Did you know that the Court and/or police officer do not have to tell you if you might suffer a suspension of your driver’s license for pleading guilty to a traffic ticket. In fact, they may not even know that the offense carries a suspension. Even if that is the case, PennDOT will not care that you didn’t know your license was goint to be suspended and will notify you via mail after the conviction is final. If you act quickly you may be able to appeal, though that is not always the case. None of this is necessary, as a simple call to a lawyer in advance will let you know whether the offense carries a suspension. Better yet, we don’t charge for a consultation so you don’t pay to find out. If there’s no suspension then it may not be worthwhile to hire a lawyer, but if there is at least you will know about it.

A Centre County court recently ordered local newspapers to expunge the records or arrests in five different cases, setting off a backlash of First Amendment rights stories in the media. The Philadelphia Inquirer and others reported the story, but it is noteworthy that as of yet it appears that none of the defendants have been mentioned by name. If that remains to be the case then this may open a new wave of Pennsylvania expungement activity in the future. The competing concern is that with all of the related press it is certainly possible that for now, it may be more prudent to wait it out. Requesting expungement only to have your name appear in articles across the country probably counteracts the intended result. More importantly, we have had great success in getting news agencies and other reporting companies to expunge their records by sending them copies of the Court’s expungement Order accompanied by polite, repeated requests to expunge their records.   Call us at 215-997-1000 or email steve@fairlielaw.net for more information about expungements.

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