You may also qualify to have your case dismissed, commonly known as an expungement, and/or your offense may be reduced to a misdemeanor. If your case is dismissed and you don’t have any other convictions, you can honestly say you have not been convicted of any offense. If you offense is reduced to a misdemeanor, you can honestly say you have not been convicted of a felony.

Either of these remedies may help you find a job or obtain housing more easily. Keep in mind that background check companies continue to search the Megan’s Law website, so you may still have to explain that your case has been dismissed.

If you have multiple cases, you must complete this process for each case – you cannot do one filing for all cases. You must also independently qualify for each offense and each case. So, for instance, if you have multiple counts of which you were convicted and one of them does not qualify for dismissal, then your case cannot be dismissed, but if some offenses qualify for reduction to a misdemeanor, those offenses can be reduced even if other counts cannot be reduced.

To qualify for a dismissal, there are three requirements:

1. You must have been given a county jail/probation sentence, not state prison.
2. You must have completed probation successfully, meaning your probation was not violated or, if it was, you were not ordered to serve any additional time in custody.
3. You cannot be on probation or parole for any other offense, or in custody for any offense, or facing charges for any offense.

There are also some offenses that are excluded from this process.

To qualify for reduction to a misdemeanor, your offense must be a “wobbler,” which means it can be charged as either a misdemeanor or a felony. If you were convicted as a felony, then the offense can be reduced to a misdemeanor. If the offense can only be charged as a felony, then it is called a “straight felony” and it cannot be reduced to a misdemeanor because there is no misdemeanor option.

The Law Office of Bruce Bridgman has a 90%+ success rate with these petitions because we analyze the court records and make sure you qualify before filing the petition for dismissal or reduction to a misdemeanor. Call the Law Office of Bruce Bridgman now and we will give you our professional and honest opinion about whether you qualify and what we can do for you.

Fees

For full service, the Law Office of Bruce Bridgman charges a flat fee of $2,500 for a petition for dismissal or reduction to a misdemeanor. The Law Office of Bruce Bridgman will handle everything for you from obtaining the records necessary to get relief and confirm you qualify for these remedies before submitting the necessary paperwork to the appropriate court, making any necessary court appearances, and
following up to make sure the process is completed.

If you want to represent yourself and navigate the process on your own, the Law Office of Bruce Bridgman charges a flat fee of $1,500 for these services. The Law Office of Bruce Bridgman will help you get the court records and prepare the necessary paperwork for submission to the appropriate court. When a court appearance is required, you will represent yourself in court.

If the court records show that you do not qualify, these fees are partially refundable.