| THINKING OF PLEADING GUILTY, TAKING THE HIT ON THE PENALTIES AND GETTING YOUR SHOPLIFTING CHARGE EXPUNGED IN 10 YEARS? Even if you expunge your record in 10 years, it still may be used against you in getting a job, increase your insurance rates and damage your credit. Your best defense is to hire the best attorney and never get convicted! We have a 98% success rate of winning, reducing, or eliminating the penalties of a shoplifting charge. Put our success rate to work for you! |
Most people think that an expungement is the elimination of your criminal record for Shoplifting. WRONG! An Expungement in the State of New Jersey is merely: "the extraction and isolation of all records within the court, detention or correctional facility, law enforcement or criminal justice agency concerning a person's detection, apprehension, arrest, detention, trial or disposition of all offenses within the criminal justice system." N.J.S. 2C:52-1(a) An expungement is not the elimination of your criminal record, or the erasing of your sentence such as jail, community service or fines. An Expungement does not affect previously published public records which may appear in newspapers and on internet sites and criminal record databases. (Example: Many police departments have websites listing the arrests for the day) An Expungement does not destroy the record of your criminal conviction held by private companies or individuals or the government only the official record is "Sealed" Furthermore, law enforcement, immigration and most government agencies and court personnel will still be able to access the records of your shoplifting arrest, conviction and sentence. Even with an expungement you may still continue to suffer the costly consequences of a shoplifting conviction |
| H. Scott Aalsberg, Esq., P.C. "The Shoplifters Attorney" 39 Milltown Rd. 2nd Floor, East Brunswick, N.J. 08816 1028 Route #23 North, Wayne, N.J. 07470 1-800-9-RIGHTS or (732) 257-5040 |
| Helping Clients Get NOT GUILTY Verdicts For Over 20 Years |
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WHAT IS AN EXPUNGEMENT IN NEW JERSEY:
First you must qualify for an expungement. In general the qualifications are: 1) It must be an offense which can be expunged (most but not all NJ Shoplifting offenses can be expunged) 2) You must complete all parts of your sentence including: Jail Time, Community Service and Payment of all fines 3) You must wait the required amount of time once all jail time, probation, community service and fines are paid to get the expungement: Waiting Time: 5 years for a disorderly person offense (shoplifting under $200.00) and 10 years for a shoplifting/theft conviction over $200.00 since this is a felony charge unless you can prove to the judge it is in the public interest in which case the waiting period is only 5 years to apply 4) Your expungement must be approved by a superior court judge. (the order of expungement is not automatic and a judge may deny it based on the circumstances of your case and past record) 5) Pay the filing fee to the court to apply for the expungement. Assuming you meet the four qualifications above in most cases after 5 or 10 years your criminal record can be expunged by making an application to the Superior Court of NJ. |
HOW IS AN EXPUNGEMENT OBTAINED IN NJ:
For many people an order of expungement is worthless. Why? Because unlike some other states NJ does not erase the criminal record, they merely seal the record as of the date of the order of expungement. Because most employers, individuals and insurance companies are aware of this fact they do not use the New Jersey or FBI criminal record database to search for current criminal records and instead use third party providers. Most employers and individuals use companies which independently search the public records through either search engines, newspapers or private company databases. Over 25 of these companies exist today charging employers and individuals from $5.00 to over $50.00 for a search. When you are arrested for a criminal offense your name, address and offense charged becomes a public record (the only exceptions are crimes committed by minors). Companies today use Internet criminal record checks as a way of saving money. By far this is much cheaper than sending someone down to the local county and federal court houses to search the public records. Remember court records are open to the public that is why you will hear about a celebrity being arrested the next day. Private companies all over the country collect criminal history and other personal information from these public court records. These companies store that information on their own computers and thus in most cases are not required by law to update these records to include your expungement. In the normal course of business, no one informs these companies when a record is expunged. The courts do not even keep track of who has searched their records. Therefore the information that those companies previously stored can still be reported, not by the court, and not by New Jersey State Police or the FBI, but by these private companies. This exact situation was discussed in depth in an article in The New York Times on October 17, 2006, the Wall Street Journal on November 11, 2009 and the New Jersey Lawyer in the June 2010 issue. There is no complete solution to this problem. Thus, with the rise of the Internet search engines and independent public document search companies such as the LexisNexis® Retail Theft Contributory Database indexing all shoplifting arrests and conviction. An expungement today is not a guarantee that you criminal conviction wont be used against you in the future when you apply for a job, benefits, or even car insurance. |
WHY AN EXPUNGEMENT WILL NOT HIDE YOUR CRIMINAL RECORD
| The Best Defense to a Shoplifting Charge: Get the Best Shoplifting Lawyer and never get convicted! |
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ShopliftersAttorney.com
98% Success Rate of Winning,
Reducing or Eliminating the Penalties
98% Success Rate of Winning,
Reducing or Eliminating the Penalties