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Seal or Expunge a Criminal Record

Westwood Attorney Sealing Or Expunging Your Criminal Records

If you have ever been either charged with or convicted of any crime in Massachusetts, you should be aware of all your legal rights and consider the very real possibility of sealing or expunging your criminal offender record information (“CORI”), that is, your criminal record. This applies to any type of misdemeanor or felony criminal charge, even if the charge was eventually filed, nolle prosequi or dismissed, and even if you were acquitted.

Having a criminal record can shadow you for a lifetime and haunt you in many foreseeable and unforeseeable ways. It can hinder or prevent you from getting a job, from finding housing, or from enrolling in school or continuing your education. It can also affect your ability to obtain a mortgage, secure a business loan or receive a student loan or a grant as banks and loan officers can deny you because of your criminal record. Professional associations could exclude you because of your criminal record. Needless to say, your criminal record is a domestic relations tactical weapon that will be wielded to your financial and emotional loss in a divorce, child custody or visitation proceeding. Your criminal record could also effectively kill any political aspirations that you have. You will also likely have an FBI record if you were arrested. Update, Seal or Expunge an FBI Arrest-Fingerprint Record.

Due to restrictions in the law, most people will not qualify to expunge their criminal record. Notwithstanding, sealing your entire criminal record will prevent most employers, schools, public housing authorities, banks, loan officers, domestic partners and others from accessing embarrassing and damaging information contained in the record. Attorney Arnel is one of the few attorneys who offers specialized services to preserve and maintain the integrity of the criminal records of people accused of crimes.

Sealing Your Criminal Record

Any person who is arraigned in a Massachusetts court will from that point forward have a criminal record which could be distributed to employers, schools, housing authorities and others regardless of the eventual outcome of the case. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 276, §100A (adult records) and §100B (juvenile records) maintain that a defendant’s criminal record cannot be sealed by way of petition to the Massachusetts Probation Service/Commissioner of Probation (but might otherwise possibly be sealed by way of a motion and petition to the court if not a conviction) until certain time periods have passed. For adult records, the time requirement is currently three years for a misdemeanor and seven years for a felony, provided that there are no further criminal convictions or open cases. For juvenile records, the time requirement is currently three years. There is no time requirement to Update, Seal or Expunge an FBI Arrest/Fingerprint Record.

There is no legal reason not to have your criminal record sealed so, if you can do it, sealing your record is nearly always a good idea. Most people will benefit from sealing convictions under §100A or §100B, or by sealing records of dismissed cases, acquittals, nolle prosequi cases and cases where no probable cause was found, under G.L. c. 276, §100C. If your record is sealed and you apply for most jobs or housing, then the sealed record will not appear on your CORI report. In the far past, the Criminal History Systems Board (“CHSB”) would note on a CORI that the individual had at least one sealed record on file (effective November 4, 2010, the CHSB was renamed the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services (“DCJIS”)). However, this practice was illegal and no longer occurs. The CORI should contain no indication that there are sealed records. If the entire record sealed, the DCJIS should send a report that says there are “no adult criminal records on file.” Sealing your criminal record will not arouse suspicion or create a “red flag,” since nobody except the police, law enforcement agencies, certain other government agencies, and a very few employers will be able to tell that there are sealed records on file.

Again, if all your cases are sealed, the CORI will not show that you have sealed records on file. Massachusetts law also permits you to answer “no record” if anyone asks if you have a criminal record. Law enforcement will know that you have at least one sealed record on file and can request that the court unseal the record, but only for their exclusive review. Other than law enforcement, only a very few government agencies will be able to see that you have sealed records, but will not know what it is that you sealed. Some of these agencies include the Department of Children and Families (“DCF”) (formerly known as the Department of Social Services, or “DSS”), the Department of Youth Services (“DYS”), and the Department of Early Education.

Notably, when a case concludes favorably (i.e., acquittal, nolle prosequi, dismissal) to a defendant, the defendant can petition at any time to have the record sealed as there are no waiting periods under §100C. Even if the case concluded unfavorably, a defendant can otherwise alternatively attempt to seal the criminal record by petitioning directly to the court, provided that there is “good cause” to seal the record. Any of these processes generally require competent legal assistance and are of uncertain outcome.

