How Do You Get Pennsylvania Adult Criminal Records Expunged Or Erased?
A criminal record can have a very serious negative impact upon your life. It can hurt your reputation, lessen your earnings capacity, keep you from obtaining licenses or certifications in certain professions (for example, lawyer or teacher) or keep you from being employed at all. To the extent that you can, if you have such a record, you should have it expunged as soon as possible. In Pennsylvania, to get adult criminal records expunged, the individual must file a Petition for Expungement with the Court of Common Pleas in the county in which the offenses occurred. At the time the petition is filed, a hearing is scheduled before a judge who will determine if the expungement request should be granted. With two exceptions, only non-conviction data can be expunged. Non-conviction data includes: 1. Arrest records that show no disposition took place after 18 months and the court of the proper jurisdiction certifies that no action is pending. 2. Cases that were dismissed or discharged because
