We offer full service expungements and record cleaning

  • What that means is that we do not simply get an expungement for our clients, we take that expungement and use it to help background check companies, update their records and remove the record of conviction from their databases.  We see the expungement as a two-step process.

Step 1

We petition for an order of expungement through the Missouri court system to get the record removed from government databases.

  • We petition the courts for an expungement.
  • There is a hearing to determine whether an expungement will be granted.
    • If the expungement is granted we move to step 2.
    • If the expungement is rejected there is a 1 year waiting period to reapply.

Step 2

We work to get the record erased from private databases used by background check companies.

  • Background: When a conviction occurs the conviction is shared and sold to background check companies who in turn share and sell the information to other background check companies and the record spreads like wild fire.  There are hundreds if not thousands of companies that keep copies of the conviction, and not every database is up to date.
    • Some databases still show a conviction even though a criminal expungement was granted.  This bad information can adversely affect a person in multiple ways including when they are applying for jobs or housing. According to RSMO 610.140(8):
      • “Except as otherwise provided under this section, the effect of such order shall be to restore such person to the status he or she occupied prior to such arrests, pleas, trials, or convictions as if such events had never taken place.  No person as to whom such order has been entered shall be held thereafter under any provision of law to be guilty of perjury or otherwise giving a false statement by reason of his or her failure to recite or acknowledge such arrests, pleas, trials, convictions, or expungement in response to an inquiry made of him or her and no such inquiry shall be made for information relating to an expungement, except the petitioner shall disclose the expunged offense, violation, or infraction to any court when asked or upon being charged with any subsequent offense, violation, or infraction.  The expunged offense, violation, or infraction may be considered a prior offense in determining a sentence to be imposed for any subsequent offense that the person is found guilty of committing.”

We work to erase expunged convictions from hundreds of background check companies databases, including the most reputable companies that would likely be doing an employment screening or processing a lease application.  This process does not happen immediately and can take several months, but it is necessary to insure that the record is scrubbed as well as it can be.

Next Steps…

Contact us to discuss you eligibility for an expungement.