If you have been arrested or convicted of a crime in New Jersey, having your record expunged can give you opportunities that would not be possible with a criminal record. If you are considering applying for a job, obtaining a firearms card, adopting a child, coaching a team, becoming a teacher, or applying to nursing school, Kahn & Lehrfeld can help you get your records expunged.
Why hire Kahn & Lehrfeld as your Expungement attorney? There are many advertisements on the internet suggesting a very low fee to have your record expunged. Do not be fooled by these ads. These are advertisements of non-lawyers who merely provide you with the forms to complete an expungement on your own.
Expungements must be completed in a meticulous fashion or else the Court will reject them. You have just wasted your money and your time.
At Kahn & Lehrfeld, we have successfully obtained Expungement orders from the Court allowing our clients to remove the obstacles a criminal record created.
If you have been convicted of a local ordinance violation, disorderly person’s offense, or most kinds of felonies, you may be eligible to have your record wiped clean, which is called an expungement. Various waiting periods, depending on the nature and degree of a crime, may apply before you become eligible for an expungement. The granting of an expungement is significant because it isolates your criminal record entirely, including your arrest record, and removes it from public view.
Obtaining an expungement takes time. Once a petition for expungement is filed, the court will schedule a hearing to be held within sixty days. If the state has no objections, the expungement will be signed at the hearing. Then we must serve the appropriate state agencies with the expungement order and wait several weeks for them to expunge the records.
If your record has been expunged, you may legally answer “no” to any questions about whether or not you have a criminal record in New Jersey.
In New Jersey, both criminal records and juvenile records can be expunged. Motor vehicle records, including DUI or DWI records, cannot be expunged. Civil orders also cannot be expunged. If you were arrested, but the charges were later dismissed, you can apply for an expungement right away. If charges were dismissed following a conditional discharge, upon completion of a diversionary program or pre-trial intervention program, you can apply to have records expunged six months after your dismissal date. If you have been convicted of a crime, you can apply for an expungement 6 years after your sentence or probation ends. If you can prove to a judge that it is in the public interest to have your record expunged sooner, you may be able to obtain an expungement 5 years after completing your sentence or probation.
Some convictions cannot be expunged from your criminal record in New Jersey. These include:
- Aggravated criminal sexual contact, if the victim was a minor
- Aggravated sexual assault
- Arson
- Criminal homicide
- Criminal restraint
- Criminal sexual contact, if the victim is a minor and the offender is not a parent
- Endangering the welfare of a child by engaging in sexual conduct
- False imprisonment
- False swearing
- Human trafficking
- Kidnapping
- Luring
- Perjury
- Robbery
- Selling or manufacturing child pornography
Expungements are not given for charges of conspiracy or attempt to commit any of the crimes listed above. If you are a Public Office Holder who has been convicted of crimes related to the office you held, it may not be possible to have your records expunged for those crimes.