Records You Will Need for an expungment

Records You Will Need for an expungment

In order to prepare your expungement petition and prove your eligibility, you will need to get the following information: 

• The date of your arrest as an adult or when you 

were taken into custody as a juvenile. 

• The statute(s) and the offense(s) for which you were arrested, taken into custody as a juvenile, convicted or adjudicated delinquent. 
• The original indictment, accusation, summons, docket number, warrant number or complaint number. Include all, if more than one.
• The date of the disposition, which could be the date of the conviction or adjudication of delinquency, date of not guilty verdict or date of dismissal. 
• The specific punishment or other disposition. 

Where to Locate Records 

If you had an attorney when you were arrested as an adult and/or taken into custody as a juvenile and charged, check first to see if he or she has this information in your case file; if so, this can save you quite a bit of time. 

If you must locate your records on your own for an indictable/criminal conviction or arrest, contact the Superior Court Criminal Case Management Office in the county where the arrest or conviction occurred and they will advise you how copies of those records can be obtained. A list of county Criminal Case Management Offices appears at the end of this guide. 

If you must locate your records on your own for a juvenile delinquency matter, contact the Superior Court Family Division Office in the county where you were taken into custody as a juvenile, where charges were filed, or where the adjudication occurred, and they will advise you how copies of those records can be obtained. A list of county Family Division Offices appears at the end of this guide. 

If you were taken into custody as a juvenile and no charges were filed against you, you must contact the 

appropriate law enforcement agency for information related to that incident. 

You might also contact the county prosecutor. A list of county prosecutors' offices with addresses and telephone numbers appears at the end of this guide. Explain that you are interested in expunging your records and ask for the information listed above or ask to look at your file if this is permitted. 

You may also be able to find information you need on disorderly persons offenses by contacting the administrator of the municipal court(s) in which you were prosecuted, or the police department involved in your arrest(s) as an adult or that took you into custody as a juvenile. If you cannot get all of the information, you need to follow Step 1 on the next page. 

You may be eligible for an expungement if you still owe money for restitution, fine(s), or other court- ordered financial assessment(s). If, at the time you are filing this petition, you owe money for restitution, fine(s), or other court ordered financial assessment(s), you should contact the appropriate Probation Division Office(s) for the total amount still owed. Please see the list of Probation Division Offices at the end of this packet. If your case was a municipal court matter(s), you should contact the appropriate municipal court(s) for the total amount still owed. For a full listing of Municipal Courts please visit njcourts.gov. 

If you had a legal name change, you must attach a copy of your court order. To get a copy of your court order, you should contact the county courthouse in the county where the case was heard. However, if your name change was requested and granted as a part of your divorce, you do not need to attach the divorce order with your petition. 

Note: All of your arrests, charges, or prosecutions, even those for which you are not seeking an expungement, must be listed in your petition. Source https://njcourts.gov/forms/10557_exp