Pennsylvania Seeks to Expand the Expungement Law with SB391

PITTSBURGH - Oct. 22, 2013 - PRLog -- Recently, the Pennsylvania senate passed Senate Bill 391 (SB391) that seeks to expand the current expungement laws for residents of Pennsylvania.  If signed into law, the expansion under SB391 would not only continue to permit the expungement of summary offenses such as disorderly conduct, public intoxication and underage drinking, but would also expand the expungement law to permit the expungement of some misdemeanor offenses such as theft offenses, simple assault, harassment or other traffic offenses that are graded as a misdemeanor of the 2nd degree or a misdemeanor of the 3rd degree.

Currently, the Pennsylvania expungement law provides that only summary offenses can be expunged after remaining arrest free for five years following the summary conviction and that misdemeanor offenses shall not be expunged until after the offender turns 70 years old or has been deceased for more than three years.  The new law permits some residents who have been convicted of misdemeanors of the 2nd and 3rd degree to apply for an expungement if they have remained arrest free for 7 to 10 years prior to filing the petition for expungement.

“I expect SB391 to be signed into law shortly as it will positively impact thousands of individuals and business owners looking to hire individuals with clean records” says Attorney Frank Walker, owner of http://www.FrankWalkerLaw.com, a Pittsburgh Criminal Defense Lawyer.  Attorney Walker further adds “the ability of someone to effectively serve their sentence for a theft, simple assault or drug offense, remain arrest free for a period of time and eventually move forward with a clean record is an incalculable benefit to the residents of Pennsylvania.  Our firm applauds the potential changes to the expungement law and look forward to assisting the many residents this law may positively impact.”