Expungement

If an old conviction from adult criminal court following you around for years seems unfair, imagine if your conviction happened when you were 14 or 15. A mistake you made when you were a confused or immature teenager should not hold you back from getting an education,...

Over the past few years, more and more Americans have decided that marijuana should not be illegal. It was not so long ago that pot was illegal in all 50 states and under federal law. With states like Washington leading the way, cannabis is increasingly allowed for...

So far, 18 states plus the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana, including Washington State. And 37 states have decriminalized cannabis at least for medicinal purposes. The national trend is toward treating legalization and away from punishing individuals for...

If you have not had your criminal record expunged, it can be easy to be skeptical. Hearing how expungement dramatically changed other people's lives might show how powerful of a tool it can be under Washington state law. Even if you were charged decades ago, just...

Dealing with the law in Washington State tends not to be cheap. To solve a legal problem, you are probably going to have to spend some money. If you look at these expenses as an investment in your future, the bills might not seem so onerous. This includes expunging...

In this blog, we often discuss the expungement of criminal convictions and how getting your record expunged can feel like a second chance at living the life you want. But not everyone who is eligible to request an expungement actually does so. Over in Montana, voters...

Expungement and record sealing seem pretty much the same at first. Both of them refer to shielding your criminal record from background checks. Both of them require you to go through a legal process, usually several years after you finish serving your sentence. And...

Washington State gives people with criminal records the chance to expunge their records, giving them the opportunity to put an old conviction behind them so it no longer holds them back. But the process is complicated, and many eligible people are intimidated or...

In many cases, the secondary consequences of a criminal conviction can far outweigh the original punishment. Long after you’ve paid your fines or served your time, a conviction on your record may limit where you can live, work and volunteer. Because convictions can...

If you have ever been convicted of a crime, you probably realize your punishment didn’t end when everyone else thought it did. Convictions come with long-lasting secondary effects. They may limit your rights, and they can hurt your chances for good-paying jobs. How...