RESTRICTING YOUR RECORDS IN GEORGIA

IF YOU WERE CONVICTED OF A FELONY IN THE STATE OF GEORGIA, YOU MAY HAVE OPTIONS TO RESTRICT YOUR RECORD AND SEAL YOUR CASE FROM PUBLIC ACCESS.

RETROACTIVE FIRST OFFENDER:

Many individuals do not realize they may be entitled to have their first lifetime felony removed from their criminal history despite their case being closed. Our office is often contacted by persons looking to have their firearm rights restored, and only have one prior felony conviction. In those cases, it is not necessary to go straight to the restoration process. You may be able to instead petition the Court to have your record restricted by applying first offender status to the prior conviction. Our office has a 100% success rate in having these petitions granted, and as a result, removes the record from your criminal history entirely. This would automatically restore your rights due to the fact you are no longer a convicted felon. Our fees for retroactive first offender cases start at $2,500 and vary depending on the jurisdiction of your case.

RECORD RESTRICTION AND RECORD SEALING- with a pardon:

There is a difference between sealing a record and having it restricted. A record restriction prevents anyone from seeing the arrest/ conviction on your criminal history. This means third parties will not see the record on a background check so it is beneficial for employment, housing, education etc. However, if someone searches for the record with the clerk of court where the case was adjudicated, it will still be available to view. Having your record sealed is an additional step which prevents anyone from having access to the record- even in the clerk’s office.

Prior to 2021 only felony cases that were dismissed, not prosecuted, or dead docketed were eligible for record restriction. New laws now include record restrictions for felony convictions that have been issued a Pardon from the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles.

The request to seal a felony conviction that has been Pardoned is governed by O.C.G.A. § 35-3-37(7)(j) which provides,"When an individual was convicted in this state of an offense for which that individual has been granted a pardon from the State Board of Pardons and Paroles as provided in the Constitution and Code Section 42-9-42, provided that the offense was not a serious violent felony as such term is defined in Code Section 17-10-6.1 or a sexual offense as such term is defined in Code Section 17-10-6.2, and provided, further, that such individual has not been convicted of any crime in any jurisdiction, excluding any conviction for a non-serious traffic offense, since the pardon was granted, and provided, further, that he or she has no pending charged offenses, he or she may petition the court in which the conviction occurred to restrict access to criminal history record information.”

Most restriction requests require a hearing given the law is fairly novel. During this hearing, the Court will hear all the relevant evidence supporting your request, and if it is determined that "the harm otherwise resulting to the individual clearly outweighs the public's interest in the criminal history record information being publicly available" the Court may grant an order restricting the record and require the Georgia Crime Information Center to remove the record from your criminal history.

Sealing a record is an additional step and more difficult to achieve. Sealing a record results in the record no longer being accessible from the clerk of court where records are kept. The record is essentially no longer available to the public once sealed by a Judge. This extra step prevents private companies that perform background searches from accessing the record information, as these companies often rely on clerk’s records to obtain their information.

It is important to have an Attorney represent you with these cases given the complexities of the process.

Our fees for Record Restrictions and Requests to Seal after a Pardon start at $2,500 and vary depending on the jurisdiction determined on a case by case basis.

EMAIL ME TODAY FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO DISCUSS YOUR OPTIONS AND GOALS!