Expungement Eligibility

While specific expungement rules can vary depending on your jurisdiction, generally speaking there are a few factors that will determine if you are eligible for expungement:

• The nature and severity of the crime for which expungement is sought
• The amount of time since the arrest or conviction
• The applicant’s criminal record
• The severity and nature of other events in the applicant’s criminal record

Other limiting factors may be the applicant’s age at the time of the crime (some jurisdictions only allow for expungement of juvenile records), and the ultimate resolution of the charges (some jurisdictions only allow expungement for cases resolved before convictions at trial). The Expungements Attorneys in Irvine, CA and Riverside, CA can get your criminal record expunged. The Expungements Lawyers in Orange County can be contacted by calling the Law Offices of Kapesh V. Patel at (949) 440-3240 for a Free Consultation.

The Expungement Process

Even if you qualify for expungement, it doesn’t happen automatically. You will normally have to fill out an application or a petition, pay a filing fee, and submit the paperwork to a court for judicial review. Even then, not all expungement petitions are granted. As noted above, the actual process varies by state and jurisdiction, with some courts requiring a hearing before granting an expungement.

The Legal Effect of Expungement

What an expungement means generally is that an arrest or conviction is “sealed,” or erased from a person’s criminal record for most purposes, meaning you generally don’t have to disclose that arrest or a criminal conviction. In the majority of cases, a potential employer, educational institution, or other company conducting a public records inspection or background search of your criminal record won’t find any mention of an expunged arrest or conviction. As an example, if you were filling out an application for an apartment and your arrest or conviction has been expunged, you wouldn’t need to disclose that arrest or conviction and the landlord wouldn’t have access to it. However, an expungement is ordinarily accessible by certain government agencies, including law enforcement and the criminal courts, as part your criminal record.

For more information on how the expungement process works, call the Orange County Expungements Attorneys at the Law Offices of Kapesh V. Patel. Our California Expungements Attorney will go over your criminal charges with you in detail and devise a strategy to have the charges reduced. Call (949) 440-3240 to speak with an Expungements Attorney in Irvine.