Stacey Barchenger wrote a story in today’s Tennessean about a court filing calling for mass expungements. Before I comment on the article. I would like to acknowledge The Tennessean is once again covering the local courts. When I first started as a law clerk then a lawyer , Kirk Loggins covered the courthouse beat. Kirk did a great job covering the issues and bring a closer inspection on what goes on at the Courthouse. Ms.Barchenger has taken over the beat and has provided in depth reporting on the courts including the Vanderbilt rape trial. it was a welcome addition to the local news coverage.
Mr.Horwitz gained some exposure by filing the petition. However, it will never take place because of the manpower that it would require. It should have been done by the lawyers who represented the folks years ago. typically, a person may be arrested on multiple charges. I see a marijuana charge plus a drug paraphernalia charge. You plead on one charge and get the other dismissed. You can get all charges expunged that are dismissed or retired. One service I provided is to have all dismissed charges expunged from your record that are dismissed. I have one staff person that handles all expungements. If your lawyer did not do this for you, you should go to the second floor of the A.A.Birch Building and request an expungement order. If court costs were assessed, you must pay the court costs in full. If you leave out of Nashville and want your record cleaned up leave a message on our website. Marcia will see if we can help. We charge a small fee if we did not handle the case from the beginning.
We will see what happens. The filing made a splash. It is yet to be seen if it will have a real impact.