On April 6, 2023 Ohio made significant changes to the state’s expungement and records sealing law. The new law created the biggest overhaul to the code section since the changes in 2018. Senate Bill 288 completely restructures the section
Expungements in Ohio are now available to more people
making it significantly easier to read and understand and also significantly expands who is eligible for expansion. Under the new law YOU MAY BE ELIGIBLE NOW EVEN IF YOU WERE NOT PREVIOUSLY. Our experienced Ohio Expungement Attorney’s will help you apply to clean up your record.
The new law also sets out a new process where by a record can be expunged, or completely destroyed, rather than sealed.
The new bill sets out six categories of offenses that cannot be sealed. Those are:
- Convictions of a felony offense of violence;
- 1st or 2nd degree felony convictions;
- Convictions of a sexually oriented offense and the offender is still subject to registration requirements;
- Traffic offenses;
- Convictions for domestic violence or violation of a protection order
- A conviction where the victim of the offense was less than 13 years old
ALL OTHER CONVICTIONS ARE ELIGIBILE. This includes convictions for sex offenses after the sex offender registration period has ended.
Under Ohio’s old law having a conviction for any of the above offenses would prevent your entire record from being eligible to be sealed. The old law also prevented people from getting their record sealed or expunged if they had too many convictions. You can now have any number of convictions as long as they do not fall into the categories above.
Lastly, the law makes it possible to expunge, or completely destroy records, rather than just sealing, or hiding them. If your record was previously sealed, you can apply to have it expunged.
Do you want to clean up your record? Have you tried to seal or expunge your multiple theft or drug offenses and been told you can’t or a court denied your request? Our firm has a long history of helping our clients with Franklin County Expungements and other Central Ohio Expungement cases.
If you think this new law applies to you or want us to check, call one of the attorneys at Funkhouser Law today at (614) 756-2154.
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