Expungement and Sealing Lawyer in Southern Illinois

Expungement and Sealing Lawyer in Southern Illinois

Criminal convictions come with many collateral consequences, including damage to your reputation. Expungement and sealing may allow you to clear your record and reduce or eliminate these consequences. The defense attorneys at Combs Waterkotte have over 60 years of combined legal experience helping people accused of criminal offenses across Southern Illinois, and we know how to effectively fight to give you a fresh start.

Expungement, Sealing, and Impoundment of Criminal Records

The criminal justice system in Illinois extensively documents every arrest, charge, and conviction. For people in the adult system, these records are almost always visible on a criminal background check.

As a result, landlords, potential employers, educational institutions, and licensing boards can act on these records. In theory, you may bear the collateral consequences of an arrest or conviction long after you have completed your sentence and reentered society.

At the same time, the justice system needs records of prior criminal behavior. Officers use this information to investigate crimes, and judges use these records to determine whether someone is a repeat offender subject to enhanced sentences.

Expungement, sealing, and impoundment are meant to balance these interests by removing access to records of criminal proceedings under certain circumstances.

Illinois Court Processes for Expungement, Sealing, and Impoundment

In Illinois, expungement, sealing, and impoundment each have different criteria and require a distinct filing process.

Expungement

Expungement is perhaps the most drastic remedy. The benefit of expungement is that it removes all access to a record. The drawback of expungement is that it generally only applies to these records:

• Arrest records where you were never charged or you were acquitted
• Arrest records where prosecutors dismissed your charges
• Convictions that were reversed or vacated
• Convictions pardoned by the governor’s office
• Felony convictions for prostitution
• Arrests or convictions for possession or dealing of 30 grams or less of marijuana
• Arrests or convictions for drug charges involving greater amounts of marijuana
• Arrests or convictions of honorably discharged veterans
• Completed court supervision and qualified probation sentences

Most of the time, expungement cannot be sought for any other record, including traffic violations, convictions that were not reversed, vacated, or pardoned, and probation that the court terminated without successful completion.

Sealing

Sealing happens when the court removes access to records, except in specific circumstances. For example, employers required by Illinois law to conduct fingerprint-based criminal background checks can still access sealed records. However, landlords, schools, and other employers cannot see them.

Thus, only these employers may see your sealed criminal arrests or convictions:

• Schools
• Banks and financial institutions
• Healthcare providers
• Childcare providers
• Fire departments
• Private couriers
• Park districts

Sealing is available for most criminal offenses. However, the state typically exempts the following offenses from sealing:

• DUI (felony & misdemeanor)
• Sex crimes
• Domestic battery
• Criminal sexual assault
• Felony public indecency
• Reckless driving by adults 25 or older
• Battery of an unborn child
• Violating a protective or no-contact order
• Offenses that require offender registration
• Dog fighting
• Animal cruelty
• Minor traffic violations

Additionally, you cannot usually seal any offenses that require current offender registration on the Murder and Violent Offender Against Youth Registry, Sex Offender Registry, or Arsonist Registry. Once you are off the registry, though, you may petition to have your records sealed.

Notably, sealing is available for most violent crimes, including murder and manslaughter. You must wait three years after completing your last sentence before petitioning to seal these records. As a result, many of these cases remain unsealed for years or even decades.

Also, sealing does not affect any non-government records. This means any newspaper articles or social media posts will remain publicly accessible even if you can successfully seal your police and court records.

Impoundment

Impoundment is another remedy that may prevent public access to some records. However, it has limited use.

Impoundment applies when the court removes public access to court records, typically to protect sensitive or private information. For instance, you might request impoundment of certain testimony regarding non-criminal sexual activity.

Keep in mind that impoundment does not affect police records or any court records not covered by an impoundment order. So even if a court agrees to impound certain testimony, the record of your conviction may remain public.

Grounds for Seeking Expungement and Sealing in Southern Illinois

We may have several grounds to seek expungement or sealing of your records. It’s important to note that most of these grounds have no relation to your criminal defense strategy.

In other words, we won’t need to prove that you were wrongly convicted to expunge or seal records. Instead, we may use any of the following grounds for expungement and sealing:

Pardon

The Illinois Prisoner Review Board reviews requests for pardons. Clemency in the form of pardons and commutations is often granted for these reasons:

• Correction of legal or procedural errors
• Rehabilitation
• Addressing new evidence

The board also considers any collateral consequences you may have suffered, including denials of housing, employment, or education.

Clemency is typically applied as an extraordinary remedy that often requires some proof that your situation is unusually harsh or unfair, given the circumstances. Alternatively, we can help your case with evidence that you have accepted responsibility for your actions and have rehabilitated your ways.

A pardon does not automatically expunge your record. Instead, you must apply for expungement with the courts. Once the court determines that you have met all the requirements for expungement, it can remove all access to your arrest and court records.

Dismissed or Vacated Conviction

We can seek expungement for cases that were dismissed or vacated as well. A dismissal is often granted by a trial court judge for the following reasons:

• No probable cause
• Improper arrest
• Insufficient evidence for a trial

We can also seek expungement if you were convicted, but an appeals court later vacated the conviction. This often results from a legal error during the arrest, investigation, or trial.

Acquitted or Released Without Charges

If you were arrested but released without any charges, the court can expunge the arrest record. Similarly, a court can expunge your arrest and court records after an acquittal at trial.

Automatic Expungement

Minor marijuana arrests are generally eligible for automatic expungement of arrest records. Specifically, Illinois decriminalized the possession of personal amounts of cannabis. In doing so, the legislature decided that it would be unfair to allow past arrest records to stand for acts that were no longer criminal.

You do not need to petition for expungement if you fall into this category. Instead, the state should have completed the expungement without any action by you.

However, if your arrest record has not yet been expunged, you’ll want to reach out to us to determine if you were eligible for automatic expungement and identify your options for seeking the remedy.

Notably, automatic expungement does not apply to court records. If you were convicted of a minor marijuana offense, you are likely eligible for expungement of your conviction, but you must petition for it.

Completion of Diversion Program

If you completed a diversion program, you may be eligible for expungement. These programs, like drug court, are meant to give people a fresh start. Expungement can eliminate many of the collateral consequences that affect people who were convicted of offenses, but have overcome the issues leading to their criminal behavior.

Other Potential Grounds

Survivors of human trafficking may also have their records sealed and expunged in Illinois, which aims to help them move forward and rebuild their lives. For honorably discharged veterans, certain felony convictions may be eligible for expungement as well.

Sealing vs. Expungement: Key Differences

Understanding sealing vs. expungement can be a challenge. Here are key distinctions to keep in mind: