If you live in Kentucky and have an existing criminal record, you may find that it follows you around and hinders your ability to move forward with your life. In some circumstances, Kentucky’s criminal offenders, including some who have drunk driving convictions, can request what is known as an expungement, which essentially means that your conviction will no longer appear when someone runs a background check on you.
If you wish to expunge your Kentucky driving under the influence conviction from your criminal record, at least 10 years must have passed since the date of your conviction, and your conviction must have been for misdemeanor DUI. Additionally, you and your situation must meet certain criteria in order for you to receive the expungement.
Criteria for expungement
More specifically, you must not have any existing or pending felonies on your record, and you must not have committed any violations or misdemeanors for at least five years before receiving your DUI conviction. Furthermore, you must avoid having any additional charges or convictions (violations, misdemeanors or felonies) in the time since you began seeking the expungement.
After an expungement
Should your pursuit of a DUI expungement prove successful, your conviction will generally no longer appear on court records. This means if an employer, housing application or what have you asks about your criminal history, you typically do not have to disclose the details surrounding your DUI conviction. The conviction will, however, remain on the public record in most cases, meaning members of the public may still be able to find information about it online or in other places.
Having a criminal record has the capacity to affect everything from where you can work to where you can live, and one mistake can have considerable consequences on the rest of your life. An expungement may be the first step in rebuilding and moving forward with your life.