When Can You Plunge Into Criminal Expungement?

What does it mean to have a crime on your record “expunged”? Let’s say you’ve been charged with a crime, you are convicted and do your time. After your punishment is completed, you have the legal right to expunge that crime from your record, or erase all traces of it from your criminal profile.

Worth noting though, an expungement is never guaranteed, (though it is your right to pursue one). The process usually consists of filing a petition and paying an application fee. It’s up to a judge to decide whether or not to grant the privilege.

Petitioning for an expungement isn’t just a matter of filling out papers, however— the expungement process is somewhat like being on parole in that you cannot have one crime removed from your record if there’s another “intervening incident” or, pending crime. Additionally, all terms of the sentence must be completely fulfilled to be considered.

Some states, including Illinois, only expunge records as they are viewed by the public, including employers. That means the government still has access to your record and consider your history upon subsequent arrests, as our criminal expungement is worded as criminal “sealing”. In many states, releasing details of an expunged crime is prohibited by law.

Does Felony Expungement Exist?

If most states have a waiting period of three years after a misdemeanor for criminal expungement of one’s record (and sometimes shorter with a little legal finessing), is felony criminal expungement at all feasible? In most states, to receive criminal expungement requires being let out on probation from the state penitentiary. If the convict isn’t granted probation, then their only hope is to receive a pardon—a horse of a different color, and much harder to acquire.

To learn more about criminal expungement and how you can attain it, call our law offices now. We can be contacted through our Chicago offices at 312.553.2200, or in our Morris offices at 815.942.0071. Start working toward your criminal expungement today.