Vacating a Felony Conviction in Washington State

September 17th, 2007   Filed Under Vacating a Felony Conviction  

Vacating your criminal history allows you to say that you have never been convicted of a crime. It removes your criminal records from public view in Washington State databases. In order to obtain a vacation of conviction there are a number of conditions. First are the qualifying conditions.

Circumstances under which a felony conviction cannot be vacated:

  1. If the crime is a class A felony.
  2. The conviction is crime against persons.
  3. The conviction is a violent offense.
  4. The person has a new criminal conviction since the date of discharge from supervision.
  5. The person has criminal charges pending in any municipal, state or federal court.
  6. The conviction is for a class B felony and less than 10 years have passed since date of discharge from supervision.
  7. The conviction is for a class C felony and less than 5 years have passed since date of discharge from supervision.

Next, the conditions that should apply:

  1. The person has served all the community service hours and paid all restitution required by the court.
  2. The person has obtained a certificate of discharge.
  3. The requisite number of years has passed since the issuance of the certificate of discharge (10 years for a Class B felony and 5 years for a Class C felony).

It is worth noting that vacating your criminal conviction does not restore your right to possess or own firearms. I will have a future blog post regarding the restoration of the right to own and use firearms. A vacation of conviction also does not prevent subsequent use of the vacated conviction in a later prosecution. In addition, a subsequent juvenile conviction or adult felony, in effect, nullifies the sealing order.

To learn more about vacating a conviction you can contact our firm at info@pelleylawgroup.com

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