Due to the new Tennessee expungement law (allowing for the erasure of an arrest or conviction from public record) effective July 1, 2012, there has been some confusion about how much a court clerk may charge to file an expungement petition. In an effort to resolve the many questions relating to this issue, the State of Tennessee Attorney General’s Office issued Opinion Number 12–89. This opinion provides a detailed analysis of how the Attorney General arrived at its answer, but the short answer is that the clerk of the court may only charge $350 ( instead of $450) as a filing fee. as noted in an earlier blog post, a DUI conviction may not be expunged, but in many circumstances, other criminal offenses may be expunged–even if there has been a conviction.
The expungement process can be very confusing and there are a number of pitfalls. A mistake in filing an expungement may result in a delay of two years before another Petition for Expungement may be filed.
If you have questions about the Tennessee expungement process, you may contact the lawyers at Oberman and Rice without any obligation. Feel free to call them at 865-249-7200 or visit the website dedicated to Tennessee expungements at www.eraseyourrecord.com.
