Earlier this year, I filed a petition for an expungement for a client based on the new law allowing Petty Disorderly Persons and Disorderly Persons offense to be expunged after three years. My client contacted me three years after his plea to a disorderly conduct in North Plainfield Municipal Court in May 2014. My client was employed, has a wife and kids, and more importantly to the Court has never been in trouble since that one event.
I was under the impression this would be relatively straightforward since all the publicity around the new change in the law was that it would allow people to clear their record quicker so it does not hinder their other areas of life.
Well, I recently received letter from the County Prosecutor that the New Jersey State Police objected to my application. I called the State Prosecutor on the letter and asked him why the denial.
I was told that the New Jersey State Police are telling all the State Prosecutors to deny these “early pathway” expungements.
So now I would have to submit a brief and have oral arguments to convince the judge to permit the expungement and then mail the Order to the requisite places.
This defeats the whole purpose of the early pathway because now defense attorneys will have to charge a lot more money and it take a lot longer for an expungement if it is early pathway and the potential client may decide it is wiser to just wait it out until the amount of time on the original statute.
If you have been charged with a crime in the State of New Jersey, contact Attorney Chirag D. Mehta today for a free consultation. He can be reached at (201) 688-0667.