Maryland is one of the states that offer expungements of on criminal arrests, charges and convictions. It is important to note that not all convictions are expungable. There are several reasons for this. First, the Maryland General Assembly has excluded certain types of crimes from being expunged, which include crimes of violence. The second reason is something called the
“Unit Rule”.
The best way to describe the “Unit Rule” or what is considered a “Unit” is that if there were two or more charges, other than minor traffic violations arising from the same incident, transaction or same set of events, that is considered a “Unit”. So the “Unit Rule” (Maryland Code Annotated, Criminal Procedure Article §10-107), states that one of those charges in a unit is not expungable, then none of the charges made at that time are expungable.
The practical effect of this is that there are certain Marylanders who have had their gun rights stripped away because of a prohibiting charge that is on their record that they are unable to expunge. This legislation may help many of these individuals to obtain their Second Amendment rights back.
Hershon Legal is working with legislators in the Maryland General Assembly to introduce legislation that would amend the law to void the “Unit Rule” and allow for expungements based on each charge individually.
Contact Hershon Legal at (443) 926-1702 or [email protected] to learn more.
