Reduce a Felony to a Misdemeanor: A felony conviction can make life difficult. It makes finding a job or a place to live harder and impacts many other areas of your life. But if you have completed probation or parole successfully, under Utah Code section 76-3-402, you may be able to reduce felony convictions to misdemeanors.
Restoring Expungement Eligibility: Utah’s Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI), when determining expungement eligibility in Utah, considers the age of your convictions, the number of convictions, and the level or degree of those convictions. Reducing the level of your convictions could be a way to restore your eligibility for expungement.
The waiting period for expungement eligibility is based in part on the degree of the conviction. 402 reductions can also shorten the waiting period for expungement eligibility. To be eligible to expunge a criminal conviction in Utah, you must wait a certain period following the closure of your case. The greater the level of the felony or misdemeanor, the longer you must wait to be eligible for expungement. Using a 402 reduction can shorten the waiting by years, and you can seek an expungement much more quickly.
For example, having two felony convictions may disqualify you from expungement eligibility. However, a 402 reduction would turn those felony convictions into misdemeanors which could restore expungement eligibility. Similarly, a “violent” felony cannot be expunged. But if that felony conviction were reduced, under Utah Code 76-3-402, to a misdemeanor, your expungement eligibility may be restored.
Another example is having too many, even for minor misdemeanor convictions, which can also disqualify you from expungement eligibility. But some misdemeanor convictions, by using a 402 reduction, can be reduced to the infraction level, which would no longer count against a person’s eligibility.
If you have completed probation or parole successfully, there are significant benefits to having the level of your conviction reduced – losing the “convicted felon” label, restoring your expungement eligibility, or reaching some other goal; the impacts of a successful 402 reduction can be substantial.
The criminal defense team at Canyons Law Group has assisted clients in obtaining 402 reductions throughout the state of Utah. For those who now live outside of Utah but are looking to reduce the level of a Utah conviction, we can often present your 402 reduction motion to the court and have your charges reduced without requiring your appearance in court.
