Got Your Record Expunged but are Still Being Denied Employment?
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- Got Your Record Expunged but are Still Being Denied Employment?
The record expungement process exists to help individuals overcome their past mistakes.
If you are having concerns and/or difficulties with being hired for a job due to a criminal record, but it has been expunged, we are here to provide insight and hopefully some consolation.
Having a criminal record can be debilitating and detrimental to someone’s life and the ability to move forward from the past and can cause extreme challenges in many ways. For individuals who are in this predicament and have the financial means (and perhaps the legal advice), they may decide to take the route of expunging their criminal record. The purpose of expunging one’s criminal record is to erase the record, so that it will not hinder one’s future and the potential to be accepted for employment, which is indeed essential for our survival and to be a functioning member of society. Once your criminal record is sealed in the court of law, the court has decided that you do not have to be bound by the mistakes in your past, and that you have the freedom to pursue employment and to be accepted as someone who can be trusted in the eyes of the law.
You can even state to an employer that you do not have a criminal record if it has been expunged, and if you are job searching and your record has been expunged, you can check “no” to questions asking for a record of criminal history, and you would still be within your rights.
Employers, however, also need to verify that they can trust who they hire, and in unfortunate cases, this can hold back someone who is only trying to move forward in their life. Employers will therefore pay third party background check companies to thoroughly review and investigate a client’s past criminal record through a database. Unfortunately, sometimes these companies will indeed find evidence of a potential employee’s criminal history that has been expunged. This could be for several reasons but is mainly due to negligence. In this case, the applicant suffers unnecessary harm and could even be denied the position they would have otherwise been hired for which of course can lead to destructive consequences and can severely damage one's mental health as a result. In cases such as these, the consumer has the right to dispute with the background check company by providing documented proof of the expungement information. These can be found at the courthouse for which the expungement occurred. The background check company will then legally be allowed a total of 30 days to respond to the dispute, and to correct their records. If they don’t, you might need to dispute these records. You should contact an attorney and obtain legal advice.
A lawsuit might be the most efficient way of ensuring that your background check has been cleared of criminal history that it should not contain, and you may be entitled to financial compensation for all the damages that this has caused.
Daniel Cohen is the Founder of Consumer Attorneys. Daniel manages the firm’s branding, marketing, client intake and business development efforts. Since 2017, he is a member of the National Association of Consumer Advocates and the National Consumer Law Center. Mr. Cohen is a nationally-recognized practitioner of consumer protection law. He has a we... Read more
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