Plantation Expungement & Sealing Lawyer
A criminal record can follow you around like a shadow. You may have already noticed how an arrest record affects you: making callbacks from potential employers less likely, even after the interview went well; complicating loan applications; throwing a wrench into renting a place to live. But your criminal record does not have to stay with you for life. If you were arrested but the case was dismissed, or you were arrested for a misdemeanor offense and were not officially convicted, you may qualify for expungement or record sealing. Both expungement and sealing hides your record from potential employers, loan officers, and landlords, keeping your arrest record out of background check databases. To keep your past from continuing to haunt you, the Plantation expungement and sealing lawyer at Haber | Blank LLP may be able to help.
Expunging Your Record
Expungement erases your arrest record. It is such a sure-fire way of keeping the unfortunate events from the past at bay, that once your arrest record has been expunged, you can deny ever being arrested, even under oath in most courts of law. In order to be eligible for expungement, the charges against you must have been dismissed via acquittal, the prosecutor dropping the charges, found not guilty by a judge or jury, a judge granting a motion for dismissal, or you were otherwise not formally convicted. Furthermore, you cannot have any prior convictions.
Sealing Your Criminal Record
Sealing your record is another good way to hide your criminal record from the public eye. Sealing does just this—it hides your record, rather than erasing it like expungement. Another difference is that record sealing is not used to hide an arrest record, it is used to hide misdemeanor offenses for which you were not formally convicted, yet the case was not dismissed. For example, if the court withheld adjudication after you entered a plea of guilty or no contest, you may be eligible to have your record sealed. Other necessary criteria include:
- Serving your full sentence or term of probation
- Paying all fines associated with the offense
- The offense was a misdemeanor or non violent third degree felony
- The offense is not on a list of ineligible offenses, such as domestic violence
Another bonus of sealing your record is that it can be expunged 10 years from the date of sealing.
What Expungement and Sealing Cannot Accomplish
In the age of the internet, it is virtually impossible to erase all mentions of an arrest or criminal record once it is published in online news. Expungement and record sealing cannot take down or erase a news article about your arrest, or erase your mugshot. Still, sealing and expungement go a long way in keeping your criminal record from public view.
Call a Plantation Expungement and Sealing Lawyer Today
If you lost a job offer because of your arrest record, or a landlord performed a background check on you and never got back to you with the lease, you will likely benefit from having your record sealed or expunged. Call the Plantation expungement & sealing lawyer at Haber | Blank LLP today at 954-767-0300 to schedule a free consultation.
