**Laws change frequently, and each individual's situation is unique. Therefore, the following article is not intended as legal advice. To obtain particularized, up-to-date legal advice, please contact us.**

If you have been arrested for an offense – even if charges are never filed and you are not ultimately convicted of the offense – you have a criminal record.  Both arrests and convictions are public records, and can easily be accessed by anyone willing to pay a small fee. 

If you meet certain criteria, you can have your conviction vacated, criminal record sealed and/or expunged, and your civil rights restored.  We routinely help clients in these areas.

Vacating Convictions

If you have a conviction vacated, you can legally say that you have not been convicted of that crime.  Before you can have a conviction vacated, however, the following criteria must be met:

Felonies

RCW 9.94A.640 provides the procedure for vacating a felony conviction.  To be eligible to vacate a felony conviction, you must:

• Not have criminal charges pending in any state.
• Not have been convicted of a violent offense as defined in RCW 9.94A.030.
• Not have been convicted of a crime against persons as defined in RCW 43.43.830.
• Not have been convicted of a new crime since you received the certificate of discharge for the conviction you are attempting to vacate.
• If you are attempting to vacate a Class B felony, ten years must have passed since you were issued the certificate of discharge.
• If you are attempting to vacate a Class C felony, five years must have passed since you were issued the certificate of discharge.
  

Misdemeanors and Gross Misdemeanors

RCW 9.96.060 provides the procedure for vacating misdemeanor and gross misdemeanor convictions.  To be eligible to vacate such a conviction, you must:

• Not have criminal charges pending in any state.
• Not have been convicted of a new crime since the date you were convicted of the crime which you are seeking to have vacated.
• Not have ever had another conviction vacated.
• Not have been convicted of a violent offense as defined in RCW 9.94A.030, or an attempt to commit a violent offense.
• Not have been convicted of DUI.
• Not have been convicted of a sex offense under RCW chapters 9.68, 9.68A, or 9A.44.
• If you were convicted of a domestic violence offense, you must never have been convicted of any other domestic violence offense and five years must have passed since you completed the terms of the sentence, including payment of fines.
• If you were convicted of any other misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor, three years must have passed since you completed the terms of the sentence, including payment of fines.

There are many complicated issues associated with vacating convictions.  If you have any questions about this process, please contact us.
 

Sealing and Expunging Criminal Records

Companies such as Experian, backgroundferret.com, and Intelius perform instant background checks by paying a small fee to access the same court docket as the court clerk.  If your court file is not sealed, those types of companies will have access to the entire court docket.  Therefore, even if you have had your conviction vacated, a background check will reveal that you were convicted of a crime.  The background check will also reveal that you have since had the conviction vacated, but that may not matter much to an employer.  The only way to prevent the public from knowing that you were once convicted of a crime is to seal the court file.  You are generally eligible to have the court file sealed at the same time you have a conviction vacated, but recent case law has made sealing the court file more difficult. 

If you were arrested but never charged with a crime, or if the case was dismissed and a conviction was never obtained, it may make sense to have your record expunged.  This process actually results in the non-conviction data being deleted from the records of law enforcement. To be eligible to have your record expunged:

• Two years must have passed since "the record became nonconviction data as a result of the entry of a disposition favorable to the defendant,"; or three years have passed since the date of arrest or issuance of a citation, if charges were not pursued.
• You must not have been previously convicted of a felony or gross misdemeanor.  A prior misdemeanor conviction does not prevent you from having your record sealed.
• You must not have been arrested or charged with a new crime during the intervening period.

There are many complicated issues associated with sealing and expunging criminal records.  If you have any questions about this process, please contact us.
 

Restoring Rights

If you are convicted of a crime, your freedom can be restricted in many ways.  In addition to jail time, probation, and mandatory fines, you may lose your right to vote and the right to possess firearms.  In many situations, your rights should have been restored, but because the court has not received notice from the Department of Corrections or from the clerk’s office that you have fulfilled all obligations of your sentence, it has not issued a certificate of discharge.

Issuance of the certificate of discharge is extremely important because it authorizes the restoration of certain civil rights such as the right to vote, and it starts the clock running on when you may be eligible to have your conviction vacated.  The court will only issue a certificate of discharge when it has received notice that you have fulfilled all the terms of your sentence, including any term of confinement, community custody, and payment of fines.  Depending on the facts of your case, you may bear the responsibility of notifying the court that you have completed the terms of your sentence.  Generally this happens when you are convicted of a felony and any portion of your sentence includes a term of community custody.  To be sure that the court has received the proper notice, and that your rights are properly restored, you should contact us.
 

Firearms Restrictions

If you were convicted of any felony or any domestic violence gross misdemeanor, it is a Class C felony for you to possess a firearm.  Even if you have completed all the terms of your sentence, your right to possess firearms is not automatically restored.  You must separately petition the court to restore that right.  The court may grant the petition depending on the offense you were convicted of, and the amount of time that has passed since that conviction.  For help restoring firearm rights, please contact us.