PTI will no longer bar Expungement of Conviction for Indictable Crime in New Jersey

The new Expungement Law Amendments that become effective on October 1, 2018 will benefit clients who thought they would never be able to expunge their criminal convictions. People who have completed Pre-Trial Intervention (PTI) will finally have the chance to expunge their entire criminal records.

Currently, under N.J.S.A 2C:52-14(f), an expungement petition will be denied when “a person seeking the relief of the expungement of a conviction for a disorderly persons, petty disorderly persons, or criminal offense prior to or subsequent to said conviction has been granted the dismissal of criminal charges following completion of a supervisory treatment or other
diversionary program.”

This means that that once you had a criminal arrest dismissed by way of completion of PTI, you could not expunge an earlier conviction for an Indictable crime even if it was a 4th or 3rd degree crime that would ordinarily be able to be expunged.

In the new Statute, N.J.S.A 2C:52-14(f) has been deleted by amendment, P.L. 2017,c.244. This will give persons the chance to have their criminal convictions for some indictable offenses (felonies) expunged along with their PTI arrest, and in many cases will result in the complete clearing of a criminal record. This will mean that you will be able to legally say to most employers that you have never been arrested or convicted of a crime. It may even be possible to re-open or re-file expungements for individuals who previously had part of their record expunged under the old law. Please contact Wolf Law at 732-741-4448 or email us at info@Wolflawnj.com for more information and to see whether you can benefit from the upcoming changes in the law.