If you have been convicted of a criminal offense in New Jersey and you have served your time, you would expect to be given a clean slate. However, your criminal record can follow you around and cause you problems when you are trying to get a job or qualify for a loan. Fortunately, state law does allow you to request that your past mistakes get stricken from the record.
This process is called expungement and is available to New Jersey citizens who were convicted of a crime or juvenile offense in New Jersey. Expungement is not available in every case. However, if you hope to have your case for expungement considered, the first step is filing your official Petition for Expungement with the proper Superior Court.
Our Haddonfield criminal record expungement lawyers at Lombardo Law Group will put our years of experience and resources to use to help you clear your name. To get started today with a free case evaluation, call 609) 418-4537.
Expungement for Criminal Record in Haddonfield
New Jersey law allows for individuals who were previously convicted of a criminal or juvenile offense to wipe the slate clean if certain criteria are met. This process is called expungement. If you have had your prior offense expunged, you are permitted to answer “no” if you are asked whether you have previously been convicted of a crime. To get an expungement, the person who is seeking it must file their official Petition for Expungement.
The petition should be filed in the Superior Court of New Jersey where the original arrest or prosecution took place. The petition will only apply to multiple charges if they stem from the same incident, so if you have multiple offenses that you are trying to expunge that happened in multiple jurisdictions, you may need to file multiple petitions.
Preparing a Petition for Expungement in Haddonfield
The first step in your attempt to get your prior offense expunged from your criminal record is filing your Petition for Expungement. Before you sit down to prepare your official petition, you will need the following information handy.
- The specific statute and offense of which you were convicted
- The date of your arrest
- The original docket number, indictment, warrant, or summons you received for your offense
- The date of disposition (i.e., the date of conviction)
- The sentence that you received
If you need help obtaining this information, you should contact the Superior Court Criminal Case Management Office in the jurisdiction where the arrest occurred. It may be easier to have your Haddonfield criminal record expungement attorney handle this for you.
When your petition is complete, you will need to complete the verification page and sign the petition. You must get your signed petition notarized. You will also need to complete three additional documents: a Cover Letter, an Order for Hearing and an Expungement Order. Your Cover Letter is not like one that you might send to a potential employer. It is a form document where you merely fill in the blanks. The Order for Hearing is how the judge schedules your hearing, and the Expungement Order is merely the document that the judge will sign if they grant your Petition for Expungement.
Filing Your Petition for Expungement in Haddonfield
Once you have all of your documents in order, it is time to send them out. You only need one copy of the Cover Letter. However, you should make three copies of the rest of the forms and deliver two sets of the copies to the court with the cover letter on top. You will also need to attach a money order or certified check for the filing fee of $52.50, made out to “Treasurer, State of N.J.” Keep the last copy for yourself so that you can keep a record of the procedure.
The court will mail your filings back to you with a docket number and a date and time for your expungement hearing. Once you receive this mail, make several copies of the Petition, Order for Hearing, and proposed Expungement Order. You will mail these to all of the following government agencies that participated in your case.
- Attorney General of New Jersey
- Superintendent of New Jersey State Police, Expungement Unit
- Clerk of the Municipal Court (if a Municipal Court handled your original case)
- Chief of Police at department that handled your original case
- Warden of any institution where you served time
- County Prosecutor
- County Probation Division (if you participated in any probation or community service as part of your sentence)
There may be additional requirements for distributing your petition documents depending on your unique circumstances. Our Haddonfield criminal record expungement lawyers can work with you to make sure that nothing gets missed in your expungement efforts.
Eligibility for Expungement in Haddonfield
In order to apply for expungement in New Jersey, you must wait a certain amount of time. For criminal convictions in New Jersey, the earliest that you could potentially seek expungement is five years after the completion of the sentence for the original conviction. It may also be harder to expunge offenses where there was more than one offense of the same crime or in the same area.
Not every type of offense can be expunged from the record. If a petitioner was convicted of a criminal offense involving any of the following areas, an attempt to petition for expungement will likely be automatically denied:
- Criminal homicide (not including automobile accidents)
- Kidnapping
- Human trafficking
- False imprisonment
- Aggravated sexual assault
- Criminal sexual contact
- Robbery
- Arson
- Child pornography
- Child endangerment
- Terrorism
We Can Help You Expunge Your Criminal Record
You do not have to take on this noble effort alone. Get the help of our Haddonfield criminal record expungement attorneys with your efforts to clear your name. Call today to hear more at (609) 445-4300.
