Does Your Criminal Record Clear After 7 Years? Attorney Matt Brown from Combs Waterkotte answers the question, “Does your criminal record clear after 7 years?” Criminal Defense Lawyers in Missouri.
Episode Transcript
Jessica Ambuehl: Does your record actually clear, let’s say after seven years?
Matt Brown: No, that’s again, a common misconception in Missouri.
Your arrest record and your criminal record never go away. It’s always gonna follow you around unless you have it expunged.
So there’s no amount of time that you can wait it out and say, “Okay, after seven years, I’m good to go. My record’s clean.” That’s not the case.
Your record will only be cleaned if you get that particular offense expunged from your record.
Jessica Ambuehl: Don’t they say that like every seven years your taste buds change?
It’s not as easy as that, right?
Matt Brown: Definitely not as easy as that, no.
Chris Combs: I think the seven year common misconception came from a decade ago on job applications, the only background criminal question used to be, “Have you been convicted of a felony in the last seven years?”
And I think that’s where people got the seven years from, I’m guessing. If anyone’s looked at a job application lately, it’s, “Have you been stopped, detained, arrested, pled no contest?” They ask pretty all encompassing questions these days.
Jessica Ambuehl: Can they also ask, “Have you ever expunged your record?”
Chris Combs: I’ve seen that, but that’s as you get into higher level type professions.
Of course, if you want to be an attorney, that’s certainly a question they’re gonna ask. You have to provide your fingerprints and things like that. I’m sure if you wanted to be a doctor or work in government, [those are] things that [are] probably never gonna go away.
Looking to get your record expunged in Missouri? Contact us online or call (314) 900-HELP.
