Issues in New Jersey Law: Expunging a Criminal Record

First off, if you just want to try and figure it out yourself, the State of New Jersey has published a do-it-yourself kit. It's available here.

Expungements can be very useful to someone who is looking to pare down or eliminate their criminal history. Someone with just one criminal charge who has to keep noting it on their employment applications (especially in this economy) might be especially eager to get rid of their "record" so that they look better in the job market. An expungement can do that, if done correctly.

However, expungements can get ugly and/or complicated. This is one of those situations where although the State has published a pro se kit, you might want to consider having a lawyer help you, if not do the whole thing for you. The only problem is, it's fairly expensive to have them help (probably starting north of $750).

Expungements require you to fill out the kit's paperwork, and to detail your entire criminal history. It may be helpful to get a criminal history check first so you are sure of the details. Additionally, you must serve these documents on a variety of different parties, and provide proof that you served them. This in and of itself is not an intuitive or easy task, and is made somewhat easier by having an attorney do it (who is used to the "service" requirements).

The law that governs expungements is at N.J.S.A. 2C:52-1 et seq. If you Google search the statute, it should come up for you; however, if you can't easily understand the statute and its terminology, you might well have trouble down the line with the expungement process. It might cause you more aggravation than it's worth to continually revise your application, especially because each time you do so, you have to re-serve everyone involved.

I personally recommend that you see a lawyer if you have an expungement issue, especially if your "brushes with the law" resulted in a conviction, are fairly recent, or were for any serious or drug-related crimes. You should also see a lawyer if you have had multiple convictions, as there is a possibility that you might not be able to get everything expunged.