Steve Palmer [00:00:00]:

Alright. Lawyer Talk. You got questions. I got answers. That is Lawyer Talk q and a. Check us out at LawyerTalkPodcast.com. You can submit a question at LawyerTalkPodcast.com or leave a comment in the socials or wherever you, you happen to catch our content. And I'll try to I try to comment on the comments, which is really like answering questions.

Steve Palmer [00:00:19]:

You'll get it. This question actually came on the website, lawyertalkpodcast.com. And Andy is asking, can someone get a disorderly conduct, battery, or misdemeanor expunged taken off their record? If so, how? Sort of a broad question, and and these are questions that I gotta be a little careful because this isn't legal advice. I I but I'll tell you generally how the process works here in Ohio, and it may be different in other states. In Ohio forever, we only had something called record sealing. And the way I always describe record sealing was, you would stick the records in an envelope, pull them out of the public view, stick them in an envelope, put them in a safe, lock the key or lock it with a key, and then only certain people get the key or combination to the safe. And those people might be, police, in certain investigations. It might be if you're got a professional license, etcetera, etcetera.

Steve Palmer [00:01:09]:

Recently, in the last couple of years, Ohio, updated their law. Now we have something called expungements. Expungements are different. The the idea of an expungement is the record is shredded, gone. It's not put in a safe. Nobody has the key. Nobody has the combination, and, the records are gone. Both ways in Ohio, the law says you can treat it like it never happened.

Steve Palmer [00:01:30]:

Although, at least with respect to a lot of things, like everything like a lot of things, the exceptions can swallow up the rule. For instance, I was I had to sit for the bar exam back in the nineties. And in order to take the bar exam, I had to fill out a questionnaire or an application for my own character and fitness. Was did I have the quality character, and when was I fit to become a lawyer? And then after you submit that, that application, I had to meet with a committee of people and, who are lawyers, and they would say, well, how are you? Who are you? And if I had prior convictions, even traffic violations as a juvenile, I had to disclose them, and the disclosure mandate included things that had been sealed or expunged. So even if I had a record that had been sealed, even if I had a record that had been expunged, I had to I had to tell them about it. And and to the extent that I had documents, I would have had to include them. And then to the extent it was only sealed here in Ohio, I would sign doc I would sign a release letting the bar examiners get these documents. And it's probably the same with other types of I know it's the same with other professions.

Steve Palmer [00:02:33]:

Teachers are a big one. Anybody working at schools are a big one for reasons that you might, you might expect. Anyway, they we're back to the question. Disorderly conduct here in Ohio, absolutely, that is something that can be expunged or sealed provided you don't have too much on your record already. Battery. So I remember not knowing what battery was, but battery is an assault. You know, there's two types of assault. One is a verbal assault.

Steve Palmer [00:02:56]:

Another is a touch. The touch becomes the battery. But I think we all sort of lump that into assault. That gets a little dicey. You can probably get an assault conviction in Ohio, a misdemeanor assault conviction expunged. But if it's a domestic violence, so an assault on a family or household member, you're gonna be up against the wall on that. And then misdemeanor, is another qualification they're asking about. Both misdemeanors and felonies here in Ohio can be expunged or sealed, but not all of them.

Steve Palmer [00:03:26]:

As I've already talked about domestic violence, that can't always be sealed or expunged. And then crimes of violence, generally speaking, as felonies, no go. You can't get them sealed or expunged. Any sort of sexual or sexual related offense, no go. Higher level felonies of the first and second degree in Ohio at one, two, three, four, five, one being the highest, five being the lowest. Ones and twos in Ohio, generally, no go on expungements or sealing. And then the final part to the question is, how do you do it? Well, we have a process. There it's like a lot of stuff in court.

Steve Palmer [00:03:58]:

We have an application. Some courts have forms. You can just fill them out. Some what we like to do is create our own form and supply a memorandum in support of expungement. Generally, and this is very general, what we try to establish, what the law requires us to establish is that my client's interest in having this record expunged or sealed outweighs any governmental interest in keeping the record intact. And you can imagine what we might argue. So I often will tell my clients, look. Give me some background.

Steve Palmer [00:04:27]:

I'll get to know my clients a little bit. Tell me about yourself. What are you trying to do that this record is preventing? In in the in the case of a felony conviction, it's obvious. Anybody's ever tried to rent an apartment, get a job, the felony is a huge anchor around your neck and sometimes just a flat out disqualifier. So that's easy. I judge my client as applied for several jobs at, Acme whatever or this service industry, whatever it would be, and was denied because of the felony conviction or not even considered. And, he's got no other records since this time, and, that obviously the state's interest in keeping and maintaining the record is minimal because my client doesn't have anything else going on in his life. He's doing he's doing what he's supposed to do.

Steve Palmer [00:05:10]:

And then finally, there's the other criteria that we look at is there's usually a waiting period, and that depends on what you're trying to expunge, where you're trying to do it, whether it's a felony or misdemeanor. But the good news is Ohio has gotten a lot more lax when I started back in the nineties. If you even had an OVI on your record, not only could you not get your OVI or DUI expunged or sealed, you that precludes you from every other thing getting it sealed. So, I mean, it was brutal. That's all been relaxed, and, life is a lot better if you're trying to clean up your record, turn over a new leaf, and move on to the next steps. If you need help, this this is my wheelhouse. This is what I do upstairs. Check us out.

Steve Palmer [00:05:45]:

Palmerlegaldefense.com. So we are taking your questions here. Lawyertalkpodcast.com. Leave us a comment. Send us a question. I'll do my best to cover it off the record on the air, at least until now.