It is Lawyer Talk Q and A.

The ongoing Q and A series.

And if you haven't figured it out yet, the

idea of the Q and A series is to answer people's questions.

These are the questions that come on the website, Lawyer Talk podcast.

Com.

Come upstairs at the law firm Ohio Legal Defense dot com or just calls.

I get 614-224-6142.

What I'm doing here is taking these

questions and breaking them down into bite sized chunks.

A lot of times we answer questions over at the Blitz 99 seven.

We're on the podcast layer Talk podcast, and the questions get

buried in deeper discussions or longer discussions, which are awesome.

And a lot of people are listening.

In fact, we have people listening all over

the country now, and in fact, other countries.

I say that sometimes facetiously,

but it's actually true that's what the statistics are showing.

But anyway, back to the Q and A.

The question I'm dealing with today, and I

got this recently not only on the website, but lots of people call they want to know,

can I seal or expunge my drunk driving or other traffic offense or just generally,

can I seal up or expunge my traffic record? In a word?

No.

Unfortunately, in Ohio, you cannot do that.

But to answer the question really thoroughly, we should go backwards.

In Ohio, we don't really expunge records.

We seal them.

And those terms aren't necessarily defined very well in the High Revised Code.

I think a lot of times we think of a sponge as shredding burning, destroying

the records as if it never were there ceiling.

On the other hand, I tell people it's like sticking the record in a vault or a safe,

and only a certain few have a combination to that.

And sometimes you have to give people the

combination for that safe so they can see the records.

There is a provision to expunge records

for juvenile delinquency matters in Ohio, and that happens automatically in some

situations, other situations you have to actually pursue it.

But generally speaking, for adults, we do

not expunge records, criminal or otherwise.

We only seal them now.

Regarding traffic offenses.

The High Revised Code also draws a

distinction between what is a criminal offense and what is a traffic offense.

They actually are set forth in two different chapters of the code.

Chapter 29 deals with criminal offenses.

In Chapter 45 deals with traffic offenses.

We do get these situations where they tend to cross over here and there.

So a DUI sounds like

a more serious traffic offense, and it is, but it's still a traffic offense under 40

511, 145 1119 is generally where you're going to find DUI related law.

And when people get convicted of an Oi in Ohio, Bidi are the same.

They wonder, can I get that sealed once I drop off my record?

Well, there's two different things going on.

You have the beer of motor vehicles administrative side.

There's points and generally how outside private companies like insurance

companies will view it, the points will drop off after, I think, three years.

It's a six point or if you get convicted.

But as far as how insurance companies look at it, that's up to their own policy and

practice, generally there's going to be a look back period.

Generally, they're going to Ding you, or at least consider it.

If you have a cluttered up or bad traffic

record and you may even get canceled if you get involved in too much stuff by your

current insurance company, and then you get into this high risk zone where you

have bonded insurance and other things that are expensive.

But back to the question, sealing a traffic offense, you cannot do it.

Only criminal offenses in Ohio can be sealed.

So if it's got a.

45 in front of it, if it's a speeding case, if it's a changing land about safety

case fair to yield case, it's always going to be there.

Now, does that really matter?

Well, it's like that for everybody.

So it's not like you're going to be unique in that you have a traffic record.

But if you have a reoccurring issue where

you're constantly getting traffic offenses, they tend to stack up and it may

impede things like driving jobs or CDL jobs or other things.

Now, criminal cases. That's a different story.

There are many, many criminal cases that can be sealed from your records.

There are also those think like offenses of violence, that there are also those

offenses that can trigger Brady exclusions or firearm exclusion.

So the big picture question, can I seal up

my Ovi or my traffic offense or expunge it?

The answer is no, you cannot do that.

But the good news is eventually it gets in

the rearview mirror, no pun intended, and you can get past it.

That said, this is why I encourage folks

if you do have a speeding ticket and you haven't had one in a while,

I highly encourage you to get an attorney and try to fight it.

Often we can do things often there's diversion programs.

Often there are just concessions that the

prosecutors are willing to make if the case warranted.

If it's not real serious, this is why when people ask me, Do I need a lawyer?

Should I get a lawyer for my traffic offense?

Answer is, well, you have to decide it

worth it to you, because if you just send the money and if you just pay the ticket,

if you just take the conviction, it's on your record forever.

Although, like I said, eventually, it sort

of drops off of people's radar screen where they actually care.

But it's always there.

So if you want to try to avoid it, often the best way to do it is to get an

attorney, and we'd be happy to be that attorney, obviously 614-224-6142.

That's oh on Palmer.

So that wraps up this session of Q amp a.

You cannot seal or expend your traffic offense.

If you have a question, if you want to get

it answered right here on the Lawyer Talk Q Amp a.

If you want a private answer, it's real simple.

614-224-6142 Check us out at Ohio Legal Defense.

Com.

Send us an email or go to Lawyer Talk podcast.

Com and submit a question.

If you think you have some information,

you think you got a topic you want us to discuss, you can submit it there too.

So until next time.

This is Lawyer Talk an off the record on the air, at least until now.