Clear your New Jersey record.

An expunged record is pulled from the files and set aside. If anyone asks, the agencies say there is no record. You may answer as if it never happened. There are three exceptions. You must disclose it in a later petition to expunge. If a diversion program dismissed the charges, you must tell a court that weighs you for one again. And you must disclose it for a job with the courts, or with a law enforcement or corrections agency.

Most convictions wait five years. The clock starts at your last conviction, your last court-ordered payment, the end of probation or parole, or your release, whichever is last. A court can grant it early for compelling reasons, if you have no new conviction. For a crime, that is after four years. For a disorderly persons offense, after three. One petition can clear one crime, plus up to three disorderly persons offenses. It can also clear several crimes from one judgment, or from one short string of related events. Some crimes can never be expunged. An arrest with no conviction has no wait. One exception: a diversion program's dismissal waits six months.

A clean-slate petition can expunge all of your convictions. It waits ten years from the last of those dates. It is barred if one conviction is a crime the law never expunges. You file through the courts' online system. It serves the State Police, the Attorney General and the county prosecutors. They have sixty days to check your record. If no one objects, the court can grant the order without a hearing. There is no filing fee.