Vacating Washington Convictions, Sealing or Deleting Washington Criminal Records, Restoration of Civil Rights

Seattle, Washington Vacate – Expungement – Criminal History – Criminal Records Attorney

Criminal history information is now readily available online. This means that just about anyone can find information about you that you believed was long in your past, never to be mentioned again.

Perhaps a judge, defense attorney, or prosecutor told you that your conviction or guilty plea would go “off your record” after a deferred sentence; perhaps you thought that juvenile convictions were not available to the general public; or perhaps you were acquitted and believed that your record was therefore not open to public viewing.  The fact is that past convictions, and sometimes even charges that ended up in an acquittal or dismissal, are on your record and generally available to the public, unless you take steps to do something about it.

Or perhaps you are trying to decide whether to go to trial or to accept a plea offer made by the prosecutor.  An important consideration for you may be whether and for how long your criminal history will be available to the general public and/or to law enforcement agencies. For most people, personal privacy is a deeply held and highly regarded value.  As a result, we feel that it is important for clients and potential clients to have an understanding of what happens to the records generated by the criminal justice process.  This section helps you understand, generally, whether and how those records will diminish your privacy, and what, if anything, you can do about any such diminution.

First, the data that makes up your “criminal record” is maintained in different forms by various different entities or repositories, including: 1) the court, if any, in which you were prosecuted; 2) the law enforcement agency or agencies that investigated and/or arrested you; 3) the Washington State Patrol; and 4) the FBI and other U.S. federal agencies.  Additional entities that may possibly receive, collect, and maintain data about your “record” include 1) Interpol); 2) law enforcement agencies from other countries; 3) private firms that obtain data from government agencies; and 4) the news media (assuming there was any media coverage of your case).

Second, there is a difference between 1) vacating a conviction, which turns a conviction into a nullity, but leaves most records and data intact and available for public viewing; 2) sealing records, which prevents access to records and data, but does not destroy them; and 3) deleting (sometimes called expunging)  records, which physically destroys the records.

Third, in quite general terms, the remedies available to you vary depending upon whether your case was handled in adult or juvenile court; whether your case involved a misdemeanor/gross misdemeanor or a felony; whether you were convicted or not; and which entity/data repository you are dealing with.

Fourth, even if you have remedies available to you, remember that a Washington judge does not have the power to tell a federal agency or a law enforcement office in another country or a private business such as a newspaper to seal or delete records such entity maintains on you.

To summarize:

  • different entities or repositories maintain your “record”, some of which do not have to listen to what a Washington judge says
  • you “record” consists of different types of data
  • there is a difference between

    • vacating a conviction
    • sealing a record
    • deleting a record

The law and procedure regarding vacating a conviction are not particularly complicated, and many people successfully represent themselves on motions to vacate their records (sealing and deleting records, while not rocket science, should probably be handled by an attorney).  At our Resources page, we provide detailed information and links to forms to help you decide whether you want to take the time and engage in the effort to represent yourself or whether you want to hire an attorney to represent you in seeking to vacate a conviction or to seal or delete a record. Because every client and every case are unique, the information presented at our Resources page is not meant to constitute specific legal advice.  Moreover, it is not meant as a treatise on every detail pertaining to this area of the law. Additionally, it is not meant to suggest that you should or should not represent yourself or that you should or should not hire a lawyer. Rather, the intent of providing this information is to give you a start on the research necessary to make that decision for yourself, and to help you understand how a conviction can affect your privacy.

If you decide to hire an attorney, we can certainly help you.  Still, as already noted, this is not a particularly complicated area of the law, and we make no claim that the Law Office of Michael Iaria PLLC is somehow uniquely situated to handle your matter (nor should any attorney or law firm make such a claim). There are many Washington vacate attorneys who should be able to help you if you decide you do not want to represent yourself.