Expungement Attorneys Serving Butler, Warren, Preble, Hamilton, and Montgomery County Courts

The attorneys at Combs, Schaefer, Ball & Little understand that sometimes good people make mistakes and have a strong history of helping people expunge criminal convictions from their record.

Ohio Law allows certain qualifying individuals an opportunity to apply to the Court to have certain convictions permanently removed from their record. This opportunity to have the charge expunged from your record means that the conviction does not appear on your record or a background check and prohibit you from seeking certain employment or educational opportunities.

The expungement process starts with the filing of an application for expungement with the Court. In order to apply for an expungement, one must be determined to be an eligible offender. An eligible offender is determined by the type of conviction an applicant is attempting to expunge and the number of total convictions an offender has on his or her record. Upon receipt of the application, the Court will forward the application to the Prosecutor’s Office for review. The Prosecutor’s Office then will respond with whether or not they oppose the expungement.

In order to qualify for an expungement, the following circumstances must be met:

• There has been a final discharge in the case. This is generally the date of sentence or if an individual was placed on probation it is the date of termination of the probation;
• Whether the statutory waiting period has expired. Pursuant to Ohio law, an individual seeking expungement must wait 1 year from the final discharge for misdemeanor convictions and 3 years after the final discharge on felony convictions;
• The application must qualify as an “eligible offender” as described by Ohio Law. “Eligible offender” currently means anyone who has been convicted of an offense in this state or any other jurisdiction and who has not more than one felony conviction, not more than two misdemeanor convictions if the convictions are not of the same offense, or not more than one felony conviction and one misdemeanor conviction in this state or any other jurisdiction. When two or more convictions result from or are connected with the same act or result from offenses committed at the same time, they shall be counted as one conviction. When two or three convictions result from the same indictment, information, or complaint, from the same plea of guilty, or from the same official proceeding, and result from related criminal acts that were committed within a three-month period but do not result from the same act or from offenses committed at the same time, they shall be counted as one conviction, provided that a court may decide that it is not in the public interest for the two or three convictions to be counted as one conviction;
• Finally, the conviction you are attempting to expunge must not be precluded by statute, as Under Ohio law certain offenses are cannot be expunged.

At the expungement hearing the Judge will determine whether or not to grant the application. If the expungement is granted, the conviction is removed from your record and all records relating to the incident are typically ordered to be destroyed.

Contact our legal team in Middletown, OH today

If you have been convicted of a criminal offense and are interest in obtaining an expungement, contact the attorneys at Combs, Schaefer, Ball & Little today!