What do you do after you have been convicted of a misdemeanor in the Illinois criminal justice system? Even if you avoided serious penalties, you may feel like your life is in tatters. You have a criminal record now and all the baggage that comes with that.
How long does a misdemeanor stay on your record, and do misdemeanors go away? Do dismissed misdemeanors automatically get expunged, or do you have to do something to clear those records? These are important questions that a misdemeanor defense attorney from Kostopoulos Law Group can answer for you.
Understanding Misdemeanor Records in Illinois
All misdemeanor convictions are part of your criminal history. This information is on your criminal history record, which the court system and law enforcement agencies record permanently.
How Long Does a Misdemeanor Stay on Your Record?
Unfortunately, unless you do something to remove it from your record, a misdemeanor will stay on your criminal record forever. That information is available to any person or agency that performs a criminal background check.
What Information Is on Your Criminal Record?
Your criminal record includes all pertinent information about your arrest and how the case was resolved. An interested person can determine exactly when you were arrested, what you were accused of, whether you were convicted, and what sentence you received after a conviction.
How a Misdemeanor Can Affect Your Future
Criminal records are public. This means that anyone can perform a background check to learn about your past interactions with the criminal justice system. Typically, though, the general public has no reason to conduct random background checks.
There are four parties that are most likely to seek to obtain a copy of your criminal record: financial institutions, law enforcement agencies, landlords, and potential employers.
Financial Institutes
Banks are cautious about what types of individuals they do business with. While most banks don’t care about your background if you are signing up for a checking or savings account, a financial institution is likely to obtain your criminal records if you are looking to get any type of loan. Banks may refuse certain transactions based on the results of that review.
Law Enforcement Agencies
The penalty for a conviction in Illinois is primarily based on the severity of the crime. However, if you have previous convictions, the penalties may be increased based on your criminal history. Since the records of past convictions may be held by a different court or agency, prosecutors perform checks to determine whether you have past convictions or not.
Landlords
Landlords typically review your record for the same reason that financial institutions do. They want to be certain they can trust the person living in the property they own. Depending on the details of your rap sheet, a landlord might refuse to rent to you.
Employers
The impact of a misdemeanor on job applications depends on several factors. If, for example, you are applying for a job in the financial industry, an employer would be hesitant to hire you if you were found guilty of embezzlement. Typically, the circumstances of your arrest, the results, and how long ago it happened are all part of the hiring decision.
Options to Remove or Hide a Misdemeanor Record
Wondering how to remove a misdemeanor from your record? This can be easy or difficult, depending on the circumstances of your case. There are two ways to hide or remove a misdemeanor conviction from your record in Chicago. You can potentially expunge or seal your records.
What is the difference between expungement and sealing? When you expunge a record, officials remove it permanently from all official databases. However, when you seal a record, it remains but is no longer available to the public. Only law enforcement and courts can access that information.
Step-by-Step Overview of the Expungement or Sealing Process in Cook County
Sealing and expungement involve different procedures, but both affect how long misdemeanors show up on background checks. An experienced misdemeanor attorney in Chicago can help you determine which process may be able to successfully get your records suppressed or removed.
Criminal Record Expungement in Chicago
The first step to getting a record expunged is determining your eligibility for expungement in Illinois. Most crimes don’t qualify for expungement in this state. To get a record expunged, your misdemeanor case needs to meet one of the following criteria:
- You were arrested but not convicted
- Your conviction was vacated, pardoned, or reversed
- You were convicted of prostitution
- You were given a supervision sentence that you completed
- You were given qualified probation and completed your sentence
These are the only situations where adult expungement is possible. If you qualify for expungement, the next step is to determine the waiting period for expungement in Illinois. The waiting period is short if you weren’t convicted or a judge overturned your conviction.
Unfortunately, you will have to wait longer in other circumstances. The longest waiting period is five years. During this time, you must maintain a clean record.
Once the waiting period is complete, you will file the appropriate paperwork with the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County. Assuming you meet the requirements and have filled out the proper forms, the system should expunge your records.
The expungement process is not automatic and requires confirmation by the court of your eligibility, so you may wait weeks or months for your records to be expunged.
Sealing Process in Chicago
In most cases, even when a misdemeanor offense can’t be expunged, it can be sealed. Illinois law allows you to seal all of the following types of records:
- Sentences of qualified probation or supervision that are incomplete
- Most misdemeanor offenses are three years after the end of the sentence
- Public indecency or prostitution offenses
If you qualify to have a record sealed, the rest of the process is almost identical to the expungement process. Given that the effort is similar, you may wonder if it is worth doing. Can employers see a sealed misdemeanor? The good news is that they cannot. Only specific parts of the government have access to sealed records.
Special Considerations for Juvenile Misdemeanor Records
Juvenile records follow different rules from adult records. Adult expungement is very limited, and most types of offenses do not qualify for adult expungement. Conversely, nearly all non-violent crimes performed by someone under the age of 18 are automatically expunged when they become an adult.
If you were arrested but not charged with a crime, that record should be automatically expunged one year after the arrest, assuming you are not arrested or charged with another crime in the previous six months.
Class B and C misdemeanor offenses are expunged when a supervision order is complete, the charges are withdrawn, or you are found not delinquent.
Finally, if you are found guilty of a non-violent Class A misdemeanor, your record should be automatically expunged two years after the case is closed. However, this will only happen if you have no other cases pending or guilty charges during that time.
There are also some types of offenses that will not be automatically expunged. If you want to ensure you have a clean criminal record in Chicago, you can fill out the appropriate forms for juvenile expungement to attempt to have these cases removed from your record.
Taking Control of Your Criminal Record in Chicago
Your rap sheet shouldn’t haunt you forever, especially if you never committed a felony and have followed the law faithfully since your past mistakes. An experienced misdemeanor attorney in Illinois can help you clear your rap sheet with expungement or sealing. Without this type of assistance, your criminal record could prevent you from getting a job, a loan, or a place to live.
What does this mean for you? It means that the first thing you should do after an arrest for a misdemeanor or a felony is to contact an experienced criminal defense attorney at Kostopoulos Law Group. We will communicate with the state’s attorney’s office, state police, and the local government to determine whether you are facing charges that make you eligible for expungement or sealing.
The easiest way to obtain expungement is for all charges to be dismissed. Failing that, if we can negotiate for probation, that will keep the option for expungement on the table. Illinois laws make it difficult to expunge or seal a case, even when you are not charged with a felony.
Our Illinois lawyers have experience navigating the expungement process for first-time offenders and will do what we can to make it easier for you to pass criminal background checks.
Contact Kostopoulos Law Group Today to Obtain an Expungement or Sealed Record
Are you worried about what somebody might find on your Cook County criminal record? Our Illinois record sealing lawyers and expungement attorneys may be able to help you avoid the consequences of an arrest in Cook County. Contact our law firm as soon as possible to schedule a free consultation to discuss expungement and other options for protecting your criminal history record.