Understanding Your Criminal Record And Your Rights

When somebody refers to your CORI, they speak of your criminal record. CORI is merely the acronym for “Criminal Offender Record Information,” which is a record of your Massachusetts criminal history, including any time you were arraigned in court on a criminal charge regardless of the final outcome. The Massachusetts Department of Criminal Justice Information Services (“DCJIS”) is the government agency responsible for administering CORI and is responsible for the collection, storage, dissemination and use of CORI. The CORI record should not be confused with the Massachusetts Warrant Management System (“WMS”) record, as WMS will also contain warrants issued before any criminal charges were filed, including cases that may have never been prosecuted. The WMS record is only accessible to law enforcement, prosecutors, probation and the court.

The people and organizations who can view your CORI include you, police, judges, prosecutors and other criminal justice agencies including, but not limited to, the FBI, CIA and ATF. Public housing authorities and other landlords that receive government subsidies or operate subsidized housing can view your CORI, as can thousands of employers including, but not limited to, hospitals, nursing homes, schools and child care programs, provided they have special permission from the state. The law also allows victims or witnesses of a crime to view the CORI of the alleged perpetrator and also permits CORI access to anyone in the general public, if the person with the CORI is either in prison or was recently released from prison.

Many employers and public housing authorities are allowed or required to do CORI checks on prospective job or housing applicants whereby they ask the DCJIS for a CORI report when they do a criminal background check. However, some employers and housing authorities might pay for the services of private background-checking companies to do both a criminal background check and a credit check. Although by law these private companies can only obtain CORI information that the employer or housing authority can legally get from the DCJIS, they often keep their own lists of arrest records and court records that may include additional information that is not included in the CORI report provided by the DCJIS. This means that they might get extra information about arrests and the past seven years of your credit history. The Massachusetts Law Reform Institute is available to help you if you have a problem because of a private background checking company and can be reached by calling 617-357-0700.

Though most employers and public housing authorities see only convictions and pending cases, other employers, like nursing homes, also see charges that you were not convicted of. A CORI check can only be done if you sign an acknowledgment form that says you know your CORI is being requested. This form also asks you for personal information such as your Social Security number and mother’s maiden name to make sure that it is your actual CORI that will be provided. It is illegal for anyone to require you to bring a copy of your own CORI as it may have more charges on it than the copy that would be provided by the DCJIS.

You should obtain your own CORI if you are not certain of what is on your record or are contemplating sealing or expunging it. Simply contact us and we will email, fax or mail the applicable Personal CORI Request Form to you. There is a $25 fee, though this fee could be waived if you fill out an Affidavit of Indigency if you receive certain public benefits, or your income is at or below 125% of the federal poverty guidelines, or paying the fee would deprive you or your family of food, shelter, clothing or other necessities of life. The request form must be notarized and mailed with a self-addressed stamped envelope, and you should receive your CORI by mail in two to three weeks.

The DCJIS has also launched a criminal history request service called iCORI, which is significantly easier and faster. This service allows individuals and organizations to request and obtain Massachusetts criminal offender record information (CORI) over the internet at https://icori.chs.state.ma.us/icori/direct/login/login.action, but only if you have a Massachusetts Driver’s License or I.D. Card and a credit card. It is relatively easy to create an iCORI account, log in, and obtain your CORI. Please be extremely careful to complete and proofread all your identifying information (i.e., name spelling, any hyphenation of last name, birthdate, Social Security number, etc.) exactly as it should appear on your criminal record or the iCORI internet search result could yield a false report that no record exists, when you know that it clearly does, and your $25 fee will have been wasted since the iCORI system might require you to pay yet another $25 fee to perform another brand new search for the same CORI.

A CORI report can be difficult to understand so you should seek the assistance of competent legal counsel to assist in interpreting the acronyms and case procedure to understand exactly what is on your record. For example, there is a big difference between being convicted of a crime versus having it continued without a finding and then eventually dismissed. A competent attorney can also identify and explain the difference between certain specific misdemeanor and felony charges in terms of their sealing eligibility.

