I want to expunge a felony theft over 1000 charge. I pleaded guilty, paid my fees, finished probation. This was over 3 years ago. How do I go about doing it, and how much will it cost?

Hello weisfelds:

A few years ago, I would have said go ahead. But today, with the advent of the internet, it's going to be a wasted effort.

The idea behind expungment, is to hide your record from inquiring eyes. The cops might even obey the law in your case. However, your record has already been bought and sold 1,000's of times by the state to private data bases. Once the information is out there, and it is, there's no keeping the lid on it. Any employer can find out anything EVEN after it's expunged.

excon

First understand that an expungment only hides your info on your conviction from public background checks, like going to work at Walmart or the gas station, but the conviction will always ( always) be available for national security clearances, for military background checks, for police background checks. A expungment does not erase it off the NCIC report, it merely makes a note (** explunged**) next to it, to inform the clerk running the report not to give that info out publicly.

Also the FBI fingerprint record remains on file forever also. So if you are getting your fingerprints ran by some company, a match with a FBI file number will show up. Now this can merely mean you were fingerprinted before, but they may ask you were and why.

And as excon said, if your crime ever made it into a newspaper, most likely it can be found on the net by someone really good at doing that sort of background checks.

While the previous poster's replies makes sense, in this case, do not listen to them. Here is why.

The laws have changed, yes. They have changed for the better when it comes to consumer investigative reports. When a CIR is ran, the company administering the report is mandated by law to provide the consumer with a notice that a report was ran. Now, they are not obligated to disclose the results, just that a report was ran and who requested it. The consumer has 30 days (time frame varies) to request in writing the results of the report. If you were granted expungement from your crime, and the Consumer Reporting Agency still reported it to whomever, then you have a legal (and solid) case towards both the Consumer Reporting Agency and the company that refused to hire you based on the information in your consumer report. And yes, the prospective employer must provide you with details of why they didn't hire you (after a request in writing is made... of course).

In Ohio, you must wait 3yrs after SUCCESSFULLY completing your PRC (post release control... which is ohio's unified probation/parole) and have had no law violations post conviction. You do not necessarily need a lawyer, but it will cost you the court fees associated with such deed.

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Originally Posted by Danyael

While the previous poster's replies makes sense, in this case, do not listen to them, here is why........And yes, the prospective employer must provide you with details of why they didn't hire you (after a request in writing is made... of course).

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Hello Danyael:

Well, I don't think the poster should listen to you, either, unless you can post the law you're citing. I don't believe you can.

excon