Expunging your record means taking off certain criminal offenses. Not everyone will be eligible for this. To have your criminal record expunged, you have to file a motion in the court where you were convicted. You’ll also have to go before a judge to have your motion heard. There are certain cases where you cannot get a criminal offense removed from your record.
Most states have a waiting period before you can have a conviction removed from your record. This will usually be around five years. If you are in jail for a period of longer than five years, you may also not be able to get your record expunged. If you are ever convicted of a crime that could have resulted in you receiving a life sentence in prison, you will not be able to be expunged in the vast majority of instances.
Filing a motion is something you can do on your own or, if you prefer, you can hire a criminal defense attorney to do it for you. If you are at all confused about how the process works, it’s generally better to seek legal advice. You will also want to make sure before you file the motion that your offense actually can be taken off of your record. Some crimes, such as sexual misconduct crimes and other serious offenses will not be expunged from your record.
You will have to wait for an amount of time specified by your state before asking to have juvenile crimes expunged from your record. In most cases, you will not be able to have your criminal record expunged if you have more than one conviction on it. If you’re crime is expunged, it should not appear on your rap sheet any longer and you can say on applications for employment and for housing that you have never been convicted of a crime