Wiping Clean Your Criminal Record

Christmas season is the appropriate time to remind everyone that the Indiana Legislature was in a giving mood in 2013.  Specifically, Indiana citizens were finally given the ability to wipe clean their criminal arrests and convictions.  Indiana's new expungement law allows you to expunge any and all misdemeanor convictions as long as 5 years have elapsed since your most recent conviction, you have no charges or investigations pending, and you have a valid drivers' license.  The most common crimes we have had expunged during the six months the new expungment law has been in effect are operating while intoxicated and possession of marijuana convictions.  Importantly, with regard to these two crimes, is the fact that the convictions will be removed from your BMV record.

Misdemeanors aren't the only convictions you can wipe off of your record.  Most D-felonies (think theft, narcotic possession, multiple offense OWIs) can be expunged as long as 8 years have elapsed since your most recent conviction, and all other requirements mentioned above are met.  While there are some circumstances that will prohibit an expungment (discussed below), as long as you meet the requirements, the judge must expunge your misdemeanor and D-Felony convictions.  Furthermore, once the convictions are expunged, the law states that you must be treated as if you have never been convicted of the offense.  Additionally, there are some more serious felonies that can be expunged, but the judge will have discretion to deny the expungement in those cases.

So far, the biggest obstacle we have seen for people trying to clean up their criminal histories is their past failure to successfully complete their sentence.  In order for the judge to expunge your criminal conviction, we must be able to show that you successfully completed your sentence and all obligations placed on you at the time of sentencing.  On a number of occassions we have met with people who had been arrested for a second crime while serving probation for their first criminal conviction.  If this second arrest caused the first probation to be revoked, that first conviction cannot be expunged.  However, if the sentence was successfully completed for that second crime, then that second conviction can be expunged, as long as all other requirements are met.  This can still be quite useful, as it often happens that the second offense is a felony.

During the past few years, we have often heard troubling stories from clients who have been arrested for certain crimes, but avoided conviction by completing a diversion program.  Some of those people are still having difficulty with background checks revealing the arrest.  A lot of employers and background check companies simply don't understand the difference between arrests and convictions.  Fortunately, the new expungement law helps in this situation as well.  If you have been arrested, but the charges have been dismissed, you can have the judge order that the arrest record be sealed as long as one year has elapsed since that arrest.

An important matter to know is that you can only seek expungement once in your lifetime.  If you have multiple convictions, we must expunge all within one year to count as "once."  Additionally, should you commit a new crime after old ones have been expunged, the State may unseal your expungement in some cases.  As you can imagine, there are exceptions to all of the rules discussed in this blog that may affect whether your record can be cleared.  Please call or e-mail me to discuss whether your record can be sealed or expunged.