Ohio’s Leader in Expungement and Record Sealing
Call us today for a Legal Consultation: 1.877.523.7575
Posted on: December 4, 2017 | by: admin
The laws in Ohio governing record expungement have changed quite a bit over the last few years. The state legislature has passed changes to the law that make expand the eligibility requirements for having a criminal record sealed in Ohio. One of the changes to to the law factors serious traffic offenses, which could impact eligibility for expungement in Ohio.
But first, if you are considering an expungement or sealing of a criminal record in Ohio, you will need to know some basic rules of expungement. In order have a record sealed and expunged, a person must be an “eligible offender” as defined by Ohio law.
An eligible offender cannot have more than two convictions, and the combinations of convictions are limited to: 2 misdemeanor convictions; or 1 misdemeanor and 1 felony conviction.
You can have less than these limits, such as, one misdemeanor or one felony conviction, but you can never have more than these limits.
Ohio law does provide that multiple convictions arising from the same incident, or multiple convictions out of the same court proceedings or committed within a three month period, may be treated as one conviction. Minor misdemeanor’s don’t count as a conviction. Convictions of routine or minor traffic offenses (parking tickets, speeding tickets, etc) do not count as a conviction.
However, convictions of “Serious Traffic Offenses” can have a impact on a person’s eligility for expungement and sealing of record. Unlike minor traffic offenses, Serious Traffic Offenses count as a conviction towards a person’s total number of convictions when determining if they are an “eligible offender” under Ohio’s Record Sealing Statute. Unfortunately, even though convictions for serious traffic offenses are counted as a conviction, they are not eligible for expungement and sealing. Rather, they remain a permanent record with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Therefore, it is important to know what offenses are considered serious traffic offenses in Ohio.
See the full list of “Serious Traffic Offenses” to see if a past offense will affect your eligibility.
If you aren’t sure about your eligibility, you can start with a Free Consultation with our expungement team and, we can walk through your background and questions together.
