Pennsylvania Criminal Record

Expunge Criminal Records

Expungement of criminal records is the process of clearing an individuals records of a crime committed. There are several other terms used to describe the expungement of criminal records. Often, it is used in correlation with sealing, destruction, or return to the subject of individual criminal records kept by government agencies.
Expungement of Criminal Records An Overview
To expunge criminal records is to involve a trade-off between competing interests. An individual would like to pursue employment, housing, or other major life activities without the stigma of an arrest record or a record of conviction. On the other hand, society has an interest in maintaining criminal records histories for purposes of future crime investigations and in order to make hiring, rental, and other decisions about individuals. Statutes and cases reflect the tension between these interests.
There are ways for you to expunge your criminal records. In reality, by statute and by inherent judicial authority, criminal records may be expunged.
What is Expungement of Criminal Records?
Expungement of criminal records can mean to seal or destroy these records, or return it to the subjects of the records. The exact remedy in a given situation depends on statutory provisions or the courts interpretation of its inherent power.
How Criminal Records are Expunged
Although states generally differ in how they expunge records, by most statutes, arrest records held by law enforcement must be returned to an arrested individual if proceedings are determined in the individuals favor before specified stages of the criminal justice process. This means that the individual has the right to have his criminal records of arrest expunged if no further evidence is found incriminating his involvement in the crime in question and if no other criminal justice action is pursued.
Also by statute, criminal records held by any criminal justice agency will be expunged or sealed by court order but not returned or destroyed. This action is often done if an individual was convicted in a kind of case covered by the specific state statute or had proceedings resolved in specified ways that fall short of conviction. Therefore, any criminal records of court filings created in a case where no conviction was made or in a case where the crime in question falls under the category specified under the statute may be expunged or sealed by the presiding court.
Finally, the courts have held that they have the power to require the sealing or expungement of judicial branch criminal records. Also, to a more limited degree, they may exercise this power of expungement on criminal records held by other branches of state government.

Pennsylvania Criminal Record News

Pennsylvania Criminal Record

Go to the new RSS page and renew your subscription.]]>

IMPORTANT: Bing News RSS feed has moved!

BELLEFONTE, Pa. (WTW) — Dueling requests to modify the ... of secret grand jury testimony before trial, and which other records prosecutors must turn over. Sandusky faces 52 criminal counts for alleged sexual misconduct involving boys over 15 years ...

Pa. judge to consider Sandusky jury, bail issues

The Criminal Procedural Rules Committee ... to Know” act and pressuring Penn State to open its records if it chooses to remain a public institution receiving state funds. If Pennsylvania government considers this important, it cannot pick ...

Keep Pennsylvania courtrooms open

Morganelli said he is aware of at least six other municipalities in Pennsylvania that have had similar problems with MEM, and he's aware of an investigation being conducted by Cumberland County into similar allegations. Court records indicate ...

Bethlehem Township, Pa., street light deal leads to criminal charges against two men

Thousands of offenders could have their past convictions cleared from their record under Government plans. Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke plans to reduce the length of time during which job applicants are legally required to disclose past criminal convictions.

Thousands may lose criminal record

BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) — The judge overseeing Jerry ... of secret grand jury testimony before trial, and which other records prosecutors must turn over. Sandusky faces 52 criminal counts for alleged sexual misconduct involving boys over 15 ...

UPDATE: Judge vows quick rulings on Sandusky bail proposal

Two western Pennsylvania school districts have stopped using a private ... "We didn't know anything about Pond sending us security guards with criminal records," Moniteau Superintendent George Svolos told the paper. "We never would have permitted that ...

2 W. Pa. schools fire security firm over felons

BRIDGEWATER, Pa. — As a small town comes ... And if Hopkins had a known flaw, it was hardly a criminal one. “He had an edge to him, but the edge was he liked profit, he liked money,” Porter said. Public records show that in 2006 a building ...

Pennsylvania town ponders councilman's arrest in old murder

tampering with public records or information, unlawful conduct, pollution of waters, and criminal conspiracy. As part of his guilty plea, Mr. Shipman must pay a $90,000 fine to the Pennsylvania Clean Water Fund and a $10,000 fine to the Pennsylvania Fish ...

Criminal Records Search