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Committee advances expungement substitute with procedural clarifications, asks for more drafting
Summary
A substitute to streamline expungement petitions, clarify lesser‑included and traffic matters, and permit appellate pseudonyms was debated; Commonwealth's attorneys raised concerns about deferred findings and how the substitute would interact with statutes that currently bar expungement of certain deferrals. Sponsors agreed to further drafting.
Sen. Serbell presented a substitute to clarify and expand procedures for expungement petitions, removing the ambiguous "otherwise dismissed" language, allowing petitions for some traffic infractions, clarifying how lesser‑included offenses are treated, and permitting petitioners to pursue appeals under a pseudonym to avoid public disclosure while appeals proceed.
Commonwealth's attorneys raised concerns about whether deferred findings under specific statutes (for example, 18.2‑57.3 deferrals) would become expungable contrary to current statutory limits. The sponsor said that was not her intent and proposed drafting language to exclude specified statutory deferrals from expungement eligibility; counsel and stakeholders agreed to work on clarifying language and to reconcile interactions with existing deferral statutes.
The committee adopted targeted amendments (including delayed effective date requested by State Police to allow technical systems work) and left detailed provisions for additional negotiation. Public testimony included both practitioners and legal‑aid advocates supporting increased clarity to reduce inconsistent circuit‑court handling across jurisdictions. The bill was by for the day for further work.
