Adjudication Witheld Charges

[FLwitheldadjud]

Hi, I'm new and was seeing if anyone had some insights on my situation. So I finished my probation for a felony charge, pocket knife on school grounds back in 2001 originally(nightmare). Basically being dumb and un-educated not familiar with the way law works, I missed court dates and violated probation twice. One for not keeping up with fees and completing hours. Second went out of county for work when thought I had to inform probation officer when out of state. So after about 5 years on probation all together I finally requested for early termination with my lawyer and judge okayd. So I am wondering 2 questions:

1) On future applications for employment, do I inform employer of this history when asked? If so what is best way to describe this "earning"experience I will call it.

2)Where would I begin to get this expunged from my record so I can focus on career? How much would this process cost?

Thanks in advance.

 

[army judge]

Hi, I'm new and was seeing if anyone had some insights on my situation. So I finished my probation for a felony charge, pocket knife on school grounds back in 2001 originally(nightmare). Basically being dumb and un-educated not familiar with the way law works, I missed court dates and violated probation twice. One for not keeping up with fees and completing hours. Second went out of county for work when thought I had to inform probation officer when out of state. So after about 5 years on probation all together I finally requested for early termination with my lawyer and judge okayd. So I am wondering 2 questions:

1) On future applications for employment, do I inform employer of this history when asked? If so what is best way to describe this "earning"experience I will call it.

If your charge was held in abeyance (deferred adjudication usually fits this definition) until you completed probation, then you probably have no charge on your record.

To be safe, you should just ask your current attorney this question.

He/she is familiar with your case.

He/she would NOT have to speculate.

He/she can give you the best answer to this question.

2)Where would I begin to get this expunged from my record so I can focus on career? How much would this process cost?

This is another great question for your attorney.
Ask him/her about usual and customary fees in your county.
In fact, he/she might take your case, because they already know so much about it and you.

 

[jharris352]

While I agree with Army about asking your attorney, you might pull a criminal background check on yourself at the local police department to see if anything shows up. It's likely the arrest still shows but not a conviction. Besides, the crime is silly. If you do have to explain it, just say you accidentally took a pocket knife to school and it was blown way out of proportion.

Now I would argue that you aren't really taking responsibility for your actions on probation. You don't have to know about law to follow the rules. They are not written in legalese so that you can't understand them. It appears that you are somewhat of a rebel and just didn't want to follow the rules. Maybe I'm wrong. As an employer who has hired many people over my lifetime, that would be much more of a concern than your "record." I wouldn't tell that story if I were you, and if I did, I would take a whole lot more personal responsibility for my actions and not try to blame it on my ignorance of the law.

Good luck.