When do sealed or expunged records show up? Who has access to them?
Presumably company employers can only see records that have not been sealed or expunged.
Detectives investigating crimes probably can get access to these records (not sure).
Judges have access to that information I presume.
Immigration Services have access to prior arrest records.
Government agencies hiring to fill positions would certainly be able to find put any brushes a candidate has had with the law.
I look forward to your feedback.
In my county, all arrest records are freely available to the public on the website of the Sheriff’s office. The only exception is when the person being arrested is under the age of 18. They even issue a weekly report that lists every arrest, along with location and charges.
Interesting. I find this weird; from what I know, in Canada arrest records are not a matter of public record, and employers can only ask about convictions, not arrests.
(For some jobs and activities involving children, like Scout Leader or Day Care Worker, you need to get OK through a police record check - I assume this includes arrest records and results in “approved” or not, but not details?)
Same way here in Ohio, you can look up any court record online. Of course they only go back to when that jurisdiction began doing it electronically. To go back further, you just need to visit the court.
Last week I looked up a court case from 1990. I have looked up cases as far back as 1954 in the past. Some courts will send someone to pull the file, others will just set you down in the microfilm room and leave you alone.
An expunged record is hard to get by request as it requires the governor’s signature after a person jumps through the hoops to justify it. It doesn’t show up after that, but an employer will see a note indicating records were removed.
In Missouri, open records are open to the public. Closed and expunged are on file for Law enforcement only. Also in Missouri, a closed record could be an expunged record, but you have to actually read the entry to know.
When it comes to looking at someones criminal record, at least for law enforcement, we have to have a valid reason to look at it. If I get new neighbors, I can’t just go to work and run them in the law enforcement system. If my department is investigating my new neighbors for a crime, then certainly, but just for curiosity sake is a huge no no.
We go through training every other year on all of this. The best part of the training is the section where they talk about people being arrested/sued/fired for running someone’s criminal history without a valid reason.
I was under the impression in some US states, “expunged” can be part of the sentence “i.e. your DUI conviction will be expunged if you complete this course on safe driving”?
Just want to say I am not an attorney and can only speak from experience in my home state. Anyway, There are several ways for a record to be closed. You can get arrested because they thought you committed a crime, but shortly there after, they find the real suspect and release you OR it goes through court and you are acquitted. The record of your arrest will remain in the system, but the record is ‘closed’. Which, for us means that while the police officer can see it, your potential employer who runs a background check, cannot see it.
It is the same for traffic tickets. If you get a speeding ticket, take it to a lawyer and they get it changed to a non moving violation, your insurance company will see the non moving violation on your record, but the police will see that you were ticketed for speeding and it was amended to (insert non moving violation here).
Expunged is similar to closed except for the name. The difference here is that a closed record is usually closed by the time you leave the court room. Expungement happens at a later date. So if you do something bad, but they put you on probation and tell you that if you stay out of trouble, the record will be expunged, you usually have to have an attorney go back to court to get it expunged. From what I have seen, most lawyers worth their title will know this and will follow up with you and/or the court when that time has arrived, but there are so many not so hot lawyers out there that don’t, it is best to put it on your own calendar and follow up with your lawyer when that date arrives. It’s usually a pretty quick thing, usually done in writing and very seldom requires a court hearing, but don’t ever expect it to go away unless you have the paperwork stating it was expunged.
Ending with "I’m not a lawyer (again), this has just been my experience after 20+ years in public safety.
I was just checking the Ohio expungement requirements. Looks like they were changed in 2014, which is after my experience (No I was not the criminal, just a friend). They are supposed to be easier to obtain today. My friend gave up trying.
However, there is a long list of convictions that cannot be expunged. Among them are 1st and 2nd degree felonies, convictions for which jail time is mandatory, convictions involving minors, etc. Here is a list that summarizes the Ohio law a lot better than posting everything here.
In general this is correct. My experience happens to be in Missouri as well; but your basic open records search by name and a DOB etc. will only reveal an ‘open’ record…that is, a 1)conviction 2)suspended imposition of sentence during the period of probation, or 3) an arrest for a short period of time, pending the prosecutor filing charges or 4) a arrest for which the prosecutor has filed a charge, but for which no court disposition has been submitted.
Here employers and organizations may be able to see your complete, including closed record. They require fingerprint submittal however, which means that you have to give your consent (by being printed) for them to access those records. ETA: Sometimes that requirement is statutory…health care workers, teachers etc.
Again MO: closed records are 1) arrests the prosecutor hasn’t filed charges on 2) not-guilty 3) suspended impositions of sentence after the period of probation is successfully completed.
The list of charges that are eligible for expungement in MO is short as well. Can’t remember exactly off the top of my head, but it consists of things like property crimes and stuff.
