First, summary offenses are broken into two categories, traffic offenses and non-traffic offenses. Certain traffic offenses are not criminal offenses, but can carry jail time. Therefore, I respectfully disagree with my colleage that if you are looking at jail time, the case that puts you in jail must be a crime.

Further, in Matty, the issue is whether a conviction for a summary conviction can stand when a crime was charged to the jury. The issue in the case is NOT whether a summary offense is a crime. Clearly, 18 Pa.C.S.A. sec. 106, defines all gradations of crimes and summaries are not listed. Therefore a summary offense is not a crime technically. Therefore, I respectfully disagree with my colleague regarding the syntax of the case and the PA Code.

However, summary offenses are reported to the Pennsylvani State Police and they pop-up on record checks (traffic offenses do not appear on criminal record checks). Regardless of how one reads the Matty case or sec. 106, if you are convicted of a Summary Offense, you may face jail time and the Summary Offense will come up in a crminal record check.

A Summary Offense is expungeable and a Summary Offense is reported on a criminal record check. This debate about whether a Summary Offense is a criminal offense is of no moment. The real issue is whether a Summary conviction can effect your life and liberty? The answer is clearly: yes.

Some of the most common summary offenses we see are disorderly conduct, public drunkenness, retail theft, and harassment. Often times when the police don’t really have any real crime to charge , but they want to assert their power against you, they use a summary offense as a guise to make a lawful arrest and say that your conduct was unlawful.

For example, I have had many cases where clients tell me that they observed the police making a bad arrest or physically inflicting harm against someone they were trying to arrest and my client started yelling at the officer about the way they were treating the other human being, or they were capturing the treatment on video from their cell phone. Another officer approaches my client and arrests them for disorderly conduct, and magically, their phone disappears.

Summary offenses are expungeable in Pennsylvania, even if convicted. If five years pass with no other incidents with the law, you may apply for an expungement with the Court of Common Pleas, and there will be a full hearing as to whether the summary conviction with be expunged. Unlike and ARD (Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition), there is no automatic right to expungement–you must win the hearing.