A conviction means that you were found guilty of the crime charged, whether you pleaded guilty or were found guilty by a judge or jury after trial. Massachusetts employers are allowed to ask if you have ever been convicted of a felony or if you have been convicted of or jailed for a misdemeanor within the past five years, other than a first-time conviction for drunk driving, simple assault, disturbing the peace, speeding and other civil minor traffic violations. If you respond that you have been either convicted or incarcerated for a misdemeanor during the past five years, the employer is then permitted to inquire about any other misdemeanors that occurred more than five years ago. Employers therefore cannot ask about misdemeanors where the date of conviction or end of incarceration, whichever is later, happened five or more years ago, with no convictions since then. You do not have to tell an employer about criminal charges that you were not found guilty of since they cannot inquire about arrests, detentions or any violations of law if there was no conviction. You also do not have to disclose juvenile delinquency cases or CRA cases (“Child Requiring Assistance”), formerly called CHINS cases (“Child in Need of Services”) prior to November 5, 2012, so long as the case was not transferred to the Superior Court for criminal prosecution. Finally, you do not have to tell employers that your criminal record has been “sealed.”

Your “Sealed” Record

Sealing your record prevents people from outside the criminal justice system from seeing it. The police and the courts can still see it, but for almost all employers, public housing authorities, private landlords and everyone else it is like the criminal charges never occurred. Since criminal records that are sealed prevent disclosure during a CORI check, if asked, you can just say that you have “no record.” Unlike the three-year and seven-year waiting periods for misdemeanors and felonies, there is no waiting period to seal the record of charges that did not result in a conviction, i.e., nolle prosequi charges, or acquittals (not guilty).

Notwithstanding, it will still be required to prove “good cause” to seal your record by way of an evidentiary hearing and oral argument to the court. To show there is good cause to seal your record, there must be credible evidence of a disadvantage at the present time or in the foreseeable future related to your CORI. In other words, there must be an objectively good reason or compelling interest to seal your criminal record that is greater than any common-law presumption of public access to the court record, and that it is in the interest of “substantial justice” to seal the record. In accordance with a case decided in 2014 by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Commonwealth v. Pon, there are numerous different factors that a judge can consider in this determination and competent legal assistance is highly recommended in this regard.

Seal Or Expunge A Criminal Record FAQ

Learn more about your legal options regarding sealing or expunging your criminal record below.

What is the difference between CARI and CORI?

The terms CARI and CORI are oftentimes used interchangeably but must be distinguished as they are two different records generated by two different databases, and do not contain all of the same information. Court Activity Record Information, or CARI, is the Probation Central File. It is an electronic record generated by the courts and contains court appearances for criminal cases and dispositions of both criminal convictions and nonconvictions. CARI also includes juvenile delinquency and youthful offender information, sex offender registry information, care and protection information (i.e., neglected and abused children; parental termination), children requiring assistance information (i.e., disobedient, truant, runaway minors), and the statewide domestic violence database (i.e., records of civil 209A restraining orders and civil 258E harassment prevention orders). A simple analogy is to envision the CARI as the vinyl dome of the umbrella and the CORI as one of several spokes underneath the umbrella dome.

The CARI is available to law enforcement, judges and probation officers but, unlike the CORI, is not a public record. The CORI is the acronym for Criminal Offender Record Information and is simply your Massachusetts state criminal record (of the final case disposition, or outcome). The state agency responsible for maintaining and disseminating CORI is the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services (“DCJIS”).

The acronyms CARI and CORI herein exclusively pertain to Massachusetts cases as other states will likely have another name for their own state record systems. The Office of the Commissioner of Probation (“OCP”) creates and enters all probation and court activity records as part of its CARI database. The OCP then transmits the criminal history information in its CARI database to the DCJIS on a daily basis. It is therefore the DCJIS, and not the OCP, that disseminates CORI records to various requestors such as prospective employers, schools, landlords, etc. The OCP is, however, the state agency responsible for effectuating the sealing or expunging of criminal records from the two different databases.

What information is in a CORI?

Your criminal record, or CORI, contains all criminal charges in which you appeared before a judge in a Massachusetts court. It includes pending charges, prior convictions and also charges for which you were not convicted, including a not guilty verdict, a dismissal, a continuance without a finding ending in a dismissal or a nolle prosequi. CORI reports do not include precourt information such as orders to show cause or arrest records. Your CORI only contains criminal information from the Massachusetts courts and does not contain out-of-state criminal information.

What should I do if my CORI is inaccurate?

