Question regarding CORI check and LTC

[Nesname33]

Hey everyone, I'm new here and this forum seems to be a wealth of knowledge and experience. I'm looking to get my LTC and started doing some prep work and research. To cut a long story short, I wasn't the brightest young adult and had a few run ins with the courts. I ran my CORI and it kicked back five records. To include malicious distruction of private property, compulsory insurance violation, shoplifting, minor in possession of alcohol and the worst one, possession of a class d.

The CORI says non convicted on everything but the minor in possession of alcohol which reads convicted. The one that I'm really worried about is the class d charge. The disposition of that one reads non convicted and the codes are as follows.
C 3/21
CWOF SP 9/22
VWF DF WAR D/R PD DIS
Now that looks to me like I was placed on a continuance, failed to pay the victim witness fee, defaulted , issued a warrant, default removed and then paid and dismissed. But that would signify a violation and a guilty verdict, no? It also has a disposition date of unknown.

All this happened in excess of fifteen years ago and my memory of all the events is fuzzy at best. I understand that I'll probably be denied on suitability if it even gets farther than an instant rejection. I was wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation or knows of someone. I understand that my best course of action would be to consult a lawyer. But if there is zero chance, It'd be best to find out now than be in the hole for a few grand with the same result. And have denied request on the record in case future laws change my eligibility.

 

[pastera]

Go get the actual court records for each issue
If you do the legwork then a decent firearms lawyer should be able to give you a idea for a consult fee - you're not talking thousands unless you have them do the research.

As long as you are not a prohibited person (you say its "fuzzy") then a big factor is what town your are in.

I always confuses me how anyone can have issues remembering the disposition of a criminal court case.

 

[drgrant]

Go get the actual court records for each issue
If you do the legwork then a decent firearms lawyer should be able to give you a idea for a consult fee - you're not talking thousands unless you have them do the research.

As long as you are not a prohibited person (you say its "fuzzy") then a big factor is what town your are in.

I always confuses me how anyone can have issues remembering the disposition of a criminal court case.

This.

Plus I will also add, and I'm going to be that guy.... the OP should not even attempt to get an LTC without getting counsel for this. Failure to do so could potentially ruin any chance/attempts one has in the future.

 

[Mass-diver]

100% talk to a firearms lawyer before you go any further.

 

[Deleted member 12999]

This.

Plus I will also add, and I'm going to be that guy.... the OP should not even attempt to get an LTC without getting counsel for this. Failure to do so could potentially ruin any chance/attempts one has in the future.

PROPRIETARILY OBTAIN YOSELF A CORT POINTED LAWYERRR


View: https://youtu.be/peea9faRqUk

 

[LuvDog]

As said above, get all the court records and consult an attorney before you even think about submitting an application.

 

[Mtn_Guy]

 

[Nesname33]

Go get the actual court records for each issue
If you do the legwork then a decent firearms lawyer should be able to give you a idea for a consult fee - you're not talking thousands unless you have them do the research.

As long as you are not a prohibited person (you say its "fuzzy") then a big factor is what town your are in.

I always confuses me how anyone can have issues remembering the disposition of a criminal court case.

It's fuzzy in as much as I actually don't remember the disposition. I was 17 and going through a very rough portion of my life. At the time I didn't realize the lifelong consequences of a minor(In my eyes at the time) criminal record. My court appointed lawyers didn't seem particularly interested in anything but moving on to the next client. I know this sounds like excuse after excuse, but I wasn't very informed or knowledgeable about what the hell was actually going on in court. In the end it all rest squarely on me though.

But thanks for all the replies. I wasn't planning on going it alone. I was asking if you guys and gals thought it would be an instant rejection. I'll get working on getting the required dockets and such. I imagine it's gonna be a pain with the pandemic. I assume any of the lawyers on the GOAL Mass site will be sufficient? If, by some miracle, I do get approved, is every renewal gonna be a uphill battle and or crapshoot as well?

 

[pastera]

It's fuzzy in as much as I actually don't remember the disposition. I was 17 and going through a very rough portion of my life. At the time I didn't realize the lifelong consequences of a minor(In my eyes at the time) criminal record. My court appointed lawyers didn't seem particularly interested in anything but moving on to the next client. I know this sounds like excuse after excuse, but I wasn't very informed or knowledgeable about what the hell was actually going on in court. In the end it all rest squarely on me though.

But thanks for all the replies. I wasn't planning on going it alone. I was asking if you guys and gals thought it would be an instant rejection. I'll get working on getting the required dockets and such. I imagine it's gonna be a pain with the pandemic. I assume any of the lawyers on the GOAL Mass site will be sufficient? If, by some miracle, I do get approved, is every renewal gonna be a uphill battle and or crapshoot as well

Understand youth and my comment wasn't directed at you in particular (you aren't the first and won't be the last to ask questions)

If your list was comprehensive then in the right town you should be able to get and maintain an LTC if for the intervening fifteen years you have shown maturity (relatively clean driving record, no calls to your home for disturbances, etc)

 

[vicorjh]

I assume any of the lawyers on the GOAL Mass site will be sufficient? If, by some miracle, I do get approved, is every renewal gonna be a uphill battle and or crapshoot as well?

