Your criminal record will follow you around for the rest of your life. Getting your life back to normal after a criminal conviction is a challenge, even after you complete your sentence. While your family and friends know you are a good person, it may still be hard to get hired at a new job. Despite your skills and work ethic, employers have a hard time ignoring previous criminal convictions. Getting a conviction expunged from your record is the best way to get back into the workforce after serving your sentence. You seldom have to disclose an expunged conviction, and your criminal record practically disappears. Hiring a registered legal document assistant (LDA) to prepare your application for expungement can improve your chances of success.

Do you need your arrest record sealed? In 2017, Governor Jerry Brown signed the Consumer Arrest Equity Act Senate Bill 393 (CARE - SB 393) into law. There are many reasons you might wish to seal your arrest record. In many cases, an arrest record can hurt your chances of gainful employment or safe housing for your family. This may be true even if you were never convicted.

Sometimes, even the court system makes simple mistakes. Unfortunately, mistakes made by a court clerk, for example, can create serious difficulties. For example, receiving a $100,000 award in a judgment, but finding the clerk accidentally wrote in "$10,000" instead. How devastating! How can you fix this "slip of the pen" and receive the award to which you are entitled? Attempting to resolve mistakes made by a court clerk should be simple, but many people find it harder than they expect. A People's Choice can help you get those errors corrected in a swift, timely fashion.

A court will not hear a case until the defendant or the opposing party has personally received a court summons and a copy of the complaint or petition. Usually, defendants receive these documents by personal delivery, substituted service, or service by mail. Unfortunately, serving legal documents gets complicated without the defendant's address. Here's what you need to know when serving legal documents with no address.

A judge cannot hear a case without it satisfying two basic requirements: 1) the court has jurisdiction over the defendant and 2) it is proper venue. Proper venue means that the right court is hearing the case. With this in mind, there may be particular reasons that the statutorily "right" court is the wrong court to decide a case. For example, a party may request a change of venue if they fear they will not receive a fair hearing.

Are you looking to seal an arrest record? Quite too often, innocent people are arrested throughout the U.S. Fortunately, you may be able to have your arrest record sealed and destroyed to prevent members of the public from finding out about the unfortunate incident.

Do you have an attorney that you are unhappy with? Do you want to represent yourself or find a new attorney? Unfortunately, sometimes an attorney-client relationship deteriorates to the point when you want to fire your attorney. While there are good reasons to fire an attorney, sometimes both parties may have unrealistic expectations. You may discover you don't really need an attorney or simply cannot afford your attorney. Here is a guide of when you should fire your attorney and when you shouldn't.

Small claims courts are a low/cost, quick alternative to civil courts to settle civil disagreements. The rules of small claims court are simpler and the process is quicker and less expensive than a regular civil court. Examples of when you may want to sue in small claims court include: (1) Your landlord did not return your security deposit; (2) An auto repair shop did not fix your car properly; (3) You loaned money to a friend who refuses to pay you back; (4) You purchased a new HDTV that had a manufacturing defect, and the store will not return it; or someone hit you, broke your nose, and (5) You want them to pay for your medical bills.

Recently, there has been a rise in online legal services. These sites offer a range of services from document preparation for a flat fee to monthly subscription services where you can get periodic legal advice and basic legal documents prepared. These sites are gaining in popularity because they offer a faster low-cost alternative than hiring an attorney. But are they really a good idea and can you trust online legal services? How do you pick a good online legal service? Here's what you need to know if you are looking for help preparing legal documents.