If you are a teenager, then you can get a fresh start on your life by filing a petition in court and seeking expungement of a juvenile court conviction. Most of the time, expungement will make it so that employers, landlords, licensing agencies and others will never know that you have been arrested or convicted of a crime. Expungement is not the same as erasing the crime from your record, because it can still serve as a strike against a harsher punishment for repetitive behavior in the future.
The person that is seeking the sealing must be an adult in almost all states. This means that you must be 18 years old to seek an expungement. Also, in order to receive an expungement or seal your criminal records you will need to wait for a specified amount of time to pass. For example, to seal a juvenile court ruling the defendant will need to wait until five years have passed from the date of the offense or the end of the court proceedings. Also, states have the right to place limits on the types of offenses that can be expunged from a juvenile record.
Many states don't allow people to expunge serious or violent offenses from a record. Any offense that would be a felony in an adult criminal court is normally supposed to remain as public record. Also, if you have an offense on your criminal record that resulted in later criminal arrests or convictions as an adult, then you may not be able to seal your juvenile record. If you believe that you qualify for expungement, then your first job should be to hire a professional Houston criminal defense attorney to help you argue for the record sealing. You will want an attorney there to prove to the court why the expungement is necessary. Talk to the Martinez Law Firm today for more information!