Expungements

If you have been arrested and charged with a violation of the Criminal Laws of the State of New Jersey you may have difficulty obtaining a job, getting credit, be prevented from coaching your children’s sports teams, be barred from obtaining a firearm permit, and face embarrassment whenever anyone runs a background check on you. If you have a criminal conviction you may be barred from government employment or getting a job as a teacher, nurse, securities broker or any job that requires a security clearance or Professional License.  You can even be denied an apartment lease or car loan.  Even if the charges against you were dismissed or you received a Conditional Discharge or were granted entry into the Pre-Trial Intervention (PTI) program, there is still a record of your arrest and subsequent proceedings available that may require you to make embarrassing explanations to prospective employers, lenders, or spouses.

Only the Superior Court of New Jersey can order the Expungement of a criminal arrest or conviction in the State of New Jersey. If the Court enters such an order the offense is deemed never to have happened. If you are asked whether you have ever been arrested, convicted, or charged with a crime or disorderly persons offense, you can legally answer the question, “NO.” If anyone runs a criminal background check on you it will come up as “NO CRIMINAL RECORD FOUND.” The only exceptions to this are if you are applying for a job as a law enforcement officer or in the judicial branch of the government, if you are facing new criminal charges, or if you are seeking another expungement or diversionary program.

New Jersey Statutes limit who can get an expungement. Expungements are generally available if:

• You have been arrested and the charges against you have been dismissed.
• You successfully completed Pre-Trial Intervention (PTI) in the Superior Court, the Conditional Discharge Program (CD) for a drug offense or the Conditional Dismissal Program in Municipal Court and six months have gone by since the charges were dismissed.
  
• You were adjudged delinquent (or convicted) of offenses as a juvenile and more than five(5) years have gone by (or the lesser of what the time period would be for an adult conviction).
  
• You were convicted of a Municipal Ordinance Violation and more than 2 years have passed since your conviction and payment of fines.
• You were convicted of a Petty Disorderly Persons or Disorderly Persons Offense and more than 5 years have gone by since you paid all your fines (may be waived) or completed your probation.  You may also be eligible to apply for an “early pathway” expungement for a Petty Disorderly Persons or Disorderly Persons Offense if more than 3 years have passed since you paid all of your fines or completed probation and you have compelling circumstances.
  
• You were convicted of a Crime(s) (Felony) and more than 6 years have gone by since you completed probation or were released from prison and paid all your fines.  You may also be eligible to apply for an “early pathway” expungement for a Crime (Felony) if more than 5 years have passed since you completed probation or were released from prison and paid all of your fines and have compelling circumstances.
  
• You may also be eligible to expunge your entire criminal record, without any waiting period, if you have successfully completed Drug Court in New Jersey and none of your offenses are those specifically prohibited from expungement.
• You may be eligible for a Clean Slate Expungement and have all of your Indictable Offenses and Disorderly Persons Offenses expunged if more then ten (10) years have gone by since you finished probation or parole from your last criminal offense and have gone offense free since that date.

In order to obtain an expungement a Petition must be filed in the Superior Court. Before that can be done, the attorney must obtain the client’s Superior Court Judgements(s) of Conviction and/or Municipal Court Dispositions(s) so the information can be properly put into the Petition.  After the Petition is filed it must be served on all of the courts and police agencies involved in the arrest as well as the County Prosecutor and Attorney General. The Prosecutor has the Petition reviewed by the Expungement Unit of the New Jersey State Police. After they have completed that review the Court schedules a hearing on the Petition.  If there is no objection filed and you meet the eligibility requirements, the Court will enter the Expungement Order. If there is an objection, the attorney must prepare a written response to it and the Judge will then either set up a hearing or decide the objection on the written materials submitted. This Order then must be served on all of the governmental agencies who need to remove the case from their records. The New Jersey State Police may take up to six months to actually remove the records from their computer.   The State Police also report the removal of the records to the NCIC (the Federal Computer System maintained by the FBI) which then removes the records from their system as well. Our Law Firm handles all of this for you, the only responsibility you have is to review the Petition for accuracy and sign the Verification of the Petition.

Wolf Law f will offer you a reasonable fixed fee for the expungement of your criminal record so long as you meet the eligibility requirements. This fee will include all filing fees, costs, and court appearances. There will absolutely be no other charges so long as you provide us with a complete list of your criminal offenses. The fee is dependent upon how many different courts you had charges in and whether a Public Interest or Early Pathways Expungement is required.  Please contact us and we will give you an exact fee up front after we have reviewed your situation.

Telephone us at 732-741-4448 to discuss your situation personally with an expungement attorney at Wolf Law. If you would prefer, you can fill out our expungement interview form to provide us with complete information and we will give you a call after we have reviewed it.  

Unfortunately, many people don’t know exactly what their criminal record consists of.  Either it happened a long time ago or they were going through a bad period in their lives and the details are a bit hazy.  We can help with this. We can either guide you through the process of obtaining a NJ Criminal Background Check at a minimal cost or a Federal and Nationwide State background check through an Authorized Expediter for the FBI.  This reduces the time required down to about a week to obtain it as opposed to up to six months if ordered directly through the FBI.

The New Jersey Expungement Statute is found in N.J.S.A. 2C:52-1 et seq. The information provided above is really a simplification of the Statute as it applies to most common situations. The complete statute is more complicated and has more exceptions and specific requirements then can be easily summarized. Randolph Wolf will be pleased to evaluate your specific situation and advise you whether you qualify for an expungement. There is never a charge for this consultation.

In New Jersey there are three diversionary programs available to defendants charged with criminal offenses.  These are Pre-Trial Intervention (PT) for indictable charges in the Superior Court, a Conditional Discharge (CD) for drug charges in the Municipal Court, and a Conditional Dismissal for other charges in the Municipal Court.  Six months from the time you complete these programs and have the charges against you dismissed, you are eligible to apply for an expungement.

In the Expungement Statute Amendments (December, 2019), N.J.S.A 2C:52-14(f) has been deleted P.L. 2017, c.244. This now for the first time gives petitioners the chance to have their disorderly person, petty disorderly persons offenses, or Indictable Offenses expunged along with their PTI arrest.  If you have previously had a PTI conviction expunged under the old law and still have these other charges on your record, you can now apply to have these remaining charges expunged as well.