What Are the Limitations of a New Jersey Expungement?
Unfortunately, private companies can still report information such as a conviction or arrest even once your conviction has been successfully expunged, and worse yet the information provided by these companies can frequently be incorrect. Background reporting services often report expunged information because they have not been notified of the expungement. Despite the fact that they are actually required to follow “reasonable” procedures in an effort to verify the information they provide in response to background checks, these companies may sometimes assume that information they have received in the recent past is still valid, potentially leaving you vulnerable to having your expungement continue showing in background checks for an unreasonable amount of time after it is granted by the courts. Because of the potential for misinformation and delays in applying your expungement to the information turned up in background checks, some additional precautions are recommended to help minimize the impact of your prior conviction on your life and future.
How to Minimize the Limitations of an Expungement?
Although the Fair Credit Reporting Act limits certain types of reporting including employment background check reports, the Act does not bar sharing of information for reasons other than those specifically delineated. Since the Fair Credit Reporting Act does not protect past offenders with expunged criminal records, it can be very important to take additional action in order to minimize the impact of your conviction even after a successful expungement is completed. Fortunately, there are a few entities that can help you minimize the impact of your old conviction on your life and future. The three major credit reporting services, as well as one private company that provides data collection and background check reporting services, handle most private background check requests, which means that these four sources are the main sources that need to be addressed in order to successfully minimize the effects of your conviction after you have completed the expungement process.
In order to minimize the impact of your conviction once you have successfully achieved expungement of your criminal record, you can notify these four companies of your expungement. In order to help streamline and simplify this process for you, The Law Offices of Jonathan F. Marshall can assist by notifying these companies of your expungement on your behalf. This additional service is available after your expungement is completed, for an additional fee of $350 for returning clients who have used our services for their expungement process, or $650 for others interested in this service.
The four companies that should be notified of your expungement are:
Equifax Credit Information Services, Inc.
1505 Windward Concourse
Alpharetta GA 30005
TransUnion Consumer Solutions
P.O. Box 2000
Chester PA 19022-2000
LexisNexis
Risk & Information Analytics Group
P.O. Box 105292
Atlanta GA 30348-5292
Westlaw Public Records
Attn: Criminal Records Removal, D2-17-4560
610 Opperman Drive
Eagan MN 55123
One other way to ensure that your criminal record is effectively cleared as quickly as possible is by using the services of the National Expungement Clearing House. This service provides a list of background check companies which may be more extensive than the list provided here, and may be more effective at reaching private data collection services.
Notifications of your expungement should be delivered by certified mail with a return receipt requested, and should include your social security number and date of birth to ensure that your notifications are matched with the correct records. Copies of the order that has been expunged and the petition requesting the expungement should also be included in order to prove that the expungement was properly granted by the Court.
How Does The Internet Affect My Expungement?
Although the internet can be very helpful to most of us in our day-to-day lives, it can unfortunately also be the worst nightmare of someone seeking to move on with their life after successfully expunging a criminal record. Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing simply dig up the information that is otherwise made available on the internet, and deliver that information to the person executing a search online. Therefore, since information can unfortunately be widely disseminated on the internet, this source of information can be particularly difficult to overcome when attempting to minimize the effects of your criminal record after a successful expungement. However, there are companies that specialize in restoring reputations on the internet, which may be able to assist you in getting information about your conviction removed from the internet after a successful expungement action, such as Reputation.com and International Reputation Management. Although The Law Offices of Jonathan F. Marshall has no affiliation with these services and cannot confirm how reputable or successful these companies are at mitigating reputation damage online, you may wish to contact one of these companies in order to take further action to minimize the impact of your conviction after an expungement if information available on the internet is an issue in your case.
New Jersey Expungement Attorneys
Our well trained legal defense team at The Law Offices of Jonathan F. Marshall have petitioned New Jersey courts for countless expungements over our decades of experience. We understand the concerns you may have about what happens after your expungement and how to ensure that your old conviction won’t come back to haunt us. If you need assistance with an expungement or with the process of notifying private companies of your expungement once it has been completed, call us at 1-877-450-8301 any time for a free consultation.