Legal Question in Criminal Law in Minnesota

Re: Misdemeanors

Answer: "Forever." In fact, people who do genealogical research about ancestors and historical figures often look up old and ancient court records.

There are way to prevent a misdemeanor conviction from ever attaching to you. It is often possible, for a person with a good lawyer and clean record. There are even some ways to try to clear a conviction from the court record after the fact, but these tend to be much much more expensive and as they say in horse racing, a "long shot!" Still, if the need is great, with enough effort, sometimes positive results can be achieved even after, normally, "it's too late." The old maxim, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" certainly applies here.

Success should be more likely and less expensive if the criminal defense lawyer is retained as early as possible, but certainly before any conviction!

Good luck.