All About Expunction
A Guide for Young People With a Juvenile Record
What Is An Expunction?
The expunction process destroys or seals records of your contact with the police agencies, juvenile court, an the county juvenile department. It's sometimes called "getting your record expunged."
If the juvenile department or the court approve an expunction of your records, this is what happens:
- Any agency who has a record based on the contact must remove your record.
- If people ask the agency or the court about your record, they must tell that person that you do not have one.
- The juvenile department or court will give you a copy of the expunction notice or order and a list of the agencies that have complied with it (the agencies that need to follow it).
- You are legally permitted to say that your juvenile record never existed and the contact (act or behavior) never occurred.
Before you keep reading, there are some legal words you should know.
Best interests: The reason you give for removing your record benefits BOTH you and the community.
Contact: When you act in a way that a court could find you within its jurisdiction. This is normally when the police speak with you about something that you did that could be against the law.
Jurisdiction: When a judge decides that you did something that would have been a crime if you were an adult, you are found to be "within the jurisdiction of the court." This is similar to the adult term "conviction." In juvenile justice, this normally means you were placed on probation through the juvenile department or committed to the Oregon Youth Authority.
Never within the jurisdiction: Even though you had contact with police or the juvenile department, you were never found in jurisdiction. This normally occurs when you go through some type of diversion program, you are on informal probation, or the charges against you are either never filed or were dropped.
Termination: After you are found in jurisdiction and either the maximum time period passes or your probation officer asks for your case to be closed, the court can order your jurisdiction terminated. This is usually when you finish probation or parole. Your most recent termination is when you last finished probation or parole. The juvenile department can help you figure out this date.
Do I qualify for an expunction?
Please see the attached brochures to the left for additional information.
