows what to do. For the most part, so long as you have not had any new law violations since your conviction, you are not currently being charged with a crime, you are not on probation and you have successfully finished your probationary grant, you may qualify to have your case expunged.
An Expungement Does Not Erase Your Record but Cleans it!
Some lawyers will tell you that they can get the previous criminal record “erased”. That’s pretty much very unlikely. The way your record is updated, everything stays and nothing is erased unless you apply for and prove to the court that you were in fact innocent of the original allegation. In this case the court makes a finding of “factual innocence” and your arrest is sealed for three years then subsequently destroyed.
Most Judges Will Not Grant a Factual Innocence.
The burden of proof is on you to show the court by a clear and convincing amount of evidence that you were in fact wrongly arrested and that nothing exists to even suggest you might have done something wrong at the time of your arrest. Most judges do not like to grant these motions because then it opens the door for civil litigation against the police for wrongful arrest. So the chance of getting a factual innocence motion granted are pretty slim. Out of options? Not at all.
Felony Reduction To A Misdemeanor.
If the conviction you suffered was for a felony that CAN be reduced to an infraction, our attorneys can help you attain exactly that. Once the case has been reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor, or if the conviction you suffered was a misdemeanor to begin with, then you can request an expungement of that conviction. An expungement does not erase the conviction but it sort of gets rid of the conviction and updates your record that the court has declared you not guilty of the underlying charge and that your case is now considered to have been dismissed against you.
Positive Effect on Your Criminal Record!
When the case against you has been “expunged” you no longer have a “conviction” on your record and when you apply for a new job you can legally answer “NO” to a question on the application asking if you have ever been convicted. Our attorneys can help guide you through this expungement process. If you have a conviction on your record, let us help you to clean it up and get it dismissed!
