Many people in this country have an old criminal case that still shows up on their criminal record.  Some of these cases can be years old and still show up.  Worse yet, many of these cases were dismissed, but show up anyway.

Having a criminal charge on their record can cause serious damage to a person in the future.  It can limit their job opportunities, and even cause them problems in their personal life.

Some people mistakenly think that a charge will disappear off their record after a certain number of years.  Some of them have even been mistakenly told by their lawyer that a charge "will not go on their record", when they really mean to say that "there will be no conviction on their record."

For certain types of cases, a person may be able to have these old charges removed.  The process of doing so is through an
"expungement" or an "expunction".  

Generally speaking, this option is only available in cases where:

1. The person was not actually convicted of the crime (I.e. charges were dropped, OR they were tried and found "not guilty", pardoned, or case overturned on appeal based upon actual innocence); AND
2. The person did not receive any kind of court ordered probation  or "deferred adjudication" (unless it was for a Class C misdemeanor case); AND
3. If a charge was actually filed against the person, it was dismissed, AND
  a. the statute of limitations has already run on the charge, OR
  b. the charge was specifically dismissed because of a mistake of fact, false information or other reason indicating that there was no probable cause to support the charge in the first place; AND
4. The person was not convicted of another charge that was related to the same arrest for the main charge; AND
5. The person had not been convicted of a felony in the last 5 years before the Petition for Expunction is filed.

If a person meets these criteria, then they are generally eligible to have the charge permanently removed from their record through the process of expunction.  The process usually takes about 2 months to complete, and the person may not even have to show up to Court for the hearing.

Once the Court grants an "Order of Expunction", a copy of the Order is sent out to al the government agencies that have copies of the criminal charges.  Often a copy of the Order is sent out to private companies that keep track of criminal records as well, such as "Publicdata.com" and "Lexis-Nexis."  It can take up to a year for all the agencies and companies to delete a record of the charge from their system.  

From thereon out, a person is generally free to deny that they were ever charged with a crime in the first place.  Then they can go on to live a more normal life, without these old charges haunting them wherever they go.