Legal Question in Criminal Law in Wisconsin

Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult for you to expunge any type of criminal conviction in WI from one's record. Worse yet, such records are easily available online to the general public, and employers often rely upon them in making hiring decisions. There are provisions in the law for "misdemeanor expungement" for minor crimes committed while under the age of 21, as well as for certain first offender drug crimes, but the DA's office must agree to apply such provisions at the time of the original sentencing and the Judge must order it at that time. Even then, actually getting the expungement implemented in the official court records (and on its website) requires yet another trip to court after one�s sentence is fully served in order prove that one has not gotten into any new trouble and to satisfy the court that any other conditions which were laid out at the time of sentencing have been satisfied. Aside from misdemeanor expungement and drug treatment expungement, District Attorney's also have the option of reopening convictions on public policy grounds (which is rarely used) and the WI governor also has a similar right to pardon any sort of a conviction. Both of these, however, are highly politicized decisions which are rarely made; for example, roughly ten gubernatorial pardons are granted annually in WI out of many thousands of applications. You best odds of obtaining either DA�s consideration or that of the governor are therefore political rather than legal ones. However, the assistance of lawyers who are politically connected with either politician may improve your odds of success. In the case of crimes of domestic violence , even pardons and expungements may not fully remove the conviction from the FBI�s national crime information computer records, and may not remove the lifetime firearms possession ban which accompanies all domestic violence convictions, as well as all felony convictions. My comments in this public web forum are intended only for public educational purposes and are not legal advice specifically tailored to you and your case. Instead, you should retain a lawyer in order to meet your legal needs, since I will be taking no action on your case. Disclosure of confidential information in a public web forum is not recommended and is always subject to being used against you in court. You are welcome to contact my Racine, WI office at 262-633-3090 or email me at [email protected] for further information.