Expunging a Felony Offense from your Criminal Record in Ohio
Ohio expungement attorney Brian Joslyn explains Expunging a Felony Offense from your Criminal Record in Ohio. Joslyn Criminal Defense Law Firm has extensive experience helping clients seal their criminal records so that they can effectively erase their past mistakes and move on with their lives. Contact Joslyn Law Firm at (614) 444-1900 for a consultation with one of our experienced attorneys regarding the sealing of your record in Columbus and surrounding counties, including Pickaway County, Madison County, Delaware County, Licking County and Fairfield County in Ohio.
Expungement is a process where an individual can have a prior criminal conviction, or a nonprior criminal conviction even a dismissed or a case that they were found not guilty on removed from public record. Felonies that are crimes of violence cannot be expunged from your record. And all felony 1s and 2s are not expungable. Now in Ohio, degrees of felonies run from felonies 1 to 5. Felony 1 being the most serious, felony 5 being the least serious. Felony 1s and 2s are not expungable, there is no circumstances where there are any expungable felony 1s or 2s, unless the case that was a felony 1 or 2 was dismissed or you were found not guilty of it, then they are expungable. Otherwise, only felonies 3s, 4s and 5s are expungable. Now there’s a timing difference for felony 3, 4s and 5s. If you have a conviction for a felony 3, you have to wait 3 years from the close of the case. And remember the close of the case is the conclusion of the imposition of any penalties, plus the payment of any court costs. And then the 3 years starts to run. You also cannot expunge a felony if you have any pending criminal matters that are ongoing, or any other criminal matters that also make you ineligible for expungement. Felony 4s and 5s have different rules for the timing of when you can expunge. For a felony 4th or 5th degree, you can expunge 1 year from the close of the case as long as it is a qualified offense. And again a qualified offense is something, generally speaking, that is not a crime of violence, not a sex offense. However there are certain statutes that are not sex offenses, not crimes of violence that are still not expugnable, but most are expugnable.
