Expungement Eligibility
No Pending Criminal Cases

The next requirement for criminal record expungement (to seal a record) is that the person not be serving a sentence for any other offense at the time the conviction expungement is sought. Similarly, the person cannot be on probation for any other offense, or charged with the commission of any other offense. It is the last requirement that seems to cause more trouble than the others.

For example, if a person suffers a DUI conviction in 1990 (and gets placed on probation for three years), gets arrested for some other offense in 2005, and then tries to expunge the 1990 DUI conviction, the DUI expungement will be denied. While they could have expunged the 1990 DUI conviction anytime following the expiration of probation in 1993 up to the moment of the new arrest, the fact of the new arrest will prevent the drunk driving conviction expungement until the 2005 case is over, and that probation has expired or been terminated early by the court. Yes, this can get complicated, which is exactly why it is so very important to have the services of an expungement lawyer qualified to handle the intricacies of expungement laws.

Being charged with another criminal offense generally refers to pending misdemeanor or felony cases. Having a pending traffic infraction will generally not interfere with getting a criminal conviction expunged. However, if there is a pending misdemeanor or felony case, whether it is from a DUI arrest or not, an expungement petition or expungement motion will not be granted.

Expungement is a legal vehicle for someone convicted of a crime to be relieved of the stigma associated with a criminal conviction. Expungement (commonly known as to expunge arrest records) is granted for those that satisfy their obligations to the court, and is withheld from those who are facing new charges at the same time they are trying to clean up old records. That is why it is critically important that anyone seeking to expunge a conviction not be facing any criminal charges at the time their application for expungement (expungement petition) is made.