Recent Changes to Louisiana’s Expungement Law – New Waiting Times Before Expungement Can Be Requested

This is the latest blog post regarding the Louisiana Legislature’s recent changes to the expungement law. The new expungement law, or rather laws, repeals LSA-R.S. 44:9 and replaces it with a whole host of new laws found in Code of Criminal Procedure Articles 971-995. There are many new changes and this blog will explain one important and beneficial change for people seeking to expunge their criminal conviction.

In order to be eligible for an expungement under the old law (44:9) it was required that you be sentenced under Article 893 (misdemeanor) or Article 894 (felony). Often though, this important detail was neglected either because the attorney forgot to request it from the judge or the judge declined to make it available. In my practice I get many phone calls from people who were not sentenced under the expungement article. Under the new expungement law these people are now eligible for an expungement if:

You were convicted of a misdemeanor and it has been at least 5 years since the end of your sentence/probation. For felonies the wait time is 10 years after the end of your sentence/probation In addition, during the 5 or 10 year waiting period you cannot have been convicted of an additional criminal charge (misdemeanor or felony) and have no pending criminal charges against you at the time of filing.

This is a great change to the expungement law and will benefit many people. If you need help expunging your criminal record of a misdemeanor or  felony conviction please contact attorney Rhett Spano at 225-387-8327 or rspano@gmail.com for a free consultation. You can also get more information from my website at www.rhettspanolaw.com.