RecordGone Blog
California’s 1170 Felony Realignment Expungement Law
Governor Jerry Brown recently signed into law Assembly Bill 651, which fills a critical gap in California’s expungement law. Under the new law, codified as Penal Code Section 1203.41, individuals sentenced under Felony Realignment, Penal Code Section 1170(h)(5), may be eligible to expunge the felony conviction from their criminal record. Continue reading
New Jersey’s New Conditional Dismissal Program
On January 4, 2014, a New Jersey law that establishes a conditional dismissal program in the Municipal Courts for first-time offenders charged with certain disorderly persons offenses goes into effect. A defendant who successfully completes this program will be eligible to expunge his or her record six months after the case is dismissed. The conditional dismissal program will supplement New Jersey’s existing diversion programs, which include pre-trial intervention (PTI) for certain indictable offenses in the Superior Court and conditional discharge for certain disorderly persons drug offenses in the municipal court. Continue reading
Minnesota Legislature Looking to Improve Expungement Law
There is a group of Minnesota House Members and Senators that have come together to form the Expungement Working Group. On Tuesday, they had their third meeting in three months, and at this meeting lawmakers heard public testimony on the current issues surrounding expungement law. Much of the testimony focused on the effect a criminal record has on a prior offender’s ability to secure employment and the changes that must be made to the expungement law to remedy this problem. The current law only expunges the judicial records. Continue reading
U.S. Supreme Court to Decide Gun Ban Case
The Supreme Court of the United States has agreed to hear a case that will define the scope of the Lautenberg Amendment, a federal law that prohibits individuals convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence from possessing a firearm. Federal law makes it a crime for any person convicted of a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” to possess a firearm. The phrase “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” is defined to include any federal, state, or tribal misdemeanor offense, committed by a person with a specified domestic relationship to the victim, that “has, as an element, the use or attempted use of physical force, or the threatened use of a deadly weapon.”
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