People make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes have legal consequences. Anyone who has ever been convicted of a crime in New Jersey can tell you how difficult it can be to get hired for a job with a criminal record. In New Jersey, under certain circumstances, people with criminal convictions can file for an expungement in order to have that conviction erased. An expungement removes and isolates all records on file with any court, any detention or correctional facility, law enforcement agency, or juvenile justice agency. If a judge grants an expungement petition, records regarding a person’s apprehension, arrest, detention, trial, conviction in the criminal justice system, disposition of delinquency in the juvenile justice system, or disposition in any related proceedings, are considered not to have occurred. Additionally, all complaints, warrants, arrests, commitments, processing records, finger prints, photographs, index cards, “rap sheets”, and judicial docket records shall also be expunged. For some people, this means a fresh start.

[Read more…]