Expungement is nothing but a permanent removal of conviction from the records so that it no longer appears on the background history available to employers, lenders and public. Therefore you can get a job and loans easily as you have not charged in any DUI or DWI cases, but it can be seen by law enforcement and court officials. DUI or DWI cases are expunged only by the court order.
If you want to expunge your criminal offense from records, the following should be known:
- Whether your state allows expungement.
- Whether the elapsed time between the DUI offense and petition for the expungement of your crime is completed or not. Usually it may be not more than one year.
- Whether you are eligible for expungement of your convicted crime.
If yes, then determine what are the steps to be followed to expunge your DUI case.
Fill out the required format
If your state allows expungement and you are eligible for expungement, the process stats with filling required application or petition to file with the court. It requires lot of paper work. Courts charge some amount for filing an application. The form filling is confusing so it is better to take help of attorney.
Submit the form to the state court
You should then submit the completed application to the court clerk. Ask them for the next process and how long will it take to expunge your conviction from your record.
Serve the prosecutor office with the copies of application
Then serve the prosecutor with the copies of your application and the crime record. If you are still drunk and driving the vehicle it is waste of your time and money to apply for expungement. Then prosecutor office checks whether it is your first and only offense, then it is worth to apply for expungement.
Attend an expungement hearing
Finally the judge will determine whether to grant expungement or not based on the detailed mentioned on the application your background check list and opinion from the district attorney. If the judge is satisfied with your application and your previous check list, court will issue an order to expunge the DUI from records.
DUI or DWI cases have two sides one is administrative and other is criminal. In most of the cases the offense will be removed from the criminal case but not from administrative it means not removed from driving record.