I wanted to write my story regarding my expungement case in PA. I plead guilty to retail theft in 2009. In 2014 I started looking for lawyers to handle my expungement relating to that case as I had never been in trouble before or after. The cheapest place I saw was Record Gone in which reviews were all over the place for $750. I consulted with several lawyers and they ranged from $1000 to $1750 to handle it. Eventually I decided to handle my own expungement request becuase I just didn't have the extra money. I used the PA code 490 as my basis and went online and requested my PA criminal record for $10. I used an online search engine to get information relating to my arrest which cost me $2.95. This record provided me with the original judge, arrest date, outcome, OTN, and dockett number. I used this information to fill out my form. Since my case was in Bucks County I went to the court clerks office with three copies of the expungement petition, order, and pa criminal record; I paid $105 to file this with the clerk. I then dropped off a copy to the District Attorney, and Court Administrator (all in the same building) and just hoped for the best.

I made a minor mistake (per the administrator) that did not require me to refile and dropped my corrections off to the Court Administrator two weeks later. My case was processed and my expungement was granted in way less than 4 months. It all cost me approximately $118 and several hours of research.

My advice to you guys is to research first before you drop all this money to get a lawyer. The process is not as complicated or long as Internet research and lawyers make you believe. I saved hundreds of dollars working on this expungement myself. Lawyers are more well versed and probably could have filled out my paperwork in half the time but if that's the case why are they charging so much? They are making a huge profit for 1-2 hours worth of work (it took me about 4 hours to get my stuff straight).

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I would also like to say that the summary shoplifting offense ( from PA) has NEVER hindered me when I came to getting jobs. With that being said I DONT Shoplift any more! I got a part time job with a retailer in 2010. Right after pleading guilty I was offered a position with the government. I had to fill it a form stating why I was arrested before they offered me the job. I then went through a full blown background investigation (I mean investigators interviewing me, friends, coworkers, neighbors, and family members) and passed the background.

Don't think that your first shoplifting charge is the end of your life. It isnt, you have time to turn it around. I do, however, have no sympathy for people that continue with bad behavior after getting caught.