Spring Cleaning – Expunge Your Criminal Arrest and Conviction Records

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The job market is getting tougher every day. With more and more people competing in the workplace, youthful indiscretions and run-ins with the law can have a great impact on your marketability.  Arrests and convictions, although minor, may very well be the difference between you and an otherwise equally (or less) qualified competitor getting the job. Filing to have your arrest and conviction record may be your answer. An expungement is a legal process whereby a person’s criminal conviction and arrest records may be made non-public. (Certain crimes (such as sex offenses) cannot be expunged. Additionally, certain agencies (such as the Louisiana Board of Nursing) still have access to the records.

Generally, there are two situations in which a criminal record may be expunged, namely when the arrest does not result in a conviction (such as pre-trial diversion or intervention, dismissal, acquittal, failure to prosecute) or after a certain period of time has elapsed between the completion of the sentence and the filing of the proceedings. The period is generally five years for misdemeanor convictions and ten years for felonies.

“Processing fees” are now required to be filed with the initial paperwork. These fees total between $500 and $600, depending on the crime. Louisiana law provides that the processing fees are non-refundable, so it is vitally important that your legal paperwork be prepared correctly before it is filed.

Fingerprinting and background checks are also required under the new law. These documents are also required before you can file to have records expunged. The background check must be an official check from the State of Louisiana. Your local clerk’s office cannot provide you with a criminal background check that would qualify. It can often take up to a month to obtain this check.

The legislature added lengthy delays in favor of the State of Louisiana when it changed the law in 2014. After the filed expungement pleadings are served, each agency, including the State of Louisiana, has sixty days within which to object. If there is an objection from the state based on a technicality or otherwise, then the judge will set the matter for a court hearing to determine whether the objection was legally based and whether the pleadings were properly drafted. If there is no objection, then an order may be presented to the judge. That order is again served on the agencies, who are to then make their records nonpublic.  It can take several months for the state to get to your paperwork and certify that it expunged your records. Accordingly, the sooner you file and get in the pipeline, the sooner your expungement can go through. The state handles these expungement orders on a first-come-first-served basis.

Under the new law in Louisiana, expungement of a criminal record has become a very specific, expensive, and time-consuming process. Much of the judge’s discretion has been taken away. If done incorrectly, the $500 or more in “processing fees” (court costs) may be be wasted. Contact a Louisiana expungement lawyer so that your matter is handled correctly the first time. It often costs more in legal fees to try to fix an improperly handled matter than it would have to have hired an attorney to do it right the first time.

Ruston, Louisiana expungement lawyer Add Goff has over 25 years in experience handling expungements of arrest and conviction records.

Debt Collection Scam hits Elderly in Ruston Area!

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Scams against the elderly are on the rise. Even the elderly in the Ruston area are being targeted by unscrupulous debt collectors resulting in the loss of thousands of dollars.  Recently, an elderly client, Mr. Smith (not his real name) was terrorized by an out-of-state debt buyer. A debt buyer is a company that buys old, often uncollectible debts from the original creditor for pennies on the dollar.   Mr. Smith, a man in his 80s, lost his wife to cancer nearly 20 years ago.  While she was ill, the couple ran up a large credit card bill for living expenses, and in the end the client was unable to pay them.  The debts were written-off by the credit card company as uncollectible many years ago.  At some point a debt buyer purchased the account.

Last month, 18 years later, and long after the statute of limitations on the debt had run, Mr. Smith received a phone call from the debt buyer.  The caller threatened to take Mr. Smith’s bank account and to garnish his social security, his only income, if he didn’t comply with the demand for immediate payment. Afraid he would lose everything, Mr. Smith agreed to pay $4000 that day, and make monthly payments against the remaining balance. Mr. Smith gave the collector his credit card number and access to other financial information.  A few days later, Mr. Smith began to wonder if he had done the right thing.  He contacted his credit card company, but the credit card company refused to reverse the $4000 charges.  Devastated and in tears, Mr. Smith contacted the Elder Care Law Attorneys at Goff and Goff.  Bank accounts cannot be garnished without first proving the validity of the debt in court and obtaining a judgment. Social security is not subject to garnishment for bad credit card debts.  The debt collector lied to scare this vulnerable senior into paying a debt that was no longer due.

The attorneys at Goff and Goff were able to get the client’s money back quickly, but only because he realized something wasn’t right and took action.  PLEASE alert your elderly friends and relatives to be weary of these types of calls!  If they have already been scammed, they need to take action immediately.  Call an attorney.  If you call Goff and Goff, we would be honored to help.  We practice in the areas of Elder Law, Family Law, Wills and Estates, Successions, Personal Injury and Criminal Law