When reviewing your CORI, you may find that identifying information such as your date of birth or the spelling of your name, a listed offense, the case disposition or case status is incorrect or incomplete. You might discover that the CORI contains offenses that do not belong to you, meaning that you could be the victim of clerical error or identity fraud. Because the OCP is the agency that created the database, it is the only agency that can correct this information. The DCJIS has implemented a complaint process to assist aggrieved individuals in correcting their CORI.

The DCJIS will conduct an investigation and may also contact other law enforcement agencies, including the court and police departments for additional information on the alleged inaccurate offenses. Although the DCJIS cannot amend or correct a CORI, it will contact the OCP to determine if it is able to amend the CORI based on the information provided, and the DCJIS will notify you in writing of the complaint status. This law office can also possibly circumvent and expedite this process for clients sealing their record.

Who can see my CORI report?

Besides you, many different organizations, businesses, agencies and individuals can see some or all of the criminal information on your CORI. All criminal justice agencies, including the police, judges, probation officers and prosecutors can see your CORI at any time. If you were convicted of a crime, victims or witnesses of that crime can also see your CORI.

Organizations and agencies that work with the elderly, disabled or children are required by law to do a CORI background check on their employees and volunteers. Some of these entities include nursing homes, assisted living facilities, child care and after school programs, preschools, schools, colleges, training and education programs, summer camps, hospitals, health care centers, medical offices and government agencies serving these populations. Adoptive and foster parents must also subject themselves to CORI background checks. Banks, financial institutions, insurance companies and companies that hire security guards, amusement ride operators, security system installers and private investigators must do a CORI check on their employees. Parents can request CORI reports for a child care provider. Housing agencies screen tenants for public and subsidized housing. Private employers and private landlords are given Standard Access to CORI to screen potential employees and tenants.

What information on my CORI can be accessed and by whom?

Whether or not an organization is required by law or otherwise permitted to perform a CORI background check, the amount of information disseminated in a CORI report depends upon the requestor’s grant of access. Therefore, the type of information included in a CORI report depends on the category of the organization, agency or person requesting the CORI report. The categories of access are Personal Access; Required Access – Levels 1– 4; Standard Access; and Open Access. The DCJIS has delineated the categories of access and the CORI records included in each category. The general public, including most CORI requestors, employers, schools and landlords, do not have access to sealed record information.

Can the general public see my open access CORI report?

Yes. The open access provisions of Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 6, §172, permit anyone in the general public to see certain convictions on a report called “Open Access CORI” by simply completing the applicable request form downloaded from http://www.mass.gov/eopss/docs/chsb/open-access-form.pdf and paying a $50.00 fee. The information contained in an Open Access CORI includes misdemeanor convictions within the past one year, jail time served within the past one year for prior misdemeanor convictions, felony convictions within the past two years, and jail time served within the past two years for prior felony convictions. If you were convicted of a felony that was serious enough to carry punishment of up to five years in a state prison, the public can see it for 10 years after the date of conviction or the release from jail or prison, whichever is later. A conviction for murder, manslaughter or certain sex crimes can be seen forever unless the record of the charge is sealed.

What can employers ask me and what do they have to provide to me?

Most employers are not allowed to ask you about your criminal history on an initial job application. The employer may access your CORI after the initial job application if you provide your written agreement to a CORI check, the employer verifies your identity, and the employer certifies under oath that the reason for the CORI request is to evaluate a current or prospective employee. Employers can then request a copy of your CORI using the online iCORI service.

Employers are not allowed to ask you to bring in a copy of your own CORI. Your copy may include information that they are not permitted to see or consider in their evaluation. If an employer questions you about your CORI or decides not to hire you based on it, the employer must give you a copy of the CORI report. The employer must also give you a chance to fix any mistakes in the report.

Can employers get other types of criminal background reports?

This is possible. Some employers use criminal background checks from private Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) in addition to, or instead of, CORI reports. Criminal background reports from private companies may include records that are sealed, records that have not been updated, out-of-state records and other information not found in your CORI. If an employee uses a CRA report, the employer must give you a free copy of the report and an opportunity to fix any mistakes in the report. While it may not be possible to prevent this type of information from being disseminated, sealing your CORI and, if applicable, updating your FBI arrest record, will afford you the best protection available from the vast majority of employers and other requestors. For a detailed discussion on updating and correcting FBI records, please visit the update, seal or expunge an FBI arrest-fingerprint record page.

