I got a client's Possession of Marijuana case dismissed at the jury trial docket in Seguin this week.
The first question the client asked me after the State told us it would dismiss the case was: "How soon can I get my arrest record expunged?"
This is an important question for him, since he is job-hunting, and even an arrest for Possession of Marijuana might show up on a potential employer's criminal background check. The answer I had to give him, unfortunately, was: "Not as soon as you would like or expect." According to the Texas Supreme Court, there is sometimes a waiting period in order to apply for an expunction. Last summer, the TexSupremes ruled that, even after a case is dismissed, a person has to wait until the statute of limitations for the State to ever refile the case has passed before he can seek to erase the record of the arrest. In a misdemeanor case, the statute of limitations is two years after the date of the arrest. For example, if someone was arrested for Possession of Marijuana (Under 2 ounces) on January 1, 2008, and the case was later dismissed, the person would be eligible for an expunction of the arrest on January 1, 2010.
So I had to tell my Guadalupe County client that he had to wait until two years from the date of his Possession of Marijuana arrest before he was eligible to have the arrest expunged. The danger that this creates, of course, is that a person gets his case dismissed, gets on with his life, and neglects to apply for an expunction until he realizes, at the last minute, that he needs one for a job interview. One of the things we try hard to do in our office is to remind all of our clients for whom we have earned dismissals exactly when their expunction eligibility dates will fall. If you have had a case dismissed, be sure you know exactly when you will be eligible to expunge your arrest record.