About NJ Expungements

Perhaps you have a criminal record from the past that you'd like to get rid of.

Perhaps an overzealous and unethical police detective harassed you with a frivolous criminal charge that didn't stick, and you'd like to get rid of any record of that horrible injustice.

That is what a New Jersey Expungement Order is supposed to do.

In fact, N.J.S.A. 2C:52-30 (Disclosure of Expungement Order) makes it a disorderly persons offense to violate an Expungement Order:

... any person ... who reveals to another the existence of an arrest, conviction or related legal proceeding with knowledge that the records and information pertaining thereto have been expunged or sealed is a disorderly person.

But before you shell out many hundreds of dollars for an Expungement Order, there is something you might want to consider: New Jersey's expungement order law may be a criminal statute without teeth.  In other words, you may find it difficult, or impossible, to prosecute a violation of your Expungement Order.

NJ Expungement Central was started to publish a 2010 investigation into one victim's attempt to prosecute alleged violations of an Expungement Order by various individuals in law enforcement and in the criminal justice system.

Our investigation reveals that insiders of the criminal justice system (police, judges, lawyers/prosecutors) who allegedly violate an Expungement Order have carved out fictitious loopholes in the law to manipulate the system and to escape prosecution.

What good is a criminal code if it can't be enforced?  This is a call for a much-needed amendment to New Jersey's Code of Criminal Justice related to alleged violations of the NJ Expungement Order Statute, N.J.S.A. 2C:52-30.

THOSE WHO ENFORCE THE LAW SHOULD OBEY THE LAW.