The crimes that you committed when you were younger can follow you throughout the rest of your life. They can make it difficult to find a respectable job. They can also prevent you from applying for and getting into a college or university.
Rather than allow them to haunt you forever, you can take legal steps to remove them from your criminal record. You can get them expunged by hiring an experienced expungement attorney to help you with the process.
Meeting the Criteria
When you hire an expungement attorney to assist you, you can learn how to meet the criteria needed to remove the offenses from your criminal record. The laws in your state may stipulate that you have to wait for a certain number of years before you can ask to have the crimes expunged. You also may be required to make full restitution with the state and court.
Your expungement attorney can find out if you have paid all of your civil fines that the court ordered as part of your sentencing. They can also make sure that you have served out all of your community service hours, finished any court-ordered counseling, and have satisfied the terms of any probation or parole to which you were sentenced.
Your expungement attorney can then find out if enough time has passed to get the crimes expunged. If enough time has passed, your expungement attorney can initiate the process of asking the court to remove the offenses from your criminal record.
Cleaning Your Criminal Record
You may think that expunging your criminal record effectively gets rid of the convictions forever. However, the laws in your state may still allow certain entities to see them. Law enforcement and judges, for example, will still be able to see what prior convictions that you have if or when they perform a background check on you.
However, entities like employers, schools, and student loan companies will not see these offenses. You can apply for work, housing, school admissions, and financial aid without the convictions showing up when your applications for any of these privileges are put through a background check. Your expungement attorney can make sure they are concealed.
An expungement attorney can help you conceal prior offenses on your criminal record. They make sure you meet the requirement for expunging offenses. Your lawyer can ensure they are hidden during background checks.
For more information, contact a local expungement attorney.
