No one wants to go on about their daily lives with criminal charges hanging over their head like a black cloud. Prior charges, including misdemeanors and certain felonies, on your criminal record can follow you around wherever you go, and these charges can hold you back in life. Fortunately, in 2014 the Alabama State Legislature passed a law that allows a criminal charge on a person’s record to be wiped away. This process is known as an “expungement.” An expungement removes a criminal arrest, charge, and prosecution from a person’s criminal record. In other words, once a case is expunged from someone’s criminal record, it is deemed as if it never happened in the first place.
Under the expungement laws of Alabama, there are certain criminal charges that qualify for an expungement. For example, misdemeanors, traffic violations, and some non-violent felony charges are eligible for expungement. However, it is important to keep in mind that if you were found guilty and/or convicted of any of these charges, then you may not qualify for an expungement.
If you do qualify for an expungement, though, there is no law in Alabama that limits the amount of charges a person can have expunged from their record. Although such limitation does not exist, expungements take time depending on the charge. In fact, there are multiple records to obtain, and obtaining these records can take anywhere between two to four weeks. These records include certified copy of your criminal history record from the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, along with a certified record of the case action summary form the appropriate court for the court’s record. Once you have all the needed records, an expungement petition must be filled out and filed in the circuit court of the county where the charge was originally filed.
After gathering all the records and filing all the necessary paperwork, the next step is waiting. Expungements in Alabama are not automatic, which means that the judge assigned to your expungement can make the decision to either grant or deny the expungement. If the judge decides to grant the expungement, it will take somewhere between two to four months for the expungement to remove the charge from your record.
Even though the expungement process can be long, the benefits certainly stand out. One of the main reasons people get expungements is because of the impact it can have on employment opportunities. By having certain charges completely removed from your criminal record, you can have a potentially better opportunity to find new employment at jobs you would not have been able to before the charge was removed.
Expungements are incredibly beneficial for people who want to move on with their lives without having to worry about criminal charges hanging over their head. That is why it is important to have a competent attorney who knows the ins and outs of the expungement process to better help you expunge your case. The attorneys of Sheffield and Lentine, P.C. have handled many expungement cases since the passing of the expungement law in Alabama. With expungement cases, our goal is to diligently work with our clients in order to achieve the best results for them possible. Please contact us for a free consultation.
DISCLAIMER: This article is meant to provide a starting point for discussing these issues with an experienced lawyer. This article does not constitute legal advice, nor does it form an attorney client relationship. No representation is made that the quality of legal services provided is greater than the quality of legal services provided by other lawyers. No representation is made that past outcomes are an indication of future success.