Expungement is a legal process that removes a criminal charge from your record. This allows you to legally tell most employers inquiring into your background that you have not been arrested for a crime. An expungement attorney, such as Dennis A. Harrison, is trained in expungement law and knows that getting your record expunged is important and can have a lifelong affect on you. The court will decide when to grant or deny motion to expunge. In making this determination, the court will use its discretion the rules set forth by the state of Illinois statutes.
Downers Grove Record Expungements
Once a judge has found in the petitioner’s favor, there are two types of orders possible:
- One order is for the record to be expunged. This means the record is erased, as if it never existed. The arresting agency returns the records to the petitioner, including police reports, fingerprint cards, and booking photographs that were generated by the arrest. The circuit court clerk erases the records, both physical and electronic, of the court activity. For all practical purposes the case never happened. Expungement means that from a legal standpoint the case did not happen.
- The second possible judicial order is for a record to be sealed. When a record is sealed, only law enforcement may view it. Others, such as the general public, may not. The court file is no longer available for public viewing and is not listed in public searches, but members of law enforcement with an appropriate need can access the files.
In order to determine whether you case can be expunged or sealed or not, you need to seek the professional expertise of Attorney Dennis A. Harrison.