Expunctions Related to Charges that were not filed

So, charges that have not been filed. You got different timelines for your cases that have never been filed and your cases filed and dismissed. if an indictment or information has not been presented: then you have the right to expunction, a 180 days after your arrest if it’s a class C misdemeanor, a year from the arrest if it’s for a class A or B misdemeanor, or 3 years if it’s a felony. Now these are timelines that allow you to do an expunction way before the statute of limitations expires. Except on a felony most statute limitations are 3 years. so, you really want to think about whether you want to go ‘poke the bear with a stick’ and say, ” hey you haven’t indicted this case yet, give me my expunction” or “you haven’t filed this yet, we need an expunction.”

so, the only time I would ever advise doing this is; if you get the 4th part of this which is,” a person can apply for an expunction at any time if the prosecutor for the state certifies that the records are not needed for any kind of prosecution. Now without that certification, you’re not getting a complete expunction. because the law allows that,” if the prosecutor does not certify it, then the prosecutor can keep…” expunction will still go through and will go through all the other agencies, but the state and the other applicable law enforcement agency which; when I do an expunction most of the agencies that I cite could be called ‘law enforcement agencies’ they get to keep their records if there’s no certification from the prosecutor. So, basically what that would do was; you would go and get your expunction, the prosecutor and the applicable law enforcement agency still had their records. So you’re going to need to go back and do another expunction afterwards. So it’s a kind of thing where I just don’t see a whole lot of value in doing an expunction under those timelines unless you get that certification. And so, or better yet a recommendation under 55.01(B), yeah, 55.01(B) and we’ll talk about that here in a bit.