I have a misdemeanor assault charge on my record from a few years ago in another state. I was told by someone that I can go down to my local court house and file for expungement myself or I can go get a lawyer to do it. My question is, will I have to go back to the state where I received the charge or can I just file by mail? Also, would getting a lawyer be worth the money? I just don't really understand how having your record expunged works and I'm wondering if other people around here have done it before.
All it means is they put a piece of paper into your case file or record file that says it's been expunged. The actual record will still be there, it just cant be made public. A misdemeanor can hurt you if you want to get a student loan or some type of government loan. But felonies are much worse (obviously) and can hurt your chances of getting a job (and other 'stuff') if it's made public, most of the time. I'd say definitely try to get it expunged, but I don't know if I'd spend thousands of dollars on a lawyer to do it.