Image by Getty Images via @daylifeEXPUNGEMENT OF CASE RECORDS
A person ages 17 or older can petition the juvenile court to have records permanently removed in certain cases. This is referred to as expungement. According to the Children’s Code (Ch.C. Art. 918), case records may be expunged:
- Where conduct or conditions did not result in an adjudication
- Where conduct or conditions resulted in a misdemeanor adjudication
- only if two or more years have elapsed since the youth satisfied the conditions of the most recent judgment
- Where conduct or conditions resulted in a felony adjudication, the record may be expunged only if:
- the adjudication was not for murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, armed robbery or a sex crime
- more than 5 years must have elapsed since the most recent judgment was satisfied
- there are no adult felony convictions or adult misdemeanor convictions involving a weapon
Upon service of expungement orders, OJJ is required to remove all references to the petition/adjudication/disposition included in our records. If the petition, adjudication, and/or disposition named in the expungement petition is the only information we have on the youth, OJJ must remove his entry from the case management system and the hard copy of his record is destroyed.
