Withdraw Your Guilty Plea To Remove A Conviction From Your Record

You can withdraw your guilty plea for a speeding ticket or criminal offense such as marijuana possession or shoplifting if 1) not much time has passed since your plea, and 2) you did not have an attorney representing you when you pleaded guilty.

Withdraw Your Guilty Plea For A Speeding Ticket And Remove Points From Your Driving Record

When you plead guilty to a moving violation, points are added to your Missouri driving record. If you accumulate too many points, your driver’s license will be suspended or revoked. Click here for a list of Missouri traffic violation points.

If you withdraw your plea and hire an attorney to get your ticket reduced to a non-moving, no-point infraction, the points will be removed from your driving record.

Removing points from your driving record can lift your license suspension and prevent an increase in your car insurance rates.

Withdraw Your Guilty Plea For A Criminal Charge And Remove The Conviction From Your Criminal Record

If you have pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, such as possession of marijuana or shoplifting, it’s not too late to change your mind and withdraw your plea.

Many people plead guilty to a minor criminal offense and later realize the conviction is causing them problems when trying to rent an apartment or get a job, internship, or financial aid for college.

An experienced criminal defense attorney can withdraw your guilty plea and get your criminal charge dismissed or reduced to a less serious offense, such as “Littering,” which does not show up on a criminal record.

How Can An Attorney Help You Withdraw Your Guilty Plea

You can’t just walk in to court and tell the judge you changed your mind and want to withdraw your guilty plea. You will need to hire an experienced attorney to file the right motion and represent you in court if you want to successfully withdraw your guilty plea.

If the judge allows you to change your plea from “guilty” to “not guilty,” then your attorney will meet the Prosecuting Attorney to get the original charge reduced to a less serious offense. For example, your attorney can get a speeding ticket reduced to “Illegal Parking” or a shoplifting charge reduced to “Littering.”

Your attorney can walk you through the process and tell you what to expect. The outcome of your case depends on the following:

• Which court is your case being prosecuted in?
• Do you have prior arrests, charges, or convictions on your criminal record?
• How much time has passed since you pleaded guilty?
• Did you have an attorney representing you when you pleaded guilty?

In many cases in which a defendant hires an attorney to withdraw their guilty plea, the defendant does not have to appear in court at all.

What Happens After You Withdraw Your Guilty Plea

Once you withdraw your guilty plea and a new plea bargain deal is negotiated, the Prosecutor will assess a new fine for the amended charge. The new fine may be higher than the fine you already paid when you pleaded guilty to the original charge. You will have to pay the difference between the original fine amount and the new higher fine.

After you withdraw your plea and pay the difference between the old fine and the new fine, the court will revise their records and the original conviction will be removed from your record.

For example:  If your original guilty plea was for a speeding ticket, the original speeding conviction (and the points) will be removed from your driving record. If the original conviction caused your license to be suspended, removing the points will lift the suspension.

Other Ways To Avoid Adding Points To Your Driving Record

If you have not already pleaded guilty to a traffic violation, here are some suggestions for how to keep speeding ticket points off your driving record:

• If you have not already paid the fine and pleaded guilty, you can hire a traffic law attorney to get your speeding ticket reduced to a non-moving, no-point infraction that won’t affect your driving record or car insurance rates.
• Ask the judge to let you attend traffic school to remove the points from your driving record. This option may not be available in all counties, and it does NOT hide the speeding conviction from your insurance company.

________________________________________
For a free consultation about withdrawing your guilty plea, contact St. Louis attorney Andrea Storey Rogers at (314) 724-5059 or [email protected]