Orange Beach Expungement Lawyer
Orange Beach Expungement Lawyer.
Orange Beach, Alabama Expungement Lawyer. Are you eligible for an expungement from a previous charge in the Municipal Court of Orange Beach, Alabama? If you have previously been charged with a misdemeanor or violation in the Orange Beach Municipal Court and had your case dismissed, did you know the arrest record will remain on your background report unless you have it expunged.
Our law office represents clients that had prior charges in Orange Beach and Baldwin County in the process of petitioning for an expungement of non-conviction arrest records. The purpose of an Order of Expungement in Baldwin County is to “wipe clean” the record of arrest to the extent possible under Alabama’s expungement statutes. Even if you live out of the State of Alabama, if your charge was in Orange Beach or anywhere in Alabama, we can represent you if you are eligible to petition for an expungement.
A requirement under Alabama law to be eligible to petition the proper court for an expungement from a prior misdemeanor arrest in Orange Beach is that the charge must have resulted in some form of non-conviction. For example, if you received a withheld adjudication on a DUI in Orange Beach and the case was ultimately dismissed after successful completion of a CRO program – your case would be eligible to petition for an expungement after the necessary time has passed.
In Orange Beach and the rest of Alabama what is the time period that must pass after the dismissal of a misdemeanor or violation before the arrest record is eligible to petition for an expungement? It depends – if the case was “dismissed with prejudice” or if you were found “not guilty” at a trial by either a judge or jury – the case is immediately eligible to petition for an expungement. However, if your case was “dismissed” or “nolle prossed” you must wait two (2) years from the date of the dismissal order and have had no other convictions other than minor traffic violations to become eligible to petition for an expungement (See: Ala. Code § 15-27-01).
Our law office gets many emails and phone calls from people with previous cases in Orange Beach wanting to know if they are eligible to retain an expungement lawyer to represent them in a petition for an expungement. The best way to verify the disposition (outcome) of your prior case is to obtain a certified case action summary with disposition from the Orange Beach Municipal Court Clerk’s Office. On the paperwork from the Orange Beach Court it will show the date your case was disposed of and the disposition. From this information we can know for certain if and when your case may be eligible to file a petition for expungement in Baldwin County.
People often tell us: “my case in Orange Beach was dismissed but how do I know if it was dismissed with prejudice?” In Alabama, if the dismissal order states “dismissed” it is deemed to be a regular dismissal without prejudice – meaning you would need to wait the two (2) years after the dismissal to be eligible to petition for an expungement. If it is dismissed with prejudice, the court order from Orange Beach must specifically state “dismissed with prejudice”. The reality is most non-convictions from Orange Beach will be regular dismissals and nolle prossed dispositiions – meaning you will need to then wait two (2) years from the order to be eligible to retain our law office to represent you in a petition for an expungement.
If you are interested in retaining our law office to represent you through the process of petitioning for an expungement of your arrest record from a prior non-conviction in Orange Beach or Baldwin County District Court feel free to email us at Jordan@OrangeBeachLawyer.com or call us at (251) 545-3637.
