Excessive Logjam in Expungement Process a Disservice to the Public

Expungements are a vital component of New Jersey’s criminal code. The expungement process allows people who have been arrested or charged with criminal offenses and municipal court offences (other than traffic violations), to have the public nature of the charges and dispositions removed from the records that are available in most criminal history searches. Once the record of an arrest, charge or conviction is expunged, the records relating to that matter are no longer disclosed in most background checks. Also, once expunged, the law permits a person to treat the matter as if it had not occurred when filling out most job applications. Charges that are dismissed outright, most charges that are dismissed following successful completion of a diversionary program, and some convictions are eligible to be expunged. It is very easy to see that most people who are eligible for an expungement benefit significantly from having expungement applications processed through and heard by the courts, because having these types of records expunged expands the horizon of employment and licensing opportunities. Recent developments in the law, including the legalization of adult recreational use of cannabis, the “Ban the Box” legislation concerning employment applications, and other remedial legislation designed to remove barriers associated with having an arrest record or a criminal conviction, are all well served by a robust and efficient expungement process.

The expungement laws themselves envision the speedy disposition of expungement applications. Indeed, N.J.S.A. 2C:52-9 provides that, upon the filing of a petition for expungement, the court shall by order fix a time not less than 35 days nor more than 60 days for a hearing on the expungement application. Another statute, N.J.S.A. 2C:52-11, allows the court to grant an application for an expungement without a hearing, when no objection to the expungement petition is filed. To streamline the expungement process, the court system has developed and implemented an electronic filing system to allow expungement applications to be filed electronically.