Let App WinIt fight your ticket

Record expungement makes it possible to remove past convictions from your record. This article will cover all the general information you need to know about record expungement, describe the process, and provide alternatives if you don’t qualify for it.

What Is Record Expungement?

Record expungement is a legal procedure in which the government seals or erases an arrest or conviction from a person’s court record for most purposes. After the arrest or conviction is expunged, you will no longer be legally required to disclose the incident. However, most government agencies will still be able to see it on your full record.

Record Expungement by State

Each state has its own expungement laws, since the overwhelming majority of these laws are not federally mandated. Although many states offer expungements for criminal arrests and convictions, they tend not to offer the same options for non-criminal traffic convictions. That’s the case in California, Ohio, and Texas.

However, criminal traffic convictions (that is, convictions that occurred in criminal court rather than civil court or traffic court) can be expunged—even in those three states. Examples of criminal traffic violations include DUIs, reckless driving, street racing, and eluding police.

Expungement Procedures

The only way to know for sure if your conviction is eligible for expungement and what the procedures therefore would be is to contact a local lawyer with expertise in your area. You can do so directly through the WinIt app on your smartphone or online at appwinit.com. 

Generally speaking, however, the expungement procedure has three main facets: eligibility, application, and expungement. Sometimes, records are automatically expunged, depending on the nature and severity of the conviction.

Expungement Eligibility

The first step in any expungement process is to determine whether you are eligible for expungement at all. Typically, that means meeting specific criteria, such as completing a waiting period, taking remedial classes, or performing community service.

To reiterate: In many states, it is not possible to have a non-criminal traffic conviction expunged from your record. They will remain there for however long the jurisdiction in which they occurred determines they should. In Florida, for example, alcohol-related DUI offenses will remain on your record for 75 years.

Furthermore, some more serious offenses (like vehicular homicide) might not be eligible for expungement even when you meet all of the other requirements of that process.

If, however, you have completed all of the requirements and met all of the required criteria, then you may be permitted to submit an application for the expungement of your arrest or conviction.

Expungement Applications

After confirming that your arrest or conviction is eligible for expungement, the next step is to fill out an official application therefor. What the application is called depends on the local government where your conviction occurred. Common names of this application include “Petition to Expunge Criminal Record,” “Certificate of Eligibility for Court-Ordered Sealing or Expungement,” and just about any other variation of words that mention expungement.

This process varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but many of these applications have the same or similar requirements. Here are a few common examples:

• Obtaining a “Certificate of Eligibility” prior to filling out an application.
• Submitting a sworn statement and affidavit.
• Admitting to the violation.

Automatic Expungements

In some states, some violations are automatically expunged from your record after a certain number of years have passed. Most of the time, no application is necessary in order to process automatic expungements.

According to the National Congress of State Legislatures, there are only a handful of states that practice automatic expungement of traffic convictions and those states often only do so for minor offenses or civil infractions punishable by fines only. One such state is Utah.

Utah offers automatic expungement for certain traffic misdemeanors and infractions provided that all of the financial penalties have been paid and you have completed the five-year waiting period. After those five years are up (if you paid all the associated fines), your traffic conviction will be expunged. Unfortunately, that does not apply to serious criminal offenses.

New York is another state that offers a form of automatic expungements. After at most four years, all non-criminal traffic violations will be sealed from public view and will no longer be considered “active” on your record. Of course, they will still be on your record and the government and will still be able to see them, but insurance investigators and other individuals won’t.

Alternatives to Traffic Expungements

If your arrest or conviction took place in an area that does not offer expungements for traffic violations, don’t give up. There are a few other opportunities that might present themselves to you in time. It’s important to keep in mind that the official expungement procedure that we discussed above is not the only way to prevent your ticket from sitting on your record for the rest of your life.

Each of the following five options can help reduce the impact of a traffic conviction on your record. In most cases, you might not have access to all five, unfortunately. However, in almost all cases, you will be able to try at least one of these options.

Traffic School and Defensive Driving Classes

Many jurisdictions allow drivers to defer judgment until after the successful completion of a defensive driving course. Once you provide proof of graduation to the court that issued the ticket, the case will be dismissed and that ticket will not appear on your record. 

Other jurisdictions offer similar opportunities for drivers who already have convictions on their record. In those cases, it may be possible to submit proof of successful completion to the court and have one or more past convictions be removed from your record.

Request a Deferral

If traffic school or defensive driving courses are not available to you, you might still be able to request a deferral by going to court and asking the judge.

Traffic ticket deferrals are quite common in Washington state, since that state’s government has set up a program in which you can put your ticket’s case on hold for up to 12 months. If you successfully complete the terms of the deal you struck with the court to make that possible within that time frame, your case might be dismissed.

Waiting for Points To Expire

When your points expire, there’s no longer a risk of a point-induced suspension of your driver license (in most states). However, the traffic violation that resulted in those points in the first place will most likely still remain on your permanent record. Although this is not as helpful as an official expungement, it can still help to protect your license from suspension or revocation.

Plea Bargaining for a Non-Point Offense

Plea bargaining is the process of negotiating with the prosecutor or judge to come to more favorable terms. This often results in you pleading guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for lesser penalties. However, since you have to plead guilty or nolo contendere (where applicable) to secure a plea bargain, a conviction will still appear on your record.

Beat Your Ticket in Court

The best possible outcome (even including expungement approval) is to take your case to court and win it. The reason this isn’t more common is because many people cannot afford to take time off work to go to court and argue before a judge. However, in most jurisdictions, you don’t actually have to do that.

Instead, you can hire an attorney through the WinIt app directly from your smartphone or computer and have them go to court for you. Between their years of experience and your determination to win, the odds of beating your case increase significantly when you hire a lawyer through the WinIt app to represent you in traffic court.

Best of all, if your ticket is dismissed, it will never go on your record in the first place—meaning that you’ll never have to worry about having it expunged further down the line.