What is the difference between sealing and expunging a criminal record?

There is a clear distinction between sealing and expunging a record. When a record is expunged, all traces of it disappear and nobody knows that it ever existed in the first place. Everything associated with the expunged case, such as complaints, arraignments, fingerprints, photographs, police reports and arrest registers all literally vanish when a record is expunged. When a criminal record is sealed, it does not disappear but merely becomes unavailable to the general public. Sealed records are segregated and confidentiality is ensured.

Unlike an expunged criminal record, a sealed criminal record continues to be available to law enforcement officials such as the police, probation officers and courts, and to certain other government agencies, and can be considered in plea bargain negotiations and sentencing. However, the expunging of a criminal record is permissible only in certain limited instances.

Generally speaking, you might qualify for expungement if you fulfill the following requirements:

  • Under G.L. c. 276, §100K, your offense is no longer the basis for a crime or was based on misinformation such as identity fraud, police or witness errors, or fraud upon the court; or
  • Under G.L. c. 276, §100F, §100G or §100H, you were under 21 years of age at the time the offense was committed; and
  • You have no additional criminal offenses; and
  • You have completed your case either three years prior for a misdemeanor or seven years prior for a felony; and
  • Your offense is not an excluded one under the expungement law.

Expungement law can become complex and may be subject to appeal or to objection from the state. As expungement attorneys, we can provide you with strong advocacy and help you obtain an expungement or sealed record when possible.

In contrast to criminal records, restraining order records can only be expunged. Similar to criminal records, they can be expunged only in a limited, albeit different, instance. The potentially damaging civil record of a vacated or expired 209A Abuse Prevention Order or a 258E Harassment Prevention, both commonly referred to as “restraining orders,” remain in the Statewide Domestic Violence Registry database (as maintained under CARI) as well as in several other state and federal databases for law enforcement purposes, and can be expunged if shown by clear and convincing evidence that fraud was perpetrated upon the court to cause it to wrongfully issue the order. For a detailed discussion on expunging 209A and 258E restraining orders, please visit the expunge a restraining order record page.

Will an employer know that my CORI is sealed?

No and, then again, maybe in limited instances. Only criminal justice agencies, including law enforcement, and very few others have access to sealed record information. There is a myth that, if an employer requests a CORI from the DCJIS, the CORI report will include an “S” or somehow otherwise indicate that the record is sealed. This is simply not true. The CORI report provided to an employer is not the same as the one that is available to law enforcement or probation officers. Unless the employer or agency is specially authorized to access sealed criminal records, the CORI report will indicate that you have no record.

Can my record be sealed before the statutory three- and seven-year waiting periods?

Possibly. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 276, §100C permits a judge to seal a criminal record “early” so long as you were not convicted of the crime. Therefore, it is in the judge’s discretion to order the record of a criminal charge originally disposed of in that particular court to be sealed before the required statutory three-year (for a misdemeanor) and seven-year (for a felony) waiting times mandated under §100A if the criminal charge ended in a dismissal, a nolle prosequi, or a finding of not guilty or no probable cause, if the court finds that “substantial justice” would be served by sealing the record. A first-time drug possession conviction also may be sealed without a waiting period under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 94C, §34.

Determining substantial justice requires that a judge look at the reason for the dismissal or nolle prosequi and the risk of specific harm to you if the record is not sealed. The judge must find credible evidence of a “disadvantage” at the present time or in the foreseeable future related to your CORI, and that there is a “good cause” to seal your record that outweighs any common-law presumption of public access to it. There are numerous factors to be weighed and any one of them can be favorably or unfavorably determinative. If the motion and petition to seal the record are allowed, the judge must make specific findings on the record that set forth the interests considered and the reasons for the order to seal.

The law says nothing about how early you can seek to seal your record under these circumstances. Accordingly, you can and should seek to seal your record as soon as it is practical and reasonable. In many instances, this will be near the time when the case is dismissed or otherwise ends favorably.

Can my juvenile criminal records be sealed?

