EXPERIENCED PENNSYLVANIA EXPUNGEMENT LAWYERS

Thank you for visiting Lampman Law. If you think that a past arrest record is keeping you from gaining your desired employment of from reaching your full potential, please call Lampman Law at 570-371-3737 to personally discuss your eligibility for an expungement with an experienced criminal defense attorney.

This article discussed expungement eligibility for full acquittals, partial acquittals, and cases that have been completely dismissed. If you have any questions after reading this or if you want to move forward with filing an expungement petition, please call us.

Expungement After Acquittal

Cases that result in acquittal an expungement petitioner is automatically entitled to the expungement of the arrest record. Commonwealth v. D.M., 695 A.2d 770 (Pa. 1997); see also Commonwealth v. Wallace, 97 A.3d 310 (Pa. Super. 2014).  

Expungement After Partial Acquittal

When a case results in a partial acquittal, the defendant is entitled to a partial expungement of the arrest record concerning the charges for which he had been acquitted unless the Commonwealth demonstrates to court that the expungement is “impractical or impossible under the circumstances.” Commonwealth v. Rodland, 871 A.2d 216, (Pa. Super. 2005).

Dismissal of All Charges or No Disposition Available

Charges that are dismissed or cases that do not report a disposition are generally eligible for expungement; however, these cases present several issues.

First, charges that are dismissed can usually be re-filed provided the statue of limitations has not expired. Thus, filing an expungement petition too early may raise a Commonwealth objection if they want to re-file the charges.

Second, expungement is statutorily authorized when no disposition has been received or, upon request for criminal history record information, no disposition has been recorded in the repository within 18 months after the date of arrest and the court of proper jurisdiction certifies to the director of the repository that no disposition is available, and no action is pending. 18 Pa.C.S. § 9122.

Third, pursuant to 18 Pa.C.S. § 9121, before any police agency disseminates criminal history record information to an individual or noncriminal justice agency, it shall extract from the record all notations of arrests, indictments or other information relating to the initiation of criminal proceedings where: three years have elapsed from the date of arrest; no conviction has occurred; and, no proceedings are pending seeking a conviction.

The Value of an Expungement  

A clean record is priceless. Here are some examples of how an expungement, limited access order, or pardon can remove barriers concerning:

• Employment
• Education
• Housing
• Firearm Ownership
• Volunteering for certain Youth Activities
• Voting (depending where you live)
• Adoption or Forster Parents (depending where you live)
• Expungements and Limited Access Orders also remove public access to all docket sheet and conviction data on Pennsylvania’s UJS Web Portal.

Call Now to Speak with an Experienced Pennsylvania Expungement Lawyer

Thanks again for visiting Lampman Law. Please call us at 570-371-3737 if you would like to discuss expunging a record. The call is free of charge and without pressure. We hope to hear from you today.