The Minnesota Supreme Court recently held in In re Welfare of J.J.P. that when a district court is considering an expungement petition on a juvenile’s adjudication of delinquency, the court has statutory authority to expunge the delinquency order from both judicial branch and the executive branch agencies. The Minnesota Supreme Court found that statute allows executive branch agencies to consider juvenile delinquency records unless they’ve been notified of the petition and received a court order for expungement. The Minnesota Supreme Court also stated that a district court must not use the adult expungement standard for juvenile cases, but instead should use a “balancing test” to determine whether the expungement should be granted. This balancing test “weighs the petitioner’s interest in pursuing education, employment, or housing without barriers imposed by delinquency-adjudication records, against the public’s interest in accessing those records to evaluate the potential public safety risk posed by the petitioner.”
If you have a delinquency adjudication that is barring you from educational, employment, and/or housing opportunities, and would like to find out more about the expungement process, then contact Brandt Kettwick Defense at 763-421-6366 for a free, no-obligation consultation.