Criminal records are given to every person that has committed a crime.  Criminal records do not ever go away on their own. If you asked about ever having a criminal record you must say that you have one even if you first received a criminal record many, many years ago.  It does not matter.  Once you have obtained a criminal record it will follow you for the rest of your life.  The only way to have a criminal record go away would be to have the criminal record expunged.

Having a criminal record expunged is not an easy task at all.  You should always retain an attorney when you are even considering having a criminal record expunged.  Having an attorney is a great start in the process of having a criminal record expunged.  But it is only the start of the whole process. Before you can even take your case in front of a judge and you will have to do that you must have certain criteria that you meet. Once you know if you meet all of the criteria you can then proceed with trying to have your criminal record expunged.  And you must know that it is not always a sure thing.  It will ultimately end up being the judge’s decision but you must start some where.

Some of the criteria that you must meet before you even go ahead with expunging your criminal record are relatively simple and there are actually many people with criminal records that would meet the criteria.  One of the first and most important things is that you did not commit a violent crime.  Also there must not have been any kind of injury that was a result of the crime that you committed.  You must make sure that it was definitely a non violent crime and no one was injured as a result of what you did otherwise you will not be eligible at all for having your criminal record expunged.

Also you must have completed any probation or parole and must have done so honorably.  It must have been at the least five years since any crime was committed by you.  You must maintain a clean record for that time.  There are several other things that you would have to meet in order to stand a chance to have your criminal record expunged but with out these basic qualifications you should not even bother to proceed with the process.

Getting an attorney is really a great start. You will need an attorney to bring your case in front of a judge and also to file all of the necessary paperwork.  After a period of time your attorney will be able to finally present your case in front of a judge and explain why you should be able to have your criminal record expunged.  After the judge sees all of the information that your attorney will present to them the judge will make a final ruling on whether or not your criminal record will be expunged.

If your criminal record is expunged it could possibly mean a whole new life for some people and for others it can mean a way to start over again.  Criminal records have a way of effecting people’s whole lives and can really make it difficult to live a normal life in society.  For those people who worry about criminals having their criminal record sealed they should not.  There can not be any type of violent criminal that can have his or her criminal record sealed or expunged and therefore no one should ever worry about that.