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How to Vacate an Assault Charge or Other Conviction in Washington State

A criminal record can have a devastating impact on your life. It can create challenges in landing a job, finding housing volunteering or obtaining insurance.

However, with the right law firm defending your rights, you can vacate an assault charge and other criminal acts from your record. Vacating can help you get back on your feet and lead a productive, lower-stress life.

If your conviction is vacated, in most cases, it will not show up on a background check by the Washington State Patrol or FBI.

You may be wondering, “Can I expunge my criminal record for an assault conviction?” Vacating is different from expunging, which completely destroys all records related to a conviction from your record. Washington law does not allow for expungement.

New Law Changes Vacating Eligibility

In 2019, the New Hope Act took effect in Washington State. The law makes it easier for you to vacate criminal convictions by allowing for more misdemeanors to be vacated and multiple misdemeanors can be vacated at once.

The act allows for vacating both felonies and misdemeanors. Previously, only the most recent misdemeanor could be vacated.

Not every conviction can be vacated and certain types of convictions are treated differently.

For example, felonies and misdemeanors are not treated the same when it comes to vacating. Class A felonies (the most severe) are not eligible for vacating. Class B and C felonies classified as violent or crimes against children cannot be vacated.

Some assaults can be vacated. There are many different degrees and types of assaults, both misdemeanors and felonies. If you’ve been convicted of an assault, it’s important you understand the scope and scale of the case as you pursue vacating the conviction.

In the case of domestic-violence misdemeanors, you are ineligible for vacating if there is more than one such misdemeanor in separate incidents. Other misdemeanors that may not be vacated are sex offenses (though failing to register as a sex offender may be vacated), convictions involving pornography or obscenity, convictions involving sexual exploitation of children and violent offenses or attempts to commit violence.

You will need to wait three years (for a non-domestic-violence offense) or five years (for a domestic-violence offense) since completing all conditions of your sentence including probation and fines before having something vacated.

For DUIs, the law remains the same. Straight DUIs are ineligible to be vacated. DUIs pleaded-down to misdemeanors are eligible. In these cases, there is a 10-year waiting period from the incident date.

What Happens When a Washington State Conviction Is Vacated

Once you have a vacated criminal record, it will not completely disappear from your record. There will still be court records and indexes. For a domestic-violence case, the case type will still be listed.

Information from the cases is still public information and can be accessed online. In addition, a prosecutor can still use information from a prior vacated conviction in a future criminal case.

Getting Help with Vacating a Washington State Conviction

If you live in King, Pierce, Snohomish, or Skagit Counties, Verity Criminal Defense can help with the vacating process.  Our attorneys are licensed in Washington State and have extensive experience in helping people vacate their criminal records.

A Verity Criminal Defense attorney can help navigate the process and court proceedings about your case and walk you through the vacating process. Contact us today for a free case review and to learn more about vacating your conviction.