For individuals in Clark County, NV, record sealing services are available through the advocates at Yampolsky & Margolis Criminal Defense Las Vegas. The process is similar in all Nevada jurisdictions, and the first step in the process is obtaining a copy of your criminal history record, also known as your SCOPE. After you obtain your SCOPE, a valid fingerprint card must be secured. Once these materials have been obtained, bringing them to Yampolsky & Margolis is the surest way to get your Petition to Seal Records started quickly.
The Petition to Seal Records is a civil proceeding and there are fees associated with the filing of the Petition itself and the service of the Order once obtained. With Yampolsky & Margolis, there is but one fee to be paid by the client and all filing and associated fees will be covered by the firm. Once filed, the Petition is circulated to all agencies possessing an electronic or hard copy (paper) record of the arrest, citation, conviction, etc. Once approved by the judge, each of the various holders of the records, various stakeholders, have a statutorily prescribed time period within which to purge their records.
At that time, the court will review the Petition and decide whether it should be kept on file or sealed. While the process to seal your Nevada record differs by county, it generally follows a similar vein as that described above. The process can be somewhat tedious and even a bit complicated such that if you have never done it before, you may feel overwhelmed. You can get help from a lawyer in Las Vegas if you are unsure of what to include. The attorney will prepare the Petition and Order to Seal, which contain the information from Step Two.
The D.A. ‘s office is required to sign the Order to Seal once the judge has concluded the Petition is meritorious, even if the D.A. had initially objected. This requires a certain amount of time and patience as the whole process can take anywhere from six months to a year. If you have done this process before, it’s easy to complete. Just make sure to have an attorney present at the court hearing. It’s possible to do this without an attorney, but it’s much better to hire an attorney to assist you. This way, you can focus on your case and your criminal defense lawyer can focus on the fine print and the minutiae of the various forms.
There are several benefits to record sealing, including maintaining the privacy of your criminal history. Potential employers and landlords won’t be able to see your past, and you can legally and honestly state that you have no criminal record. It’s important to note that a sealed record is not completely deleted, and the information in it may still be accessible by some federal government agencies. As a result, you need to ensure that you know your criminal history (and who can see what) before you apply for employment. To learn the difference between record sealing and expungement check out this article.