An attorney can help craft the LTC application after some interrogation regarding your background. Jason Guida, for example, is relatively inexpensive for this type of work.

I have no answers to your original post regarding your court records but have some thoughts here. Not an attorney, btw. Just personal reasoning.

Even though it may seem trivial, it seems to me it is universally better to have an attorney involved up-front if there is any concern of being denied versus retaining an attorney after a denial. The most effort should be placed towards avoiding a denial in the first place or, if the chance of being denied is high, having the attorney involved in crafting the narrative that could be useful towards future legal efforts. Bringing it to court after the fact is where things get expensive among other disadvantages. More so if there are significant problems in the original application ... this is where an attorney will be helpful to ensure the application is 100% legit and will have a plan of attack if something goes awry. Fighting a denial will be much more difficult than spending the time up-front along with the potential disadvantage of any court record of the proceedings becoming public.

An example of where there could be denial is when there are inconsistencies on the record. This could be an inconsistency with your statement versus what is on the court records. Or, for that matter, there could be an inconsistency between what the state has on record versus any information transmitted to and retained by the FBI. Having a grasp on this and being able to correct the record or explain-away anything that appears inconsistent is an important step. An attorney practiced in the art will be able to advise you on what steps to undertake if needed.

For example, due to the flexibility that the PD is allowed in MA to determine suitability, the wife and I tend to retain an attorney during application and renewal periods. Wife is clean as snow while I may be classed as crusty snow but legit clean. Some may agree or disagree with the strategy here, having an application that includes an attorney letterhead does tend to translate into the PD taking notice that you are prepared and willing to adjudicate any issues in the courts. The disadvantage being that the PD may dig deeper to understand the 'why' but if everything lines-up with the narrative provided, it is likely they will want to avoid the pain of litigation over non-b/w, trivial concerns, or them trying to rationalize a denial. If asked as to the why, my response is simply that we retain an attorney to help prepare any legal documentation that could have future legal ramifications. At this stage in the process, it's relatively cheap insurance.

If nothing of significance has changed between the time of the original application, a renewal should be more straightforward as you've already done all the leg-work making it riskier, from a litigation standpoint, for the PD to take the opportunity to trivially deny your application/renewal (namely non-green towns).

I agree with the comments here, the first point of order is to run this by a competent attorney to assess potential areas of concern. Your main goal is to avoid a denial as that can have a lasting impact. An attorney can advise you as to the likelihood of a denial based on the information you provide along with any steps you'll need to take ahead of time.

Good luck!

 

[AHM]

I always confuses me how anyone can have issues remembering the disposition of a criminal court case.

Well, it wasn't many weeks ago that I learned for the first time that
CWOF's always have explicit time-limits.

When someone's gotten cross-wise with the law,
the least of their problems are my future criticisms
of their filing technique.

If nothing of significance has changed between the time of the original application, a renewal should be more straightforward as you've already done all the leg-work making it riskier, from a litigation standpoint, for the PD to take the opportunity to trivially deny your application/renewal (namely non-green towns).

I agree with the comments here, the first point of order is to run this by a competent attorney to assess potential areas of concern. Your main goal is to avoid a denial as that can have a lasting impact. An attorney can advise you as to the likelihood of a denial based on the information you provide along with any steps you'll need to take ahead of time.

To relate this to @pastera's earlier advice to you in this thread:

You're doing the legwork to collect fresh copies of all your court documents
so that you don't pay to have one of the (world-class) Mass gun lawyers
to collect all of the documents he needs to evaluate your case,
at world-class Mass gun lawyer hourly rates.

The lawyer needs the documents,
you just don't need to pay them to collect them when you can do it yourself.
Hell, odds are it's not even his favorite part of the job.

You are not collecting fresh copies of all of your court documents
in order to dump them on the police department in your LTC application.
Your lawyer will have a strong opinion about which documents to submit initially,
which documents to submit only upon request,
and which documents (if any) to let the police find by themselves.

The lawyer won't tell you to lie, or commit deliberately misleading omissions.
But they will know what to submit when.


You are especially not collecting fresh copies of all of your court documents
in order to dump them on the police department in your LTC application
without obtaining paid legal advice from a world-class Mass gun lawyer
about what to submit and how to frame the submission.


From the lawyer's perspective, "all" probably means "all".
However, if you don't think you know how to get "all" of them
from the court clerk's office (I wouldn't know any),
then unless some NESer replies here with the perfect set of sufficient document titles,
it couldn't hurt to pick your lawyer and start off by saying,
"I have a sticky application to make, and I want to get all my files for you;
what are all the files you need me to fetch -
what do you call what you need to see?".

The lawyer ought to be squared-away enough to be able to say,
"all the A's, B's, C's, and if such-and-such, then the D's as well".
Don't you think?

 

[nstassel]

It doesn't seem that you're disqualified from what you've said. That entry in the cori shows a dismissal not conviction. The suitability may be a concern. If the weed case bothers you, you're eligible for expungement as a matter of right due to the 2018 crime bill.