Expunge a Juvenile Record

Under certain circumstances, a person may request to have their juvenile record expunged, or sealed. This can be helpful when an individual desires to put the past behind him and not feel obligated or be required to disclose events that took place when the person was a juvenile. An expungement doesn’t change or erase any events that happened, but does prevent other people from viewing or copying the record(s) of the case.

First, a person has to file a petition to expunge a record in the juvenile court that handled the original juvenile court case. The petitioner in the expungement case is the juvenile in the original court case. The petitioner must be at least 18 years old and one year has to have passed from the date of termination of juvenile court jurisdiction or the person’s unconditional release from the custody of the Juvenile Justice Services Division. The court does have the ability to waive these requirements if they believe the waiver is justified.

There are circumstances under which the court cannot expunge the petitioner’s juvenile record. They are:

• the record contains an adjudication for murder or aggravated murder; or
• the petitioner has been convicted as an adult of a felony or of a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude; or
• an adult felony or misdemeanor case is pending or being started against the petitioner; or
• if restitution has not been paid.

If a person has an adult conviction record, he may only petition the court for expungement of his juvenile record after his adult record has been expunged.

There is a fee to file an expungement request, although the court may waive the fee if they desire.
When court records are expunged, they are not necessarily destroyed. They are placed in a securely sealed envelope which may eventually be destroyed. After the records have been sealed, only the petitioner may petition the court to permit the inspection of the records. The records can only be opened by an order of the court.

If you have more questions about this topic, you may wish to contact a Utah juvenile defense attorney for help.