Expungement is available for people who have less than three disorderly persons convictions and less than one crime on their record. If you’ve been convicted of a crime you have to wait ten years from the time your sentence was completed in order to file for an expungement. If you file for an expungement and it’s granted, your conviction is wiped off your record you can honestly tell an employer, tell anybody, that you have no prior record.

But when I say your sentence must be completed, if you were given probation, if you were given fines to pay, whatever the conditions were of your conviction, if you were even sentenced to jail, that must be completed and then you have to wait ten years.

Now in a disorderly persons offense, let’s say shoplifting, you know, $100 worth of stuff, then you have to wait five years from the time your sentence is completed. Once you complete that sentence -- excuse me -- once you complete the sentence and you wait that five years, you can prepare a petition for expungement.

I recommend that you use an attorney for that because it is kind of tricky. You have to notify five different agencies because they will all be given notice of the expungement petition and they can all object. I’m not saying they’ll have grounds for objecting but they can all object if they want to. You have to notify the prosecutor for the county, you have to notify the attorney general, you have to notify the head of the New Jersey Police, you have to notify the judge in the municipality where you were found guilty, and you have to notify the Chief of Police in that town.

So once the five agencies are notified, they have to be given a copy of the expungement petition and if they don’t object then the case is heard in the Superior Court. It’s a complicated routine, the paperwork has to be precise, but if you’re granted an expungement it is wiped off your record and the only people who really can get access to it is if it is law enforcement. Let’s say if you apply for a law enforcement job they’ll ask, have you ever been convicted of a crime or an offense or have you ever had an expungement, but it shouldn’t block you from any jobs.