More Vermonters now have the opportunity to wipe their criminal records clean with the state’s expansion of the number of nonviolent offenses eligible for expunction. House Bill 460, which went into effect on October 1st, broadly reforms the state of Vermont’s criminal expungement process for various crimes including marijuana, ecstasy, LSD, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, hallucinogens and depressants, stimulant or narcotic drugs, as well as certain nonviolent forgery and burglary charges. The goal of the new law is to make the expungement remedy available to a greater amount of deserving citizens.
Many Vermonters were pleased to see the addition of drunk driving offenses added to the final bill, including the bill’s sponsor Representative Maxine Grad. Impaired-driving offenders are not eligible for expungement under the new law, but they can ask a judge to seal their records as long as serious injury or death was not a result of the crime. School bus drivers with a blood alcohol concentration greater than .02 and commercial vehicle drivers with a BAC greater than .04 are excluded from this law, along with those convicted of burglarizing an occupied home (unless they were under the age of 25 when convicted). Rep. Maxine Grad made a statement announcing her disappointment with the law’s exclusions, but still claims that the passage of H460 is an “important economic and workforce-development reform.” The new law removes a substantial amount of economic and employment barriers from the lives of ex-convicts.
If you’re looking for an easy and affordable way to scrub your record clean, visit EasyExpunctions.com to see if you’re eligible for expungement. Stop waiting for a second chance and let Easy Expunctions give you the tools you need to regain control of your future.
