Privacy Law

The decision to seal arrest records cannot be undervalued. Among the most embarrassing moments in many peoples lives, the incentive to prevent employers, landlords, and even potential love interests from learning about your arrest is extremely high.

The decision to seal arrest records cannot be undervalued. Among the most embarrassing moments in many peoples lives, the incentive to prevent employers, landlords, and even potential love interests from learning about your arrest is extremely high.
For many in California, the ability to seal arrest records means the difference between not being hired for your next job opportunity or being denied in a rental application.
The reason arrest records effect so many people is because traditional privacy laws do not provide enough safeguards to those who have been touched by the criminal justice system and very complex system of criminal data management.

Who Can Seal Arrest Records

Anyone who has been arrested or detained by a citation notice [a ticket instead being booked into jail] can petition the Superior Court in California so long as either the specific statute of limitations has passed or where the interests of justice would be best served.

If you have a felony conviction in the State of California, it can be difficult to move on with your life. It can affect your ability to get a job, find housing, and even prevent you from pursuing higher education. So you may be wondering if you qualify for a California Felony Expungement.

There is hope – California Law offers Felony Expungement. In this comprehensive guide, we will cover everything you need to know about felony expungement in California. We will start with the basics and cover eligibility requirements, steps involved in the process along with the benefits of felony expungement. We will also answer some frequently asked questions about the process and provide tips for removing your information from the internet post-expungement. So if you’re looking to move on from your past mistakes and want a fresh start, read on!
PS: If you want to consult with an experienced attorney to help do this for you, save yourself some reading and contact us! Our law firm love working on these cases.

The bad news: background check removal law is a largely untouched area of the legal system that mixes criminal records with the increasingly complex world of public record databases. It is very misunderstood and fraught with misinformation and hocus-pocus.

The good news: you’ve come to the right place.
Many people with criminal records look to making a fresh start right about the time someone is about to make a hiring decision. While this is not the best time to start the process of criminal record removal, it’s not too late either.
And even though it’s not very well known to the public and most attorneys, the law still matters in this area.

To find out more about this lesser known legal practice area, please read on!

Before embarking on the task of defining what exactly a criminal record is, it’s probably more important to first identify what a “record” of anything is. After all, since the advent of technology, there are many disciplinary-dependent definitions of records.

A “record” is a stored piece of information or collection of data that is treated as some kind of meaningful unit. In plain English, keeping a record of something means simply to store a piece of information or event to access it’s meaning or value in the future.

So when dealing with criminal events, these can take the form of many instances in time or procedure: arrest, detention, investigation, booking, processing, filing of charges, court docket history, convictions, sealing, or any modification of any of these or similar events.

Definition of a Background Check: “A process of conducting an investigation into the existence or nonexistence of a past or present criminal event as applied to an individual’s personal history.”

In the same way as defining what a “criminal record” is, the task of explaining what goes into criminal background checks is multi-layered and complex. Regardless of that fact, this article aims to inform the reader of the most crucial and relevant aspects that relate to this topic. But there are a few things one needs to know about background checks when applied to criminal records:

Although people often hear of the ways in which a criminal record can hinder their lives should they get one, the concept of a “criminal record” often remains a bit hazy and mysterious to many. However, the presence of a criminal record can present a vast array of difficulties in a person’s life. Whether someone is trying to secure a loan, apply for security clearance or interview for a corporate job, it is relatively common for companies—and even private citizens—to check someone’s criminal record. For many of us, it is a virtual guarantee that our past will be checked by someone.
Unfortunately, many people are woefully unaware of what types of crimes are considered worthy of being placed on a criminal record, let alone how long they will remain there, or what the record even looks like.

Some individuals don’t even discover their criminal records until they’ve reached the borders of a foreign country and are denied entry. Others won’t realize an old arrest is on their criminal record until their job application is turned down due to an old arrest. And by that point, it is too late since the damage has been done.

Many people with misdemeanors never take the time out to seek criminal record expungement for various reasons. Those who do go through the trouble are often in for a horrible surprise. The criminal record removal process is filled with pitfalls and misinformation.

At first glance, getting a misdemeanor conviction expunged seems like a pretty painless process. The problem is that many courts do not take it upon themselves to inform background check companies that your record has been “cleared”. This is why many are shocked to find out during the middle of a job interview that their criminal record shows up. As one can imagine, the damage is already done at that point.

That means the battle is not over. To get the job done, a comprehensive review is needed which involves multiple databases so that your past does not appear in background checks. Therefore, criminal record removal is not simple–it’s very tricky. But it often does start with criminal record expungement. Here’s some more information about this topic: