We all make mistakes during our life. Especially in the early years, when we’re young, all kinds of things happen. We may end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. The police might arrest us and create a criminal record.
This criminal record may become a serious problem later in life. This is why legal institutions have created the expungement method. With it, people who had trouble with the law can ask for their files to be sealed or deleted.
Who is eligible for expungement?
There are strict rules about who can get a legal cover and seal their criminal record from the past. There are strict rules about who’s eligible for it. Take a look at this link if you want to know more about it.
However, without a legal representative, or someone who understands this part of the law, you can’t do anything. You must hire an attorney that will take care of things. In this article, we’re showing you what you need to mind when making your choice.
Follow up if you want to learn more about this. Remember that your case might be dismissed and your record will stay visible even though you asked for its expungement. This is why you must make sure you’re being represented by a person who really knows how to do their job.
1. Look for a license
There are tens of different types of attorneys out there. From criminal to corporate lawyers. They all know how to do their job, but they are not all specialized for covering every aspect of the legal matter.
This is why you should look for a person who’s skilled in this area. You need to find an attorney who’s skilled and experienced in the matter of expungement. It’s a highly complicated area so make sure you’re only hiring someone who learned and practiced this field before.
All lawyers go to law school. After their graduation, they all take different directions. Some practice one type, while others become experts in another. You should ask for a license, degree, or anything that will prove the person you’re hiring is skilled in the expungement cases. Take a look at the various requirements and systems of doing this across different US states here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expungement_in_the_United_States.
2. Find out about their experience
Experience is crucial in many business fields and this one is not an exception. Never opt for a lawyer that will be inexperienced. Yes, every graduate lawyer will know how to do their research and follow the rules, but only the experienced ones will know how to win your case.
Since this is a highly sensitive subject, you need only those with years and years of experience behind them. You need someone who has seen all kinds of things and will know what can be expected at the court of law.
Make sure the person representing you will know immediately what is best for you and your future. Listen to their advice and make sure you follow their instructions too. If they tell you that it’s better off to do one thing instead of another, be sure that they know what they are talking about. Experience thought them about it.
3. Check out their track record
The attorney’s track record is a way for clients to learn about how good particular legal representatives are. Every lawyer working on cases has its own track record. The inexperienced ones might have none because they never worked on a particular case alone, but those with lots of cases behind them will have a reach portfolio.
The track record shows how successful they were in their job. The track record shows how many times they’ve lost or won the case they’ve been appointed to. Those who have more wins are the better ones. Those who have more losses mean that your case might be dropped. Choose those with a perfect track record.
4. Search for reviews online
The best way to find out if a particular attorney is good is to look at their name up on the internet. The internet is full of information on various subjects. Lawyers’ portfolios are one of these things.
However, searching through the official website of a particular law company won’t give you much information. What you need to do is conduct independent research based on the opinion of people who were in the same situation as you are at the moment.
What does this mean? It means you should open some of the many websites out there dealing with this issue. There are lots of different ones out there. Think about pages like Yelp, Avvo, Google Reviews, and others.
What you should do on these pages is to use their search bar and find the ultimate best ranking there. For example, if you look for an expungement lawyer in Utah, you should choose the area where you live, and not the entire state. This is going to give you much better results. See who is ranking best. The results are almost always your best choice.
5. Choose a local lawyer
The local lawyers are always a better choice. Aside from the popular keeping the local economy on a higher level, it’s good to hire a local one because they know the judges, the people working in the court, and the procedures that are going on inside.
Having someone truly good from afar is great for you, but it’s not going to be fabulous when they have to meet face to face with a local attorney and the local judge. Yes, the law should be blind to the difference, but the reality shows something else every time. Choose local and get the best chances you have for getting your file expunged.
Conclusion
These five points are a great way to understand how to find the ultimate best expungement attorney in your area. Do your research and make sure you’re only hiring the best. This is your future on the line, so make sure you do an excellent job researching.