Yes. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 276, §100B has a three-year statutory waiting period to seal juvenile criminal records if the juvenile was found not delinquent, adjudicated delinquent or adjudicated as a youthful offender. The juvenile record can be sealed provided that any court appearance or disposition, including court supervision, probation, commitment, imprisonment or parole terminated not less than three years prior to the request to seal the juvenile criminal record. You can request to have your juvenile criminal record sealed while you are still a juvenile, immediately after you become an adult, or well into your adult years. Irrespective, you must not have been adjudicated delinquent or committed (while a juvenile) or found guilty or imprisoned (while an adult) of any crime in any state in the three years preceding the request to seal, except for motor vehicle offenses in which the penalty is $50.00 or less.

Who has access to my juvenile criminal records?

A court’s juvenile delinquency files are never open to the public regardless of whether the cases are sealed. Youthful offender case files are always open to the public unless they are sealed. While access to juvenile court records is more limited than access to adult records, law enforcement, some employers and certain agencies have access to juvenile records. Therefore, juvenile cases that are not dismissed prior to arraignment have potential consequences for the rest of the juvenile’s life, irrespective of whether the youth was charged as a juvenile delinquent or as a youthful offender.

Criminal justice agencies, including police, probation and courts have automatic access to juvenile records, including sealed records, as necessary to perform their duties. The Department of Children and Families (“DCF”) and the Department of Youth Services (“DYS”) have access to juvenile records, including sealed record data, for purposes of evaluating individuals as adoptive or foster parents. The Department of Early Education and Care, which screens day care employees, has pretty much the same access for youths and adults who apply for jobs or volunteer opportunities. The Massachusetts Department of Revenue Child Support Enforcement has access to certain juvenile record information, but not to sealed records.

Summer camps have access to juvenile records unless the record is sealed. The categories of employers that have access to juvenile records, unless the record is sealed, include agencies providing home or health-related services to elderly or disabled persons, organizations that employ or refer personal care attendants, schools regarding current or prospective employees or volunteers, organizations that provide services or programs to children 18 or under, certain taxicab services for students, the Department of Telecommunications and Cable and the Department of Public Utilities to screen bus driver applicants for school age children or students, and the Commissioner of Banks regarding applicants for licensure. In addition, a crime victim, witness or family member of a homicide victim can access the juvenile record of an accused defendant or one that was convicted (i.e., adjudicated) as a youthful offender. Finally, the restrictions on the dissemination of a juvenile record cease to exist at the death of the individual.

Can all criminal charges be sealed?

No. Certain criminal offenses cannot be sealed, but only if you were found guilty of the offense. Convictions under M.G. L. c. 268 or 268A (governing crimes against public justice and the conduct of public officials and employees) and convictions under M.G.L. c. 140, §§121 to 131H (certain firearms offenses) are ineligible to be sealed. Just a few examples of these offenses include resisting arrest, perjury, witness intimidation, disruption of court proceedings, bribery of public officials, delivering drugs to prisoners, unauthorized purchase of firearms, carrying of firearms in a vehicle, possession of firearms by aliens, selling or illegally furnishing a gun to a minor, selling ammunition, etc. Again, it is important to remember that a nonconviction of an otherwise nonsealable offense can be sealed under the applicable sealing laws, so any of these particular criminal charges will be eligible to be sealed if the criminal charge ended in a dismissal, a nolle prosequi or a finding of not guilty or no probable cause. A level 2 or level 3 sex offender is not eligible to have those sex offenses sealed. It should be noted that having a conviction record for an offense that cannot be sealed does not automatically disqualify you from sealing other cases that are eligible to be sealed.

Can criminal records of restraining order violations be sealed?

Yes. However, the sealing of criminal violations of restraining orders is subject to a special provision in the law that is specific to both 209A abuse prevention orders and 258E harassment prevention orders. While the violation of a restraining order is a misdemeanor offense, it is treated like a felony offense for purposes of sealing the criminal record under M.G.L. c. 276, §100A and therefore subject to the 7-year eligibility requirement to seal felonies, and not the 3-year eligibility requirement to seal misdemeanors. This arguably unfair treatment of restraining order violations applies only to convictions for violating restraining orders and those cases that did not result in a conviction are eligible to be sealed earlier subject to the provisions of M.G.L. c. 276, §100C. It is important to distinguish that this applies only to criminal restraining order violations and not to the actual entry of the restraining order itself, which is civil in nature and therefore recorded in a separate part of the CARI under the Statewide Domestic Violence Registry database.

Can criminal records of sex offenses be sealed?

