Have probation violations been filed in your Orem Justice Court case, where the prosecutor is asking for jail time as a sanction? Do you need to expunge or reduce all Provo District Court felonies?
Have probation violations been filed in your Orem Justice Court case, where the prosecutor is asking for jail time as a sanction? Do you need to expunge or reduce all Provo District Court felonies?
Getting your Utah felony expunged is a life changer. Very inexpensive and well worth the price.
Other times your Provo Orem attorney will file a Rule 402 reduction motion on a 3rd Degree Felony, to reduce it to a Class A Misdemeanor—thus allowing the defendant to be able state he has not Felony record. Which helps with employment.
Other common uses of Rule 402 reductions are where they are guaranteed as part of the plea agreement. This can occur where a defendant pleads to a Felony 2nd Degree, but as part of the plea agreement the prosecutor states he will stipulate and agree in writing to a subsequent two-step 402 reduction to a Class A Misdemeanor if the defendant successfully completes probation.
Utah’s Expungement Act can be found at Utah Code Ann. 77-40-101 (2018). There some crimes which can never be expunged, unless you are pardoned by the Governor of Utah. But many, many criminal convictions can be expunged.
The following crimes can not be expunged.
(1). Any registerable sex offense.
(2). Any registerable kidnapping offense.
(3). First degree murder.
Here are the common timelines in order for you to be eligible for a Utah expungement.
(1). 10 years for DUIs and Impaired Driving convictions.
(2). Successfully completion of the case in the conviction you are trying to expunge. If you did not fully pay the restitution, or fines, the case is never eligible for expungement.
(3). 5 years wait period for Class A Misdemeanors.
(4). 4 years wait period for Class B Misdemeanors.
(5). 3 years wait period for Class C Misdemeanors.
Not only is there waiting periods but there are also restrictions on how many criminal convictions you can have and the types and combinations of convictions you can have. More than 5 criminal convictions of any grades bars you from any type of criminal expungement. There is an exception to this rule of 5 if you can get a case severity reduced by a Rule 402 reduction motion, then move the courts for an expungement.
Sometimes you have too many criminal convictions to qualify for a Utah expungement. If you have over 5 convictions, regardless of their severity, you don’t qualify for a Utah expungement. The trick is to have your Provo Orem attorney run one or more Rule 402 reduction motions to get your criminal record to a point where you do qualify.
EXAMPLE: You can’t have over 5 criminal convictions of any sort and still qualify for an expungement. Your criminal record has two Class C Misdemeanors, two Class B Misdemeanors and one Class A Misdemeanor. Under these facts you would not automatically qualify for an expungement. You simple have to many convictions to qualify.
The Rule 402 reduction comes into play by moving the court to reduce by one grade the two Class C Misdemeanors to Infractions because Utah Infractions do not count against your record when it comes to expungement.
In the above example, where you had too many convictions, after the Rule 402 reductions pushed the two Class C Misdemeanors down to Infractions, you thereafter qualify to expunge the remaining Class A Misdemeanor and the two Class B Misdemeanors. Without the Rule 402 reduction motion you didn’t qualify.
