New Hampshire provides a fairly lenient process for annulment of criminal records. Most defendants charged or convicted of an offense should avail themselves of the annulment process at the earliest possible time. Attorney Joanne M. Stella has been preparing, filing, and getting annulments granted for clients for over 20 years.

 

An annulment is a petition filed with the Court asking that the records be made private. If an annulment is granted you are entitled to treat it as though the arrest and/or conviction never occurred. The keepers of the public records (the Courts, the police departments, the State Police Criminal records Division) are all notified of the annulment when its granted and it then becomes a criminal offense for them to disclose it with one exception: if you get into further legal trouble, after an annulment has been granted, the annulled offense can be brought up for sentencing purposes to show you have a prior record.

 

There are many exceptions in the annulment law and so each case needs to be researched based on the facts and law applicable to that person and their particular charges to determine if they are eligible for an annulment. However, in general any charges that are dismissed, or of which you are found not guilty or which are dropped or “nolle prossed” can be immediately annulled. Convictions for violations require a wait of one year of good behavior from the date of conviction and misdemeanor convictions require 3 years of good behavior before you are entitled to file. If you had a suspended or deferred sentence that can further delay the applicable wait time period. All annulments currently require a $125.00 filing fee and you are subsequently billed for a background check ($100.00) and a possible removal fee ($100.00).

 

Contact Attorney Joanne M. Stella for a free consultation and determine whether you are eligible to annul any prior records.