If you have a Criminal Record

A criminal record can adversely affect your life in many ways.  You may be turned down for a job, denied entry to educational institutions, denied a firearms permit, loan applications may be denied, you may be unable to obtain certain professional licenses, may be denied housing and your child custody rights may be affected.

What you may not know is that, you may be eligible for an Expungement.

An Expungement is a process that removes a criminal or arrest record from use for general law enforcement and civil purposes.  While the records can still be accessed for some limited purposes, those occasions are rare.

Most charges on a person’s record will be eligible for for Expungement, but certain serious indictable offenses can not be expunged. Whether you are eligible for Expungement depends on several factors, one of which is the type of charge in your criminal history.  Different degrees of crimes have different waiting periods before Expungement is allowed.

The waiting periods are as follows:

• Arrest not resulting in a Conviction - Immediate Eligibility, Municipal Offenses - 2 years
• Disorderly Persons/Petty Offenses - 5 years
• Indictable Offenses - 10 years
• Drug Crimes for Young Offenders Under 21 years of age - 1 year
• Arrest Record after Successful Completion of Pretrial Intervention - 6 months.

These are the general limitations, but there are also other factors that are involved in determining your eligibility for Expungement such as the number and types of offenses on your criminal record.

After you have gotten your record expunged, if someone does a background check on you, the courts and law enforcement agencies will report that no criminal record exists.  Also, on a job application, for example, you will be able to legally answer that you have never been convicted of a crime.  With your Expungement, you will no longer suffer the stigma associated with having a criminal record.

If you have been arrested, charged with, or convicted of any type of offense, you may wish to pursue an Expungement to clear your record.  The Lawyers at Broscious, Fischer & Zaiter have successfully obtained Expungements for many individuals, and can help you with your Expungement.