To determine if you are eligible to have your record sealed, consult this expungement checklist:
The law on Expungements in Ohio prevents you from sealing your record for some criminal offenses:
Additional sex offenses, not listed above, are on the prohibited list and include:
Certain offenses involving vehicles:
If the offense you wish to have sealed is not on the prohibited list above, proceed to the next question.
Under Ohio Record Sealing law, the court is not permitted to consider your application if you have any criminal charges pending against you at the time you file the request.
You must wait until the pending charges have been resolved.
If you have no criminal charges currently pending against you, proceed to the final question.
There is a waiting period after you have completed the sentence for your conviction before you can apply to have the record sealed. This is known as a Final Discharge.
A Final Discharge occurs when you have completed all requirements of your sentence. You must have served the jail or prison time, paid all your fines and court costs, paid any restitution required, completed any community service mandated, completed any probation and finished all other aspects of your sentence.
One common roadblock can occur when, for example, a person has been given a suspended sentence conditioned upon “no violation of the law for one year” or something similar.
You would normally have been deemed not to have a Final Discharge until this year had passed. In this particular situation, some judges can be persuaded to remove this sentencing condition to enable you to apply for expungement.
The required waiting periods for Record Sealing are as follows:
For Misdemeanors, you must wait ONE YEAR after Final Discharge.
For Felonies, you must wait THREE YEARS after Final Discharge.
If you have satisfied the required waiting period, you are now eligible to apply to have your record sealed.
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The ohiocrimelawyer.com website is designed for general information only. Any information on this site is not to be construed as formal legal advice from a criminal defense lawyer, a DUI lawyer, a family law lawyer or estate planning, wills, trusts, and probate lawyer, nor the formation of a lawyer/client relationship. Persons accessing this site are encouraged to seek personal advice regarding their individual legal issues.
The attorneys in our law firm primarily service Portage County courts (Ravenna and Kent) from our office in Ravenna, and Summit County courts (Akron, Stow, Barberton) from our office in Stow. Cases in all other courts in North East Ohio, such as Cuyahoga County courts, are handled under specific terms and conditions.