Expungement Eligibility

Expungements are like an eraser that can wipe your record clean. You can get an expungement after two years for a Municipal Ordinance Conviction, five years after a Disorderly Persons Conviction or ten years after you have completed probation or a prison sentence for an eligible indictable crime. Recently the court has been willing to entertain expungement applications earlier that listed above if certain conditions are met.

In an apparent switch in their philosophy to make obtaining an expungement easier, the NJ Supreme Court just released an opinion that has limited the Expungement statute. The court found that only those people who committed a crime during a “single, uninterrupted” event may seek to expunge their record.

The court found that the law was for people who have committed one crime, “not one or more crimes closely related in circumstances or in time.” The court rejected Petitioner’s argument that expungements should cover crimes that were over more than one day, when they were tried for the crimes together. The court’s ruling was based on their reading of the statute. The court held that state lawmakers could widen the scope of New Jersey’s expungement law if they chose.

If you think you are eligible for an expungement, contact Attorneys Hartman for more information.