NEW KENTUCKY LAW: SOME FELONIES CAN NOW BE EXPUNGED6/17/2016
THE PROCESS The felony expungement process is much more complex than a misdemeanor expungement process in several different ways. First, it's more expensive. Misdemeanor expungements cost $100 to the Administrative Office of the Courts, whereas felony expungements are $500 ($50 of which is not refundable, even if you fail in your petition and your case does not get expunged.) Second, it's lengthier. Both the County and the Commonwealth attorneys have up to 120 days (about 4 months) to respond to the petition. Although, if they fail to respond within that time frame, the Court may grant your expungement motion without their response. Third, the Court may require the victims of your crime to be present in court, if they so choose, to speak their mind about (and possibly influence) the Court's decision. If you thought the process alone was difficult, imagine having the victims protest your expungement directly to the judge. We'll see how this affects various expungements when petition start getting filed. Fourth, it requires an expungement hearing in front a judge. Yeah, the process is not automatic, and you may need to speak in Court directly to the judge (might want to leave that to the professionals..) Finally, only about 61 felonies will be eligible for expungement under the new law. THE ELIGIBLE OFFENSES On July 15th, 2016 the following Felony offenses will become eligible for expungement:
MISDEMEANOR EXPUNGEMENTS The one big change coming to misdemeanor expungements is that there will no longer be a five-year look-back window for prior offenses -- this means that the statute is now going to be only forward looking, i.e. multiple prior misdemeanors will be able to be expunged as a group if you have been staying out of trouble for the last five years. FINAL WORDS Expungements can be very complicated and need to be handled very carefully -- do not try to do them yourself, because you may not get a second chance if you fail the first time. I'm always here for you, friend; The DUI Guy |
NEW KENTUCKY LAW: SOME FELONIES CAN NOW BE EXPUNGED
by Larry Forman on Sep. 18, 2018
Summary
You heard right -- the law in Kentucky has undergone a major change and starting on July 15, 2016, some 61 felonies will be eligible for expungement if certain criteria are met.