In this tough economy, having a criminal record can burden your chance of landing a job you want or even keeping the job you currently have. Employers conduct criminal background checks when hiring and even sometimes randomly on those who already working for them. Those in professionally licensed fields continually have their criminal record monitored by the NJ Licensing body. What can you do if you have an arrest or conviction that will hurt your chances of obtaining employment or holding onto your job?

In New Jersey, you are entitled to have your record expunged, meaning your arrest and conviction will be sealed and you are allowed by law to state that it never occurred. This pertains to all records on file within a court, detention/correction facility and law enforcement agencies. An expungement will erase all records of your arrest, trial, and conviction. The guidelines to obtaining an expungement are set by the State of New Jersey.

 
New State Law defines expungement as “the extraction and isolation of all records…concerning a person’s detection, apprehension, arrest, detention, trial, or disposition of an offense within the New Jersey criminal justice system.” In simpler terms, this means that most records of criminal and disorderly persons offenses can be expunged and your record will reflect that they never existed. Expungement applies to arrests and convictions for felony/indictable offenses and disorderly persons/misdemeanor offenses. The most common offenses people have expunged from their records are assault, shoplifting, theft, burglary, and disorderly persons offenses.

HOW SOON CAN YOU APPLY FOR AN EXPUNGEMENT

The expungement process does carry with it strict timing guidelines which one must follow if they are seeking an expungement. Waiting periods exist for most crimes, meaning a person who is arrested or convicted must wait a certain amount of time before they may petition the Court to have the offense expunged from their record. For example, those convicted of felonies must either wait ten years or show the court after five years that the expungement is in the publics interest. Misdemeanors require a five year waiting period, while local ordinance offenses require two years waiting time. These waiting periods begin from the date of sentencing, the date when all fines are paid, or the date when the offender completes probation or parole or is released unconditionally from prison, whichever occurs last.

For arrests that did not result in a conviction, generally there is no waiting period. However, even if you are acquitted of a charge against you or if the case against you is dismissed, you may still have a record for being arrested depending on the circumstances. If the case was dismissed due to your compliance in entering into a diversion program, there is a six-month waiting period. Additionally, if your acquittal resulting from you being found insane or lacking mental capacity, this cannot be expunged at all. Every county prosecutor’s office has a unit designed to specifically argue against petitioners seeking to have their record expunged.

New Jersey allows, and in fact recommends, that all young adults have their juvenile records expunged at the age of 18 in order to allow them to enter adulthood with a clean slate. This effectively erases all of the crimes committed by the person when there were a juvenile, allowing them to enter their adult life without being burdened by arrests or convictions they may have had due purely to immaturity. The hope is that the offender has learned from their mistakes and should not be hurt in job applications, applying to college, etc. due to youthful mishaps.

WHICH OFFENSES CAN BE EXPUNGED AND WHICH OFFENSES

ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BE EXPUNGED IN NEW JERSEY
 

New Jersey law allows the expungement of arrests and convictions of many indictable offenses (felonies), disorderly persons offenses (misdemeanors), municipal ordinance violations, and juvenile adjudications. The statutes do not however, allow for expungement of convictions if the petitioner has been convicted of more than one indictable offense or more than three disorderly person offenses. Additionally, if the petitioner has a conviction of one indictable offense and more than two disorderly person convictions, the record cannot be expunged. If a petitioner has one indictable conviction and two or less disorderly person convictions, New Jersey allows the indictable conviction to be expunged, but not the disorderly person conviction(s). Finally, a petitioner who has an indictable offense dismissed based on participation in a diversion program cannot have any future indictable or disorderly person convictions expunged.

Call our managing partner, Fredrick P. Niemann toll-free at
(855) 376-5291 or e-mail him at fniemann@hnlawfirm.com

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Expungement lawyers serving these New Jersey Counties:

Monmouth County, Ocean County, Essex County, Cape May County, Mercer

County, Middlesex County, Bergen County, Morris County, Burlington County,

Union County, Somerset County, Hudson County, Passaic County

Freehold, Red Bank, Wall, Long Branch, Marlboro, Manalapan, Howell, Jackson, Brick Township, Holmdel, Middletown, Atlantic Highlands, Aberdeen, Toms River, Manahawkin, East Brunswick, Monroe Township, Cranbury, Lyndhurst, Teaneck, Hamilton, Robbinsville, Millstone, Manasquan, Lakewood, Eatontown, West Long Branch, Tinton Falls, Ocean Township, Neptune, Spring Lake, Newark, Hillsborough, Somerset, Hoboken, Jersey City, Parsippany, Edison, Plainfield, South Plainfield, Dumont, Mount Laurel, Vineland, Cherry Hill, Ocean Township, Atlantic City, Camden, Union Township, Kearny, Lambertville

Expungement Lawyer in NJ