Minnesota passed legislation in 2015 that makes it easier to expunge criminal records. What are a few of the changes made by this law?

Before 2015, it website much more difficult to actually expunge a criminal conviction or a criminal case and in fact, before 2015 it was impossible to expunge a case where the defendant had actually pled guilty and had a subsequent criminal conviction. There were a couple of exceptions but typically, if the defendant pled guilty the best a client could hope for would be to seal the court record and only the court record. And the case for that was called State v. MDT. The legislature decided in late 2014 to change the law and gave judges the ability not only to seal court records but to seal all records held by law enforcement agencies. So now starting in 2015 if a client comes and sees me and if it’s a crime or an offense that is expungable by the statute then we can not only seal the court record but we can also seal all records held by law enforcement agencies. That is the critical difference. Even if you’ve pled guilty, you may still be eligible for an expungement.