Doing Your Own Utah Expungement
It's certainly possible to do your own expungement in Utah. It just takes some patience, filling out several forms, and jumping through a bunch of legal hoops. You'll also have to write why expunging your record is not contrary to the public interest.
Dismissed Charges ARE Part of Your Utah Criminal Record
I've been contacted by several people lately who were confused about the difference between "dismissed" charges and "expunged" charges. What they don't understand is that the record of your criminal case--whether you were convicted, found not-guilty, or the case was dismissed--is always part of the public record unless it is expunged.
I think what often happens is the prosecutor offers a "plea-in-abeyance" deal, where the charges are dismissed at the end of the abeyance period. They often explain (or defense counsel often explains) that a plea-in-abeyance deal keeps the conviction "off your record." That's true: it does keep the conviction off your record, but it doesn't seal the record from public view. So anyone doing an official records search in Utah can still see the record of the case, see what you plead guilty to, and see what happened with your plea-in-abeyance. While this is certainly better than having a conviction, it can still be problematic.
Simply put, the only way to keep the entire record of your case from appearing in official background checks is to go through the expungement process. The good news is that dismissed cases are eligible for expungement just 30 days after dismissal (much better than the several-year wait required for even minor convictions). I've helped many people through this process before, and I'd be glad to help. Check out my expungement page for more info.
Utah Eases Expungement Eligibility, Especially for Prior Drug Convictions!
Over the last couple years, Utah has made some major changes in it's expungement eligibility guidelines--almost all of them for the good. The most important change has made it easier for people with several drug possession offenses to get them expunged, but the changes also make it easier for people with other sorts of convictions. Specifically, they've changed the way that convictions are counted. That's important, because you can be ineligible to expunge any conviction if you have too many total convictions on your record. Here are the most important changes:
Utah's "Clean Slate" Law, and Automatic Expungements
In 2019, Utah became the second state in the country to pass an "automatic" expungement law. It went into effect in 2020, but as of the date of this post (in Summer of 2021) no cases have been automatically expunged yet. Recently, I volunteered as an "expert expungement attorney" for a day of trying to help the government get the law up-and-running. Here's what I learned: