You’ve been charged with criminal wrongdoing and you were subsequently convicted. You are now consistently worried about how this will impact the rest of your life. While you were found guilty in court, you feel like there were mitigating factors in your case.
If mitigating factors impacted your circumstances, this could help should you apply to have your record expunged. These are some of the more common examples of mitigating factors in criminal cases.
Your age at the time of the offense
Most people make mistakes in their youth. While such mistakes often don’t cross the line into criminal wrongdoing, it can happen. Perhaps you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time as a teenager and found yourself being charged because of the activities of your peer group. It’s possible that this may have been considered a mitigating factor in your case, and you may even have avoided jail time or hefty penalties as a result. Having a criminal record under these circumstances increases the likelihood of you being able to have your record expunged at some point.
Coercion
People can also be victims of circumstance, and you may have been brought up in a rough area with high crime rates. Thus, when you were younger, criminal activities may have been “the norm.” Yet, despite having picked up a record years ago, you have made positive steps to move out of the area and build a new life.
A mistake from the past should not be held against you forever. Redemption law can potentially give you the opportunity to start afresh and hold your head higher. Seek legal guidance to find out more about having your criminal record expunged.