Yes. However, under M.G.L. c. 276, §100A, convictions of sex offenses charged under M.G.L. c. 6, §178C are not eligible to be sealed for 15 years from the date of disposition, which includes termination of supervision, probation or any period of incarceration, or for so long as the individual is under a duty to register as a sex offender in Massachusetts or in any other state where the offender resides, or would be under such a duty if residing in Massachusetts, whichever is longer. Additionally, any sex offender who was classified at either level 2 or level 3 is not eligible to seal such classified sex offense from the CORI. Past status as a level 2 or 3 sex offender only precludes the sealing of that sex offense conviction but does not bar the sealing of other eligible cases once the person no longer has to register as a sex offender. A sex offense that did not result in a conviction is eligible to be sealed earlier subject to the provisions of M.G.L. c. 276, §100C.

Are sealed records available to criminal justice agencies?

Yes. Criminal justice agencies can see sealed adult records and sealed juvenile delinquency records pursuant to M.G.L. c. 276, §100D, which provides for “immediate access” to records, including sealed records. In accordance with M.G.L. c. 6, §172(a)(1), “criminal justice agencies may obtain all criminal offender record information, including sealed records, for the actual performance of their criminal justice duties.”

Should I seal my criminal record if I am not a United States citizen?

Maybe. Sealing your criminal record requires an understanding of the potential immigration consequences. It is obviously safest to seal your CORI only when you have been approved and sworn in as a citizen of the United States, but you may need to seal your record for compelling reasons such as obtaining housing or employment prior to obtaining citizenship. You should never seal your criminal record to improve eligibility for an immigration benefit because you cannot say that you have no record in immigration applications or proceedings even if your record is sealed, and sealing does not eliminate the conviction or other case disposition for immigration purposes.

Once again, sealing your CORI does not eliminate a criminal record for immigration purposes, and a sealed record can potentially complicate an immigration case by making required documents unavailable or difficult to obtain. You should always obtain “certified” copies of your CORI, criminal docket sheets, criminal complaints, police reports and any other relevant information, before sealing your criminal record since this information will not be available to you once your record is sealed, unless you go through the painstakingly difficult and costly process of successfully unsealing your record. It might also be prudent to order a copy of the audio-recordings from the District Courts and a copy of the digital transcript from the Superior Court.

Many of the post-sealing problems that a noncitizen faces can likely be eliminated with proper presealing advice from a competent immigration attorney, and it is highly recommended that you seek such advice.

Why should I seal my criminal record?

Having a criminal record carries a great personal stigma. People with criminal records are denied jobs, housing and other opportunities for economic stability and social mobility. Indeed, even a criminal charge that ends in a dismissal or acquittal can harm a person’s reputation and job prospects. Your CORI may be a barrier to participation in an internship, training or educational program. It is not unusual for reentry and job counselors to advise you to seal your criminal record. For example, nursing homes, schools and similar providers who hire staff and interns are required to obtain CORI for applicants and have access to your “unsealed” CORI data, including cases that ended favorably in a dismissal, a nolle prosequi or a not guilty finding. The availability of criminal record sealing is an indispensable part of the system for administration of criminal justice given the nature and far-reaching consequences of having a criminal record. The purpose of sealing criminal records is to promote access to employment, housing and other opportunities that are necessary for the rehabilitation of defendants and to protect the privacy of individuals.

There may be numerous different reasons to seal a criminal record, but the most common reason and principal benefit is that you may state on an employment application that you have no record of arrest or conviction, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts must corroborate this statement. In responding to inquiries from requestors, the DCJIS shall report that no record exists. However, you should be cautioned that federal arrest records, such as FBI arrest records, are not sealed when the Massachusetts state record is sealed and you could possibly have other concerns if you were arrested and fingerprinted during the booking process.

A sealed record shall not disqualify you from application or appointment for public service in Massachusetts. It may not be admitted into evidence in a court proceeding, or hearings before boards or commissions, except in limited instances in which the sealed record is used to impose juvenile or adult criminal sentences.

Contact The Law Office of Philip L. Arnel Today To Get Started

Contact an experienced Massachusetts criminal record sealing lawyer at the Law Office of Philip L. Arnel to learn more about your legal options. To schedule a free initial consultation in Westwood, call 888-651-2150 or fill out an online contact form.