Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

Re: Is it possible to expunge my record?

You can only have one conviction expunged. If your two prior convictions were misdemeanors and neither was reduced to a civil infraction, you do not qualify for expungement. It is possible one of your convictions was under the Youth Offender Act, which could create an exception.

It also must be at least 5 years since your conviction. You only have 1 shot at getting your record expunged, which involves petitioning the court and demonstrating that you qualify - there are a number of factors that the courts look at when deciding whether or not to grant your expungement. You definitely want to hire a lawyer to look at your prior convictions and how they were handled to see if you even qualify. And if you do qualify to petition the court, you need a lawyer to ensure the procedure is handled properly. If you need a referral, please contact me, as I know a lawyer that handles these all the time and he could investigate your background, the technicalities of your prior convictions, and determine if you even qualify to file a petition.

Thanks.

Re: Is it possible to expunge my record?

You can read up about the process at the Michigan Courts "self help" web site:

http://courts.michigan.gov/scao/selfhelp/intro/criminal/setaside_help.htm

You cannot expunge violations of the Motor Vehicle Code, per the laws for setting aside a conviction (the technical term for the process, but people also call it expungment). So, the OWI cannot be set aside.

The fact that you have the OWI conviction means that the MIP also cannot be set aside because you can have one and only one criminal conviction -- the one you are trying to set aside.

Your conduct since these crimes does not give the court the power to ignore the law and set aside your convictions. Your conduct is relevant only if you are initially eligible for expungment of a conviction and the judge has to decide whether to use his/her discretion to do so.

The first attorney's reply suggested that you consult an attorney to look into matters. That is not bad advice. But the suggestion that it's possible that one of your priors might have been handled under HYTA or a similar deferred sentencing/conviction process (where an actual conviction is never entered) is unlikely because you did not mention that you used HYTA, etc. You'd have remembered that, right?