Sex Offender Registration Removal: Striking Registration Requirements

Sex Offender Registration Removal in Washington

If you are currently required to register as a sex offender you may be able to ask the Court to remove that requirement. After a minimum of ten or fifteen years in the community adult offenders without any new criminal offenses are eligible to ask the Court to remove this requirement. Juvenile offenders may be eligible to ask that the registration requirement be removed in as little as two years after their sentence is imposed. This requirement does not go away automatically-you have to convince a judge to do it and you can expect a fight from the prosecutor about this request in most cases.

Given today’s emotional and highly political discussion of sex offenders, those who seek sex offender registration removal need to present a strong case to convince the Court that they are safe to be in the community without registration. This is where an experienced and aggressive attorney can make a real difference. Your petition must be well drafted, must argue the law, and must be fully supported with documents and evidence to convince the Court that you do not deserve continued registration.

Seattle Sex Offender Registration Removal Lawyer

At The Meryhew Law Group, our defense team has extensive experience preparing detailed and persuasive petitions to the Court to ask for removal of this requirement. We have successfully convinced courts to relieve clients of their registration obligations for a wide variety of sex offenses in adult and juvenile court. Call us today for a free consultation to see if you are eligible for sex offender registration removal. Below are some commonly-asked questions pertaining to sex offender registration removal:

What Information Will the Court Consider in Deciding Whether to Remove the Requirement That I Register as a Sex Offender?

You must convince the court that further registration will not serve the purposes of the registration statute. While the purpose of the registration statute is to help police investigate unsolved sex offenses, in fact there are many other factors that a Court will consider when evaluating your request. While the statute does not list specific factors for the court to consider, based on our experience, we have identified several considerations that courts typically review in deciding whether to grant these petitions.

Our petitions include a detailed history about you that, where appropriate, will include information about your:

• Employment history
• Education history
• Mental health history
• Relationship history
• Counseling history
• Substance abuse history (if applicable)
• Sex offender treatment history
• Criminal history
• Support network
• Impact of registration on your life
• Letters of support from your family and friends

We work closely with you to develop compelling reasons why you should no longer have to register as a sex offender.

How Will You DeveLop This Information?

When you meet with our attorneys, we will ask you to sign information release forms for any counseling and treatment records. We will meet with you as long as it takes to take a complete social history so that we can advocate for you as strongly as possible. If necessary, we will assist you in obtaining updated sexual deviancy evaluations and sexual history polygraphs to show the court that you pose little to no risk of committing a new crime. We will also contact any law enforcement or Department of Corrections officials, treatment providers, probation officers, community leaders, teachers, coaches and family members who can speak well of your success in the community and your compliance with your judgment and sentence.

Is Removing the Requirement to Register the Same as Removing the Record of my Conviction?

NO. Removing the requirement to register will have no impact on removing the record of your conviction. Under current law in Washington it is not possible to remove most sex offenses from your records, whether committed as an adult or a juvenile.

Get it right the first time. Seeking legal relief for sex offender registration requires a thorough, detailed study of a number of intricate, complicated laws. Courts and prosecutors can be unforgiving if you don’t follow all of the rules with precision. When you need help removing your sex offender registration, call the lawyers who work on these issues every day