Essex County Expungement Lawyers
Removing Eligible Criminal Records in Newark and Essex County
A criminal case can continue to affect a person after court appearances, probation, fines, or other obligations have ended. Arrest information, charges, convictions, and related records may remain within the criminal justice system unless they qualify for and receive the treatment provided by New Jersey’s expungement laws. A record can affect employment, housing, education, and even professional licenses.
For people with records arising in Newark or elsewhere in Essex County, determining whether an expungement is available begins with the result of each case. A conviction, dismissed charge, diversionary disposition, municipal ordinance violation, and qualifying marijuana matter can each be treated differently.
New Jersey law provides several forms of expungement relief. The appropriate procedure depends on what happened in the underlying case and what else appears in the person’s history.
If you are seeking an expungement in Newark, Montclair, Bloomfield, Livingston, Caldwell, Maplewood, Millburn, Short Hills, Nutley, or another town in Essex County, contact our expungement lawyers at 201-654-3464 or contact us online for a free consultation.
Start With the Disposition, Not the Original Charge
The charge filed at the beginning of a criminal case does not always determine expungement eligibility.
Charges can be dismissed, amended, downgraded, resolved through a diversionary program, or result in conviction of an offense different from the one initially alleged. For expungement purposes, the way the matter ultimately concluded can be critical.
For example, a person originally charged with an indictable crime may ultimately have been convicted only of a disorderly persons offense. Another person may have entered Pretrial Intervention and obtained a dismissal without a conviction. A third case may have been dismissed outright.
Those records do not necessarily follow the same expungement rules even though each case may have begun with a criminal charge.
Examples of Offenses That May Be Expunged
Depending on the disposition and the rest of the record, many offenses may be eligible for expungement, such as shoplifting, burglary, simple assault, forgery, disorderly conduct, and drug possession.
Expunging an Indictable Conviction
Many New Jersey indictable convictions are eligible for expungement under N.J.S.A. 2C:52-2.
Current law recognizes several qualifying criminal-history configurations. These include certain applications involving one crime, one crime together with a limited number of disorderly persons or petty disorderly persons offenses, and particular circumstances involving multiple convictions.
The ordinary waiting period for an eligible indictable conviction is five years, measured from the latest event identified by the statute. New Jersey also provides limited circumstances in which an application may proceed before the full five years have elapsed. Learn more about expunging an indictable offense and the degrees of criminal charges in New Jersey.
Not every crime can be expunged. N.J.S.A. 2C:52-2 identifies convictions that are excluded from expungement, such as most forms of criminal homicide, including murder, as well as kidnapping, robbery, arson, certain forms of false imprisonment and child endangerment, perjury, and terrorism. The statute also contains additional restrictions for certain controlled dangerous substance offenses and crimes involving public office, position, or employment.
Municipal Court Convictions
A municipal court record should not automatically be treated as one category.
New Jersey municipal courts, including the Newark Municipal Court, hear disorderly persons offenses, petty disorderly persons offenses, municipal ordinance violations, and other matters. The expungement rules depend on the type of conviction involved.
N.J.S.A. 2C:52-3 permits qualifying individuals without a criminal conviction to seek expungement of up to five disorderly persons or petty disorderly persons convictions. The ordinary waiting period under that provision is five years, although the statute contains circumstances permitting earlier relief.
Municipal ordinance convictions are addressed separately under N.J.S.A. 2C:52-4 and have their own eligibility requirements.
Identifying the actual disposition is therefore especially important when reviewing a municipal court history.
When the Charges Were Dismissed
A dismissed criminal charge does not have to be treated like a conviction for expungement purposes.
N.J.S.A. 2C:52-6 addresses qualifying arrests and proceedings that ended without a conviction or finding of guilt. This can include matters resulting in dismissal or acquittal.
These cases generally are not subject to the multi-year waiting periods associated with conviction expungements.
There are exceptions. A dismissal resulting from completion of a diversionary program is treated differently, and a charge dismissed as part of a plea agreement involving another conviction can require separate analysis.
For someone whose case was dismissed, the reason for the dismissal can therefore be as important as the fact that the case is no longer pending.
Records After PTI or Another Diversionary Program
New Jersey permits certain defendants to resolve cases through diversionary programs rather than a traditional conviction.
