Legal Question in Criminal Law in Virginia

Re: Misdemeanor offense

If you received the disposition known as Suspended Imposition of Sentence(SIS)which is available to first time(mostly)misdemeanor offenders in the Commonwealth, and successfully completed all of the conditions of your probation, your case should've been dismissed/closed by the court without a formal conviction on your record and allowing you to swear truthfully on any application for employment that you never have been convicted of a crime.

The above, however, applies only to the particular disposition referenced above. If, unfortunately, you in fact did not recieve this disposition for the petty larceny charge(shoplifting)and were formally convicted of the offense, as a practical matter there would now be no way to remove it from your record.

Re: Misdemeanor offense

As you no doubt have heard, if you were convicted then you have a criminal record. If the charge was dismissed, then you can have your record of arrest expunged by a circuit court. Many times the shoplifter's class is offered to keep one's record clean and give one a fresh start. Hopefully, that is what happened to you.

Good luck.