{"id":2602,"date":"2022-02-23T15:11:30","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T22:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.recordgone.com\/news\/?p=2602"},"modified":"2022-02-23T15:16:56","modified_gmt":"2022-02-23T22:16:56","slug":"arizona-expands-record-clearing-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.recordgone.com\/news\/2022\/arizona-expands-record-clearing-relief\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Expands Record Clearing Relief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On July 9, 2021, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/legiscan.com\/AZ\/text\/SB1294\/id\/2424278\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Arizona passed Senate Bill 1294<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which would permit an individual to have his or her felony or misdemeanor arrest, conviction, and sentencing records sealed by the court. Record sealing is when a court seals or destroys records that would otherwise be publicly accessible to employers, landlords, and licensing agencies. Previously, the only relief Arizona courts granted was a set aside, which does not completely remove the offense from an individual\u2019s record. Beginning January 1, 2023, individuals with arrests, convictions, and sentencing records can have their offenses completely removed from public records regardless of whether they were previously granted a set aside.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Applicants may be eligible for sealing after completing their sentence, which includes paying all fines and waiting thirty days after the court receives the applicant\u2019s petition. Most offenses are eligible for sealing except for Class 1 felonies, and certain violent and sexual offenses. To be eligible for record sealing, an individual must not have committed a serious offense or be convicted of an offense involving the discharge, use, or threatening exhibition of a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument, or the knowing infliction of serious physical injury on another person. Under SB 1294, there are no limitations based on the number of convictions that an applicant may have, nor are there any limitations on the number of times that an applicant can request to seal his or her records.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Depending on the applicant\u2019s offense, he or she must meet the waiting period after completion of probation, the sentence, or the date of discharge to be eligible for record sealing relief. For a Class 2 or 3 felony, an applicant need only wait an additional waiting period of ten years. For a Class 4, 5, or 6 felony, an applicant need only wait an additional five years. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.azleg.gov\/ars\/13\/00911.htm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a7 13-911<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(E). For a Class 1 misdemeanor, an applicant need only wait an additional three year waiting period. For a Class 2 or 3 misdemeanor, an applicant has an additional waiting period of two years. If an applicant commits another offense during the waiting period for a prior offense, the waiting period is restarted.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once the court grants the record sealing petition, then the record will be sealed and unavailable to the public. After granting the applicant\u2019s petition, all law enforcement agencies are notified that the applicant\u2019s records are now sealed. On applications, the individual would be able to truthfully indicate that he or she is not the subject of the sealed criminal case. This process will help ease employment and housing processes and allow individuals to better provide for themselves and their families.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We will begin taking clients for this future relief in mid-2022. Please contact us at that time with questions or if you\u2019d like to retain our services.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On July 9, 2021, Arizona passed Senate Bill 1294, which would permit an individual to have his or her felony or misdemeanor arrest, conviction, and sentencing records sealed by the court. Record sealing is when a court seals or destroys records that would otherwise be publicly accessible to employers, landlords, and licensing agencies.  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.recordgone.com\/news\/2022\/arizona-expands-record-clearing-relief\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.recordgone.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.recordgone.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.recordgone.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.recordgone.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/www.recordgone.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.recordgone.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2603,"href":"https:\/\/www.recordgone.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2602\/revisions\/2603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/\/www.recordgone.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/www.recordgone.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/www.recordgone.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}