If you are looking for an affordable New Jersey expungement lawyer, there are a few things you should keep in mind. Rather than billing at an hourly rate, most expungement lawyers in New Jersey will charge a flat, fixed fee to handle your expungement. These flat fees can range anywhere from $1,000.00 to $5,000.00 – depending on the attorney. If you are shopping around for a New Jersey expungement attorney, you have most likely received various quotes from attorneys falling somewhere within this price range.
When inquiring as to an expungement attorney’s fee however, one thing you should always make sure you ask is whether or not the attorney’s fee is all inclusive. In order words, you should ask whether or not the attorney’s fee includes court filing fees, copying costs, certified mail costs, and other expenses. Some attorneys will quote you a lower “flat fee” to handle your case, but then charge you separately for various expenses. These costs will quickly add up.
Affordable New Jersey Expungement Lawyer
At the Law Office of Katherine O’Brien, we are upfront about our expungement fees. In addition, all of our expungement fees are true flat-rate fees, meaning they are all-inclusive. Thus, we do not bill you separately for filing fees or court costs as these items are included in our baseline fees.
Our flat-rate expungement fees are as follows:
- $895.00 for a basic expungement;
- An additional $100.00 for each additional arrest; and
- An additional $1,000.00 if you are applying for an “early pathway” expungement or if you are applying for the expungement of a conviction for possession of a controlled dangerous substance (CDS) with the intent to sell/distribute.
Moreover, included in all of our services, without any additional charge, is our invaluable service of updating online background check companies with notice of your expungement. Other expungement services charge anywhere from $200 to $400 additional for this important service.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, if you are shopping for an affordable New Jersey expungement lawyer, you should make sure that any cost-cutting does not reduce the quality of your representation. Katherine O’Brien has extensive experience handling expungements in New Jersey and has represented hundreds of clients in successfully expunging their records. While we offer a lower cost option to hiring an expungement attorney and paying a larger retainer, we do not cut corners. At the Law Office of Katherine O’Brien, expungements are one of our main areas of practice. By focusing our practice on expungements, we are better able to streamline the expungement process and, in turn, charge you a lower rate and making it possible for you to retain an affordable expungement lawyer in New Jersey.
Moreover, we are a local New Jersey law firm, not a “national” firm located outside of New Jersey. Don’t make the mistake of hiring a law firm in California or Texas to handle your New Jersey expungement!
At the Law Office of Katherine O’Brien, we’re different. We want to make hiring an expungement attorney less expensive. We don’t provide you with documents or coach you on how to represent yourself in court. Moreover, we handle your expungement case from start to finish.
Contact us today for a free consultation to speak to an affordable expungement attorney in New Jersey. You can reach us anytime at 856-832-2482 or by filling out our Expungement Interview Form. We look forward to speaking to you.
Our Guaranteed Expungement Service* includes all of the following:
When we handle your expungement, our service includes not only obtaining the actual court order expunging/sealing your records but we will also:
- Guaranteed Expungement* or Your Money Back! We are so confident in our services that we will guarantee expungement or we will refund our legal fee in full.
- Obtain non-certified dispositions for your records. Before expunging/sealing your record, you should obtain your case dispositions for your files since, once the records are ordered expunged/sealed, you will likely not be able to obtain them. Should you ever be required to disclose or need access to your expunged/sealed records for any reason, it will be tough, if not impossible, to obtain them once your cases have been expunged/sealed. As part of our representation, we will obtain non-certified case dispositions on your behalf. Moreover, should you require certified case dispositions (usually required for immigration proceedings), we can also obtain those on your behalf for an additional fee.
- Ensure that your expunged/sealed records are removed from private databases. As part of our representation of you, we will not only obtain an order expunging/sealing your records and ensure that your records are removed from the applicable state agencies’ databases, but we will go the extra mile by providing – at no additional cost – the invaluable service of making sure that the various online, private background check databases (such as Checkr, Truthfinder, Sterling, etc.) have removed your expunged records from their databases. Other law firms either do not offer this service at all or charge upwards of $200 to $400 additional for this service. At Katherine O’Brien Law, when we say that we will handle your expungement/sealing from start to finish for a flat fee price, we mean it, and we go above and beyond for our clients to ensure their expunged records are removed for good from all possible sources.
- Ensure that your expunged records are removed from government databases. After the court orders your expungement and the expungement order is served on the applicable government agencies, such as the police department that arrested you, the applicable court, the probation office, the county prosecutor, etc., the expungement lawyers at Katherine O’Brien Law will go above and beyond by confirming that your records were actually removed from the applicable databases. You would not believe how frequently we have found the state agencies to have failed to properly update their databases – despite proper service of the expungement order by our office. Shockingly, we have found that approximately one-third of the time, government agencies have failed to remove expunged records from these databases properly. We cannot stress how important it is to verify, post-expungement, that the state agencies, such as the municipal courts, have removed your records per the expungement order.
- Offer free lifetime record removal services. Finally, despite our diligent and proper handling of your case and our dedication to ensuring that your records have been appropriately removed from the state and private databases, with the advent of the internet and information sharing, it is possible that an Internet background check company might improperly reveal your expunged record. Should this happen to you, we offer a free lifetime record removal service to our expungement/sealing clients. We will immediately reach out to the relevant background check company on your behalf and demand that they remove your expunged records from their system and correct any reports issued on your behalf. Other law firms provide you with a form letter and instructions on how to do this yourself.
*The use of the word “guaranteed” in attorney advertisements specifically refers to a refund policy and does not imply a guarantee of any particular outcome in your legal case. Legal cases are inherently unpredictable, and the result of any legal matter cannot be assured. Katherine O’Brien Law guarantees that you will receive a full refund of our legal fee if you do not obtain the desired outcome. This guarantee applies solely to the refund and not to the success or outcome of your case. Please also be advised that if expungement was denied for your failure to disclose your entire criminal record, the guarantee does not apply. For more information and to discuss your specific legal situation, please consult with one of our experienced attorneys.
