Will Third Party Records Be Erased After An Expungement?
There are a lot of problems with regards to third-party records being erased after an expungement. Because it’s almost protected free speech and we may have clients who have dismissals of cases but there’s still an old blurb from some news outfit that speaks to the person’s arrest. Appealing to that newspaper or internet news service in getting those removed is tough. It is completely separate from the legal process of having anything removed. You can Google somebody’s name, and since the internet is a valuable source of information, a potential employer may come across. What one puts on social media, any record of an arrest, etc. may come up. So legally they may not have a record but there may be some mention of the arrest and the person’s involvement out there on the internet. It’s not something that we would handle.
How Important Is Hiring An Experienced Attorney To Handle An Expungement?
It is important to hire an experienced lawyer, who does criminal defense work and has experience as far as expungement is concerned. They’re going to need to know how to generate the proper motion to have it an erasure of the record. Also, the relationship that an attorney has with a particular courthouse, especially the state attorney’s office and the judge, can be telling to the outcome of the request. The attorney is going to know what’s going to assist in getting a judge to grant that motion for an erasure. They will know what they’re going to want to hear and how they’re going to want it presented. As far as just pardon is concerned, it’s a lengthy process and it needs to be very organized.
An attorney is going to know the language that the board is going to want to hear and how it’s presented. I would think and hope that the attorney would be very organized and also get on top of the client for gathering the information that they need to gather to put forth a complete application. And then, this isn’t even counting the hearing where you’re before the board and the attorney is going to make a pitch to the board as to why this person is deserving of having their pardon granted. So again, a lot of it’s the knowledge of the language, it’s the knowledge of the presentation, it’s the diligence and the efficiency that a good firm brings to the table and all in all, it’s not very expensive.
We do pardons pretty much soup to nuts for roughly $2,500. This is a number of hours of work and that all also includes the hearing and a gathering of information, so that’s pretty inexpensive when you’re talking about someone’s future and also broadening their possibilities and options out there.
Additional Information Regarding Expungement And Pardons In Connecticut
It’s not a pardon, it’s called an eligibility, an employment eligibility certificate that’s also available. The tough thing with those is if granted, you’re relying on a perspective employer to not use that conviction against this person who’s applying for the job but there’s no way of being able to tell that the person didn’t get the job maybe for some other reason and not they’re able to uncover as far as the person’s criminal conviction. So in all likelihood, I would probably stress that the person go for the gold so to speak, and actually go for a full pardon instead of an employee eligibility certificate.
It may be important if the person has what’s called the “disqualifying offense.” If they are applying for a certain license and because of a particular conviction, they’re not able to get the license, that may be in essence where you would want to apply for an employee certificate but other than that, given the effort involved, one should actually file for a full pardon.
For more information on 3rd Party Records After Expungement, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (203) 787-8603 today.
