How to Check if Your Record Has Been Expunged

To check if your record has been expunged, visit the court where your case was held and ask to view the records. If the court no longer holds them or approves your request, expungement was successful. You can also check the court's public website or contact your attorney to confirm.

How do I know if my record is clean?

If you have checked court records and found your record is clean, your expungement or sealing petition was successful. However, the case could still exist in the hands of private data-mining companies that some employers use when running background checks.

Because expungement procedures, forms, and courts differ by state, see our expungement laws by state hub for your state's specific process. For more on what shows up in a records search before expungement, see How to Find Recent Arrest Records: Are Criminal Records Public?

Use public court website

If the court maintains a website, you may check its records for your case. If your information is no longer listed, that may mean the court expunged or sealed your record. To be sure, we still recommend visiting the court in person or calling the clerk's office directly.

Note: some states, including New Jersey, offer free legal advice to people who cannot afford an attorney. Contact Legal Services of New Jersey to find your local office.

How do I get a certificate of actual innocence?

A Certificate of Actual Innocence, as the name suggests, is a document that proves your record should never have existed. You may qualify for one if the court dismissed the charges against you or found you not guilty. In other words, courts award these certificates to people accused of a crime they did not commit. Contact a local attorney or the courthouse where your case was heard to determine if you qualify.

Do expunged records show up on background checks?

Expunged records can still show up on background checks if your case is stored in a private database. It is not illegal for companies to hold criminal records, because most (though not all) court records are public. When a court expunges your record, it removes your case from public court access. The record can still exist on private background-check and data-broker sites that copied it before the expungement, however.

How to remove expunged records from private databases

If you know which company or website is holding your record, send a written request asking it to remove or correct the listing once your case is expunged or sealed. Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, background-check companies must use reasonable procedures to keep their reports accurate and must investigate a consumer's dispute.

If you have not yet completed the underlying expungement, Checkr's record-expungement initiative offers free or reduced-cost filing help in eligible states (California, as of this writing). A local attorney or legal-aid clinic can help with the process in other states.

Expungement steps

To begin, make sure your criminal record is actually expunged or sealed. To do that, you should:

• File a motion or petition with the court to expunge or seal your record. An attorney can help you prepare and file it.
• Once the court approves your request, contact the background-check company or website and ask it to delete or take down your record.

Before you apply for expungement or ask a third-party website to remove your record, make sure your case is closed and you have completed your full sentence.

That raises the question:

How do I go about getting my record expunged?

Several factors affect your eligibility for expungement, including:

• The severity and nature of the offense.
• Your overall criminal record.
• The circumstances of the case you are seeking to expunge.
• How much time has passed since the offense.

Some offenses do not qualify for expungement at all, and some records are sealed or destroyed automatically after a set amount of time. For example, several states automatically seal or destroy juvenile records once a teen completes their sentence, while others require a formal application.

The first step in most states is completing probation or parole. Contact your probation office directly to confirm you have satisfied every condition before you file.

What crimes cannot be expunged?

In most states, courts cannot expunge the following offenses:

• Kidnapping
• Sexual assault
• Luring or enticing a minor
• Criminal sexual contact with a minor
• Endangering the welfare of a minor
• Creating, possessing, or distributing child sexual abuse material
• Causing or permitting a child to engage in a sexual act
• Sexual exploitation of a minor
• Sex trafficking or commercial sexual exploitation of a minor
• Terrorism
• Perjury or lying under oath

Attempting or conspiring to commit any of the crimes above is generally non-expungable too. Also, how long a felony stays on your record varies significantly by state, so you should consult an attorney familiar with your state's rules.

Eligibility rules vary significantly by state. See our Illinois and Massachusetts expungement guides, or find your own state in the expungement laws by state hub, for the exact qualifying offenses, waiting periods, and forms. In nearly every state, you must have completed your full sentence, including probation or parole, before you can petition.

Steps to expunge your criminal record

The process depends on state law. For your state's exact forms, filing fees, and agency, see our expungement laws by state guide. It typically begins with a petition or application for expungement or record sealing.

You can usually find the application at your local courthouse, the clerk of court's website, the prosecutor's office, or your state's law enforcement or bureau of investigation. If you meet the eligibility requirements, you may file on your own or with professional help. We recommend working with an attorney or a legal-aid clinic to improve your odds of a successful petition.

What to remember

• In most states, expungement is not automatic, so you must petition the court.
• You must usually pay a filing fee.
• State law may require you to formally "serve" your petition on the district attorney, and some states require you to prepare additional legal documents.
• There may be a court hearing, which is one reason it helps to work with a professional.
• Some crimes are not eligible for expungement at all.
• In some states, a court can unseal a previously sealed or expunged record if you are later charged with a new offense.
• Some states require you to disclose sealed or expunged records when applying for a professional license, a military position, or a law-enforcement job.
• Exceptions like these vary widely. Check our expungement laws by state hub for the rules in your state.

What happens after the court expunges your record?

After the court expunges your record, anyone who wants access to it must have a court order. That means the case record is no longer in the public domain.

Depending on state law, the court may delete, destroy, or seal the record.

Your case will not show up in most background checks once that happens. Background-check companies and credit-reporting agencies may still hold copies from before the expungement, though, so you should find any company with your old record and ask it to remove the listing.

Can law enforcement agencies see expunged records?

No. Law enforcement officers and agencies can only see truly expunged records with a court order. If the court or a state agency destroys the record entirely, no one can retrieve it. State law determines exactly who can see sealed or expunged records, and that access varies from state to state.

In most states, police and prosecutors retain some access to sealed records for law-enforcement purposes, even though the public cannot see them. A sealed record is not accessible to the public and does not appear in a standard public-records search. If a copy exists in a private database outside the court system, however, it can still surface in a commercial background check.

Do expunged records show up on FBI background checks?

A national fingerprint-based check that reaches the FBI's records can still surface an expunged or sealed record in specific circumstances, particularly for jobs and licenses tied to caring for children, older adults, or people with disabilities. Florida's "Level 2" screening is one well-documented example: it can reveal certain sealed or expunged offenses involving harm to a vulnerable person, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Rules like this vary by state and by the type of job or license involved.

Outside those narrow, statutorily defined exceptions, agencies generally need a court order to unseal or view an expunged record. So in most situations, an expunged record will not show up on a standard background check without one.

Is it illegal for private companies to have criminal records?

As mentioned, most criminal records are public records, so it is not illegal for a private company to hold them. The Freedom of Information Act, First Amendment protections, and state public-records law generally allow private databases to maintain and publish criminal records, as long as doing so does not violate a specific privacy law.

That means a company may legally post accurate court records on a website that has no relationship with the court system.

What if you find your expunged record on a third-party website? Can you sue the site owner?

If the information on the website is accurate, you can request that the site owner take it down, though the owner is not always legally required to comply. If the information is inaccurate, or the website publishes non-public information such as juvenile records, you may have grounds to sue the site owner for defamation or invasion of privacy.

We recommend consulting an attorney to evaluate your specific situation.