Three Qualities of a Good Expungement Lawyer

If you have made it to this blog then you've reached the right place. I'm going to tell you what three qualities you can expect to find in any good expungement lawyer, whether they are from Washington, from Seattle, or from anywhere else in the country. So pay attention, and hope this helps!

1. A Good Expungement Lawyer Won't Promise You the World

Here's the bottom line. There is probably at least a 50% chance that your old conviction cannot be expunged. It's not that it can't ever be expunged, it's just that at this point in time your conviction is just eligible to be taken care of. There are a lot of hurdles to jump through, from having a conviction that qualifies to having had enough time pass from the time of the resolution of your case. A good expungement attorney knows this, will tell you this, and will do a little bit of digging before making you pay a lot of money to try to get your conviction vacated.

2. A Good Expungement Attorney Will Tell it To You Straight

Not everyone that is eligible to have their conviction removed from their record will succeed in doing so. The decision of whether or not to wipe away a conviction is completely up the judge. It is within their discretion, as we like to say. That means there are no clear cut rules for have a motion to vacate a charge granted. If you are eligible, the judge can do it if they decide they want to do it. All your expungement lawyer can do for you is try to present you in the best light possible to get the judge to see it your way.

3. A Good Expungement Lawyer Will Tell You What You're Really Getting

The purpose of an expungement is to clear your criminal record. And that's what will happen if you are successful, sort of. What the good lawyers will tell you is that even though the court's records may be free from conviction data for you, there may be other places that data exists that are next to impossible to raid. The main place I'm talking about is the internet.

Now, that doesn't mean that you should just give up. Although information never leaves the internet, it can, and does, get buried so deep in the mass of information that it is often impossible to find if you are looking for it. But it can be out there, and it's important that you understand that.

Good luck!