"Conviction not recorded" - what are the consequences?

Factual Questions
1

I was watching a court case yesterday (of a random person, not me or anyone I know), where the defendant ended up pleading guilty, but due to a number of mitigating factors, the judge decided not to record the conviction. What does that mean? Does it mean she’s not a criminal? Does she still have a clean record? What should she tell employers etc? What does she say on forms etc that say “have you ever been convicted of a crime?” She is also involved in a custody hearing, can the other party bring up the ‘guilty’ verdict against her? Basically, can she now just get on with her life, or will this case keep coming back to haunt her?

This is in Australia (NSW) if that makes any difference.

2

Caveat: IANAL, and do not know NSW law.

I am hazarding a guess that this is your state’s variation on a gimmick used by judges for minor crimes with mitigating circumstances.

In New York it is an “Adjournment in Contemplation of Dismissal” (ACD) – “do not get in legal trouble for a year, and it goes away” is how it is sometimes explained. The case is, as the name suggests, adjourned for a year, and if nothing has occurred in the interim to bring it back up, at the end of the year it is dismissed in the interests of justice.

In North Carolina, the defendant enters a “Prayer for Judgment Continued” (PJC). This is considered to be a conviction of sorts – one must pay a fine, or whatever penalty – but the judgment is “continued” – it is not entered in the records of the court as a conviction, with whatever relevant effects this might have. Hence officially one has not been convicted.

I presume other jurisdictions have similar variations on the same theme, but I’m not familiar with them.

I suspect strongly this is the NSW version of the NC adjudication.

3

They do something like that in New Hampshire too. The defendant pleads nolo contendere, and if they stay out of trouble for a year they don’t get convicted. I forget the technical term - I think it’s “closed without resolution” or “without conclusion” or something like that.

4

Do you guys have conditional discharges and absolute discharges down there?

Seems to me an absolute discharge would more or less correspond to what the OP is asking about - you’re guilty but no punishment is imposed and you don’t end up with a criminal record.

5

I did a quick check of the NSW Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999, and there seems to be no reference to it (although I only read through the index not the whole Act). It may be a common law device in NSW, or there may be another piece of legislation I didn’t pick up. I imagine pretty much all states in Australia have the same concept, however. It’s conceptually a little different from the deferred sentencing options adn the conditional discharge options referred to by others above.

If my experience elsewhere in Oz in anything to go by, the idea is that the court can impose a penalty now (such as a fine, probation, community service, etc, ) and if you are a suitable candidate such as a young first offender, the court can order that the conviction not be recorded. Prison sentences are usually excluded from this process as too serious to be “not recorded”.

“Not recording a conviction” is a confusing concept because of course it is recorded by both the courts and the police. If you are convicted of another offence later, it will generally be brought up by the prosecution in dealing with your antecedents so that the court will take a much dimmer view of you.

What it means, however, is that you typically don’t have to mention it in those forms which commonly require you to do so, such as job applications, passport applications and so. You can say “no” to relevant questions about whether you have been convicted of an offence without being guilty of fraud.

The idea is that you can get punished for the offence, but you don’t have it hanging over your head in such a way as to prevent all sorts of things that would advance your rehabilitation like getting a job. If you got caught with a little weed, you might get fined, but if it is a first offence the court doesn’t want that to result in your getting the sack or being stuck in the ranks of the unemployable for ever.

I say “typically”, because some employers get around it by asking if you have ever been charged with an offence, and for some jobs the free pass does not apply - common examples include teachers, police officers, and so on.

So the above stuff is just general and dependent upon the particular circumstances and jurisdiction - if you have a real issue with this, consult a lawyer - I am not yours and this is not legal advice.

6

It means exactly what it says (in Australia). The person is not a convicted criminal. The case has been found proven, but for whatever reason the judge decided that a criminal conviction is not appropriate in that case.

It certainly means that if the question is, “have you been convicted of an offence”, you may honestly answer “no”.

The most common example I have seen is if an upstanding member of the community (generally over 50 with a clear driving record) is caught drink driving, but barely over the limit, he may well not have a conviction recorded.

7

The thing is, a coviction is always on your record, in future for your antecedents, or history-sheet as is known is some places, it will be there. Depending on the circumstances you will not have to mention it and it will not be on record that the public can see.