Clear my criminal record
Part 3: More Expungement
In my last post, I wrote about what expungement is and who can get it. In this post, I go further and list out the pros and cons of what expungement can get you if you’re eligible.
Pros. Expungement is a judicial remedy and therefore only applies to records that belong to the court: Paper records held at the courthouse and entries on CCAP.
But wait, there’s more! A conviction that’s been expunged can’t be considered at sentencing for a future crime if for some reason you again find yourself a criminal defendant. An expunged conviction can’t be used to attack your credibility as a witness at trial. And finally an expunged record can’t be used to add a “repeater” sentence enhancement if you once again find yourself charged for the same offense in the future.
Cons. Expungement applies to court records, right? Consider who else besides the court might have a copy of records related to your arrest, charging, and/or conviction. Let me list a few examples: the District Attorney’s office that prosecuted your case and the law enforcement agency that investigated and/or arrested you. And in the case of certain traffic, drug, or alcohol-related offenses, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation may have entered the conviction record into your driver’s record too. That’s a lot of different public sources where your criminal history can be found.
Perhaps the biggest problematic area that is not touched by expungement is the Criminal History Unit over at the Wisconsin Department of Justice. The Criminal History Unit, located within the state’s Crime Information Bureau, maintains a database of all criminal arrests, charges, and convictions that occur in the state. This database is called the Wisconsin Online Record Check System (WORCS).
Anyone can search WORCS for a fee. Employers, landlords, schools, licensing agencies—literally anyone who can afford to run a criminal background check through the dozens of companies that offer them online—can plug your name into WORCS. Your criminal conviction will appear in that search even if you had it expunged.
Do I need to disclose an expunged conviction on a job application? For this reason, if you’re asked on a job, rental, or school application about prior arrests or convictions, you should err on the side of disclosure even if your only record has been expunged. The best policy in my opinion is to disclose and explain the circumstances and stat, if applicable, that expungement was granted. Even those expunged records will flow into the WORCS database and be searchable by schools, employers, landlords, and so on.
In my next post, I will explain when and how you can get your records of WORCS. For now, keep in mind that the one sure fire way to keep your criminal record clean is to hire an aggressive and knowledgeable attorney who will work to get your case dismissed or your charges dropped.
