Area of Practice: Expungement

Convictions for some serious crimes can never be expunged and will always appear on your public record. However, other types of criminal convictions can be expunged after a certain amount of time has passed. Talk to a lawyer about whether your specific criminal conviction can be expunged

For charges that can be expunged, you can apply for criminal record expungement:

• 10 years after your conviction for an indictable felony
• 5 years after your conviction for a �disorderly person� charge (a misdemeanor type of charge)
• 2 years after your conviction if you violated a municipal ordinance
• 6 months after completing a conditional discharge program in municipal court or a diversion program through pretrial intervention in a criminal court

Drunk driving and traffic violations are not criminal offenses and can never be removed from the public record. A juvenile record can also be expunged, but it�s a good idea to wait until he or she is 18 before getting a juvenile record expunged. Once you�ve had one expungement, it�s harder to get a judge to grant a second one.

Expungement of a criminal record gives you a second lease on life.

When possible, take advantage of this chance to clear your public record. Contact us at the Law Offices of Bhalla & Cho, LLC and we will explain the process and assist you throughout the process.

New expungement law was signed in New Jersey

On January 12, 2010 former Governor Corzine signed an amendment to New Jersey's expungement law. The new law takes effect on or about March 15, 2010. The new expungement law dramatically changes the existing law in 2 major ways.

First, the new law now makes it possible for a person to seek an expungement of an indictable crime (a/k/a felony) 5 years after completion of a sentence. Under the old law a person seeking an expungement of an indictable crime (a/k/a felony) was required to wait 10 years after completion of a sentence. The new law also requires that the court make a finding that such an expungement is in the public interest giving consideration to the nature of the offense and the applicant's character and conduct since conviction.

Second, the new law vastly broadens the number of people eligible to secure an expungement by allowing the expungement of any third or fourth degree conviction for the sale, distribution or possession with intent to sell a controlled dangerous substance. The old law barred the expungement of all sales, distributions or possession with intent to sell drug crimes except where the drug was marijuana and the amount was 25 grams or less and except where the drug was hashish and the amount was 5 grams or less. Under the new law, when considering expungement applications for third and fourth degree distribution-like crimes the court must also find that expungement is consistent with the public interest and the court must give consideration to the nature of the offense and the applicant's character and conduct since the conviction.

While the new expungement law does make other changes to the old law, the above 2 changes represent the highlights of the new law. These two changes drastically change two of the biggest impediments to securing an expungement, namely when someone is eligible for an expungement and the types of drug crimes that can be expunged.

A complete copy of the new expungement law can be viewed by clicking here.