New client called me today about the police giving him problems for a marijuana charge that was dismissed.  Even though he was not convicted, he reports that his local police department called him in towards the end of the application process to read him the riot  act for his failure to disclose this charge.   Problem  is, he was not convicted and he did disclose it, but maybe not in the exact format that they wanted. 

I’m sure we’ll work it out so there won’t be any problems.   His prior attorney told him that this would not be on his record.  However, when a charge is dismissed for any reason, the arrest is still on your record.  Thus, an expungement is necessary to remove everything from your record.  Had he done that in the first place, the application process would have been much easier.