How do you clear a criminal record after a DUI arrest?

Any DUI arrests or convictions in The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have the potential to carry with them serious long-term consequences. However, there are some ways you may be able to mitigate the damage that these events could cause to your reputation, employability and freedom.

There are several stages you may have to go through to completely clear your name after an encounter with law enforcement. Please read on for a brief discussion of some of the things that could help you if you were faced with DUI.

One of the first and most important steps would be to mount an effective criminal defense to any charges you faced. Ideally, this could result in the judge dismissing the charges against you. You may also be able to accept less severe penalties than the public attorneys originally suggested. 

The next step could be making a brief investigation of your official criminal history. Even if you managed a defense that put you in the best possible position after your court procedures were over, that may not be the end of your legal journey. You may want to double-check if you still had any records by contacting the relevant court clerks. 

If it turned out that you still had arrest records or other marks against you, this realization could represent a good opportunity to attempt to clean your record. Depending on your case, there are a number of ways you might want to go about this. The Lancaster County Clerk of Courts site has some guidelines on expungement, although they cite law and could be somewhat difficult to follow without a background in the subject.

Having a clean criminal record and successfully defending against DUI charges would probably represent an investment of your time and money. However, like every good investment, there is the potential for greater gain in the future. In this case, you could gain the freedom to apply for the jobs you wanted, the ability to travel internationally and the confidence to accomplish various other important life goals. However, this is not legal advice. Please only think of it as background information.