When a matter is dismissed following successful completion of Pretrial Intervention, Conditional Discharge, or Conditional Dismissal, N.J.S.A. 2C:52-6 generally permits expungement of the related records after six months from the date of dismissal.
That six-month rule should not be confused with the treatment of an ordinary dismissal, and not every diversion program is governed in exactly the same manner. Learn more about expungements for diversionary programs.
A previous diversionary disposition can also matter when a person later seeks relief under certain other expungement provisions.
Marijuana Records May Require a Different Analysis
New Jersey’s changes to its marijuana laws created expungement procedures that differ from the traditional rules applicable to many other drug convictions.
Certain specified marijuana and hashish matters are expunged by operation of law under N.J.S.A. 2C:52-6.1.
New Jersey law also contains additional provisions addressing qualifying marijuana and hashish records, including N.J.S.A. 2C:52-5.1, which can apply to certain marijuana and hashish distribution offenses.
Because these provisions identify particular offenses and circumstances, a marijuana-related record should be evaluated under the statutes specifically applicable to that record rather than under a generalized assumption that every marijuana case has been automatically removed.
Clean Slate Expungement
Someone with a more extensive criminal history may need to consider New Jersey’s Clean Slate law.
N.J.S.A. 2C:52-5.3 establishes a separate form of expungement relief for qualifying criminal histories. It can permit expungement of a broader group of eligible New Jersey convictions after the statutory requirements, including the applicable ten-year period, have been satisfied.
Clean Slate does not make every criminal record eligible for expungement. Statutory exclusions remain important, and issues involving completion of a sentence and court-ordered financial assessments can affect whether relief is available.
For someone with several convictions, Clean Slate should therefore be evaluated separately from the traditional expungement provisions to determine which form of relief, if any, applies to the particular history.
What Happens to Records After an Expungement?
New Jersey defines expungement as the extraction and isolation of qualifying records concerning a person’s involvement with the criminal justice system.
An expungement order can reach records maintained by courts, law enforcement agencies, correctional facilities, and other criminal justice agencies covered by New Jersey law.
The effect is not the physical destruction of every record. New Jersey law preserves limited circumstances in which expunged information may still be used or disclosed as authorized by statute.
This distinction is important because an expungement provides substantial legal protection for qualifying records without making it accurate to say that every trace of the underlying matter ceases to exist.
Filing an Expungement Application
New Jersey uses an electronic system for expungement applications.
The information required for an application depends on the records involved. The filing process identifies the matters for which relief is sought and provides notice through the procedures established for expungement cases.
Government agencies entitled to notice may object when there is a statutory basis to do so. If the court determines that the requirements for expungement have been satisfied, an expungement order can be entered directing the appropriate agencies to treat the covered records in accordance with New Jersey law. Essex County matters are generally handled through the Essex County Superior Court.
After an order is entered, implementation by the agencies holding the records remains an important part of completing the process.
Reviewing an Older New Jersey Record
The date of a conviction does not determine which version of New Jersey’s expungement law must be used today.
The Legislature has revised Chapter 52 repeatedly, expanding relief in some areas, changing filing rules, modifying treatment of multiple convictions, and creating separate procedures for particular records.
As a result, a person who did not qualify for expungement under an older version of the law may receive a different answer under the law now in effect.
A current review is particularly worthwhile when a previous determination was based on the number of convictions, an old marijuana offense, a municipal court history, or a record that has not been examined since New Jersey substantially revised its expungement statutes.
Expungement Lawyers Serving Newark and Essex County
The Tormey Law Firm represents clients seeking expungement of eligible criminal records in Essex County and throughout New Jersey.
Our attorneys handle matters involving indictable convictions, disorderly persons and petty disorderly persons offenses, dismissed charges and arrests, diversionary dispositions, municipal ordinance violations, marijuana-related records, juvenile records, and Clean Slate applications.
For someone with several cases or different types of dispositions, an expungement review can identify which records may qualify for relief and the procedure applicable to each.
If you have a record arising from Newark, East Orange, West Orange, Bloomfield, Montclair, Belleville, Nutley, Livingston, Millburn, Irvington, South Orange, Verona, Cedar Grove, or another Essex County municipality, contact The Tormey Law Firm to discuss whether your record qualifies for expungement under current New Jersey law. Call 201-654-3464 or contact us online. Consultations are always available free of charge.
