Expungements: Helping candidates move on from their past

At Checkr, we believe a criminal sentence should never be a life sentence to unemployment. We believe human potential should not be limited by the past, and we work to expand people’s opportunities.

To promote our mission of fair-chance hiring, we built an affordable end-to-end expungement process for candidates, which leads them from qualification to completion.

What are expungements?

Expungements seal or remove criminal charges from public record. The availability of expungements is generally limited by a number of factors including jurisdiction, the nature and severity of the charge, and the number of years that have passed.

While not universally available, several states have enacted mandatory expungement policies, which require a judge to approve expungement petitions if a candidate meets certain requirements listed in the policy. However, many candidates and employers are not aware of these policies and find it difficult to determine which records qualify. This is where Checkr expungement solutions can really help.

Checkr provides expungement services for low-severity marijuana charges in California by identifying potentially expungeable records and assisting candidates through the petition process.

Displaying expungement-eligible records

Checkr’s services help both customers and candidates by identifying which records may qualify for expungement.

For customers: The Checkr Dashboard includes a notice on potentially expungeable to provide additional context in the review process. Because these records fall within the states’ expungement policies, many employers choose to evaluate them differently, often taking no action at all.

For candidates: Candidates are notified of potentially eligible records through direct outreach from Checkr and a similar banner in the Candidate Portal. Candidates are then directed to Checkr’s expungement service.

Checkr’s expungement service

To facilitate these expungements, Checkr has partnered with Avenues Legal LLP, a company that offers automation technology for legal services. Together we evaluate candidate eligibility and process the expungement petitions at a fraction of market rates.

Through this partnership, Checkr is able to offer one of the lowest rates available nationwide. All costs go directly to our partner Avenues Legal LLP for their services.

Candidates with identified records will step through the following process for their expungements:

1. Candidates will be alerted that they have a potentially expungeable record through email, SMS text, and on their background check itself in the Checkr Candidate Portal.
2. If they elect to seek an expungement, they will be directed to fill out a questionnaire in the Checkr Candidate Portal to determine if their record qualifies.
3. If they qualify, they may choose to pay the legal and processing fees required to file their petition for expungement.
4. Working with Avenues Legal LLP, Checkr creates and files the candidate’s petition and communicates results (generally within 14 - 30 days).
5. Once the expungement is complete, Checkr emails the candidate when their conviction will no longer be a barrier.

Interested in getting involved?

Checkr is currently seeking opportunities to partner with nonprofits, government entities, and companies to sponsor expungements to enable more candidates to benefit from a clean slate. If you are interested, please contact us at expungements@checkr.com.