The Criminal Background Check and Expungement
Because of the current national employment situation, more and more jobseekers are attempting to clear any derogatory information from their past so that previous arrests or convictions will not show up on a criminal background check.
The process of sealing, blocking, or erasing a criminal record is called expungement, and all states have a way to exclude minor crimes from being reported to anyone but law enforcement and some government agencies. The conditions of expungement vary from state to state, but most have some sort of youthful offender program, or first offender program, or some other means of delaying judgment in a criminal case, and possibly avoiding the stigma of a criminal conviction. Usually some terms must be met by the defendant, such as completing a probationary period, before the case “goes away.” In many situations the defendant must file a petition with the court in order to change the disposition from “first offender” to “dismissed.”
A criminal case that originally received a conviction may be sealed or expunged by petition if it was minor in nature and a sufficient length of time has passed with no further instances evident. Convictions for felony crimes, however, are usually there to stay.
There is a problem that happens when a person applying for a job is under the impression that a crime he for which he was convicted has been expunged, but the arrest still shows up on a criminal background check.
This can happen in several different ways. The case may show as “dismissed”, but the arrest still shows on the record. This will continue to be reported this way for seven years, unless it is truly expunged.
Commercial database searches marketed as a criminal background check may show an expunged record long after it should have been removed, because although the record automatically gets onto the database, it has to be manually removed, and only when it brought to the attention of the database operator.
Employers should treat the criminal background check as a part of the overall assessment of a candidate’s suitability for a particular job.
Questions about a criminal background check for your business? Call 770-426-0547, or click here.
Disclaimer: We are not attorneys and nothing in this blog should be considered legal advice. If you need legal advice, consult an attorney.
