What exactly is a criminal record?  For those people that do not have or have ever had a criminal record it may be hard to understand exactly what a criminal record really is.  Does it mean that you are a bad person if you have a criminal record or does it mean that a mistake or two was made and that ended up causing you to have a criminal record?  I guess the answer would depend on who exactly you asked the question to.

Criminal records occur when ever there is any kind of crime that is committed.  That means any crime at all.  From something as small as a misdemeanor or as big as a class A felony.  There will be a criminal record that occurs for every crime that someone commits.  If you already have a criminal record and you commit more crimes then your criminal record will just get larger and larger.  Now if you are a career criminal and you are just constantly committing crimes either you are not the best of people or you have some serious issues, either way it is not likely that you can get your criminal record expunged.  However depending on the attorney you have they may be able to work something out for you.

You see criminal records for people who are constantly committing crimes do not typically get expunged.  A criminal record will be expunged for people that have committed a crime and they made a mistake.  These are people that want to go on and live their lives to the fullest and not continuously live in a life of crime.  The regulations to having your criminal record expunged are different in every state of the United States but they are quite similar.  You will have to contact an attorney in your state if you are interested in having your criminal record expunged.  So if you live in California then you will have to have a California attorney look into your case and see if you are able to qualify to have your criminal record sealed.

The basics of a criminal record being sealed are quite similar from state to state.  You must not have any kind of criminal activity over a certain period of time.  It is usually around five or more years but again it may vary from state to state.  If you can show that you are not out there in the world constantly committing crimes you may be able to have your criminal record expunged.  You must also make sure that none of the crimes that you have ever committed resulted in any kind of injury to anyone at all.  That means that no one may have been killed or injured during or as a result of a crime you committed.  This helps to make sure that violent criminals keep their criminal records known.  Rapists and murders and criminals like that do not typically qualify to have their criminal records expunged.

In most states you must also have completed any probation or parole that was assigned to you.  And you must have paid all and any fines and fees completely that the judge ordered you to pay.  You must show that you are willing to make amends for the crime or crimes that you committed.  Again all of these regulations to having your criminal record sealed or expunged may vary from state to state.  So the best thing that you can do if you are interested in having your criminal record expunged is to contact an attorney in your local area or the area in which the crime was committed.