Clear Criminal Record

People call me all the time wanting to get a criminal case off their record.  Since I get so many questions about this, I thought I would go through the basics.

The first step is trying to figure out what the person needs an attorney for.  Do they want to get their gun rights restored?  If so, there is a different process for that which I’ve written about before. Does the person have a criminal record and wants to get the record cleared?  If that’s the case, Washington State allows us to get the conviction vacated and dismissed so long as the client meets certain conditions.  Finally, does the person want the fact that they were even charged with a crime completely erased?  This is a third completely different process called an expungement.

Each of these three situations are completely different and require different processes and different requirments.  A person may be eligible to have their charge vacated and dismissed, but not have the case expunged.  Another person may be eligible to have their gun rights restored, but can’t get the charge vacated or dismissed.

I’ve written about gun restoration before and will soon post more detailed discussions dealing with expungement and vacating and dismissing criminal charges.  If you have questions about expungement, vacating and dismissing or gun restoration, give me a call so I can help you.