Q: Hi, my husband received a crim/traf non mand citation for driving without a license. It was a payable fine.

A: The term "criminal record" can be misleading, if convenient. There is no one criminal record. Organizations generally keep records of many things. Government agencies do. Many government records are publicly available to anyone. Public government records relating to an individuals "criminal history" could be called "criminal records." The most damaging of these is a "record of conviction." Other criminal history records, such as records of arrest or charge, have little value since they are merely records of unproven claims by some unknown person.

You can look at the Minnesota Court's "Register of Actions" on its website http://mncourts.org most conveniently using the court file number or citation number. That is one of many types of "criminal record." It may show whether there was a conviction, and if so, what level of conviction.

From the wording of the question, it sounds like he may have been convicted of some driving-related misdemeanor level crime, treated as a petty misdemeanor by operation of Minn. R. Crim. P 23.02: "A conviction is deemed a petty misdemeanor if the sentence imposed is within petty misdemeanor limits."

Whatever is in a public government record, is public.

Note that the court will "certify" the conviction of a driving or drivers license -related conviction to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety for inclusion on the drivers license records and possible action against the person's driver license.

A person who pays a payable violation (by mail or otherwise) without having appeared personally in court, can file a motion to re-open. (This is because there was no formal waiver of rights or guilty plea in court.)