You Are Allowed to Represent Yourself
Video Transcribed: Do you need an attorney for an expungement in Oklahoma? I’m Tulsa expungement attorney, James Wirth, and we’re talking about expungements and lawyers, and whether you need one to get the other.
The short answer is that you are not required to have an attorney to get an expungement in Oklahoma. You are allowed to represent yourself. You can file pro se and not pay for an attorney. However, is that practical under your circumstances?
That’s what you have to determine. It is not that easy to do. And here, obviously, the Wirth Law Office, we’ve done hundreds of these, so we have really mastered the process and can help you walk through it in representing you. Or if you have questions, we don’t have a problem answering those questions for you. Go online to makelaweasy.com. But if you are filing for an expungement, these are the things that you need to know.
Not required to have an attorney, but there are no form pleadings for it at the courthouse. There are no checkboxes, fill in the blank for these pleadings. So, you’re going to be responsible for drafting them.
The exception to that is if it is a crime that was previously a felony, and now it is a misdemeanor for that specific type of expungement, they actually put the form for that in the statute and you can get that pulled up. That is Title 22 Section 18, 19, around there is all the information related to expungement.
But, you’re going to need more than just the petition. You also need to draft up an Order Setting Hearing. You’ll need a cover sheet, that’s simple, the court can provide that for you. And the order granting the expungement.
Judges don’t generally actually draft their own orders. Their clerks don’t do that either. For the most part, if you’re talking to county court stuff, it is drafted by the attorneys, or the pro se litigants if that’s the case. So, you would also need to draft up an order.
You’ve got to give notice and know-how to give notice to interested parties. You’ve got to know how to put on a hearing if it is going to be contested and to prove the qualifications and properly plead that. So, are you required to have an attorney?
You definitely are not. Are you going to want to have an attorney? You probably are. But either way, if you want an attorney, contact me. If you want to try to do it on your own, have some questions about how to do that, we don’t have a problem answering those questions. Just go online to makelaweasy.com.
