Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

Re: Expungement

This answer is in respect to getting an expungement and basicaly clearing your record. If more than five years have passed since your conviction, which in your case this is certainly true, and you have not picked up another felony and you successfully completed the terms of your probation, you may be elibible for an expungement. You need to have an attorney bring a motion in the Court where you were convicted in order to convice the judge they should order an expungement to clear your record. Please contact me, Melissa Vainik at (586) 402-0242 and I will be happy to explain the necessary procedure.

Re: Expungement

The first reply indictated that if you simply didn't have another felony and were off probation for 5 years, you could expunge. I disagree.

Expungment is a grace provision for people who have one -- and only one -- criminal conviction in their lifetime. Any other misdemeanor or felony conviction (before or afterward) will disqualify you.

If that "confrontation with your step-daughter" resulted in a criminal conviction (misdmeanor or felony), then you would have two convictions, and neither conviction (according the the letter of the law) can be expunged. However, if that "confrontation" did not result in a conviction, then you probably can get that one prior conviction set aside.

A judge has the discretion to set aside (expunge) or not set aside a prior conviction, but first you have to be legally eligible and you have to comply with some technical procedures leading up to the court hearing. You can do it on your own, but I recommend that you talk to an attorney who has done it before, so steps are not missed.

The expungment statutes are on the internet. Go to www.michiganlegislature.org/law/advancedsearchform.asp and then go down to the "Public Act Number" fields and type in "213" in the first box (w/o the quote marks) and "1965" in the second, and hit Search. This takes you to links to Public Act 213 of 1965, which are the Expungment statutes (MCL 780.621 - 780.624).

Good luck!