Bar Association Recovery Fund?

[magic41870]

What is the name of your state? Virginia

Husband was charged with misdemeanor assault & batter, 2 counts felony perjury in 2001. All charges dismissed because a&b couldn't be proven. The attorney we used was paid to complete the trial and go thru the expungement process on his criminal record. I tried to several months to research this attorney with no luck. Finally, called the court houses in her county and was told she no longer practiced. Apparently, she was misusing clients funds and was eventually disbarred.

Someone mentioned to me the other day there was a recovery fund that we could go through that would help clear his record. I'm not having any luck finding anything about that here.

Does anyone have any information or link that they could provide? Thank you for any help yo can give.

[RedemptionMan]

Originally Posted by magic41870

What is the name of your state? Virginia

Husband was charged with misdemeanor assault & batter, 2 counts felony perjury in 2001. All charges dismissed because a&b couldn't be proven. The attorney we used was paid to complete the trial and go thru the expungement process on his criminal record. I tried to several months to research this attorney with no luck. Finally, called the court houses in her county and was told she no longer practiced. Apparently, she was misusing clients funds and was eventually disbarred.

Someone mentioned to me the other day there was a recovery fund that we could go through that would help clear his record. I'm not having any luck finding anything about that here.

Does anyone have any information or link that they could provide? Thank you for any help yo can give.

If all charges were dismissed then why would you need a recovery fund to get something expunged? Were they nolle pros. or dismissed? If they were dismissed then nothing should show up anyway....

[magic41870]

Thanks for responding. Without pulling any paperwork I believe it said "nolle Prosd." He wants his record wiped clean because he's possibly looking for other employment in the corrections field and with this showing, even though it's not a conviction, employers don't look too kindly at it. And another thing is he's worried that someone will run a background check and find those, and it will some how come up and be a problem with my custody situation.

[RedemptionMan]

Originally Posted by magic41870

Thanks for responding. Without pulling any paperwork I believe it said "nolle Prosd." He wants his record wiped clean because he's possibly looking for other employment in the corrections field and with this showing, even though it's not a conviction, employers don't look too kindly at it. And another thing is he's worried that someone will run a background check and find those, and it will some how come up and be a problem with my custody situation.

Yes it will show up if the charges were nolled pros. This allows the charges to stay out there with a delay so that way if he is charged with any type of violent act again they can be used against him. It is always easier and better with an attorney but sometimes if the judge is cool then it can be handled that way. I would think that the prosecutor "nolle prosed" the charges for a reason and will be unlikely to agree to an expungement. However, almost all states have provisions for not guilty verdicts and nolle prosed charges which allow for expungements since you should only in theroy use VALID court convictions against a person.

In short, this will take an attorney to handle for you. Which means more money spent by you, and sorry to say but he should choose some other line of work cause even with an expungement it will still be released to law enforcement/ governmental law agencies and be a part of his past forever. An expungement just does away with the civil penalities for the crime and allows him to be a part of the normal everyday workforce. Good Luck with it.....

[magic41870]

Now, I'm really confused. He's still in the correction field at the same job he had when charged. The previous attorney received a letter from the commonwealth atty on the case, but never provided us with that letter. Supposedly, it was along the effects of "we tried to get the big fish, but couldn't." The supposed victim was a drunk inmate that said my husband slammed him against a concrete wall. But yet, my husband was the only one with any injuries: eyes gouged and large bite on his chest. My husband weighed 565 at the time, and one of the grand jurors said he may have used his size to intimidate. If my husband had slammed this inmate against the wall, since inmate was 5'6, 140 lbs, he would probably be dead.

Anyways, thank you for your help. I don't see why the judge wouldn't allow the expungement to go through. Oh wait, the judge is now the previous commonwealth attorney. So, I guess we're sunk no matter what.