Clean slate paves way to better future

When he was a young man, Harold was charged with a burglary offense and given deferred adjudication (DA), a special type of probation that allows a charge to be removed from a criminal record. Although Harold successfully completed the DA terms, the arrest remained on his record because removal is not automatic, but requires an additional legal step that most people don’t know how to do on their own. So despite an otherwise clean criminal record, Harold was haunted by that charge every time he sought employment or tried to rent an apartment. By the time he applied for help from Legal Aid, Harold was employed but homeless. Our attorney filed the necessary paperwork to have the charge removed from Harold’s record, offering him a greater chance of not only finding housing, but also a better paying job.