Imagine you haven’t been able to get hired or to find a decent place to rent or to enroll in an education program due to some event or events well in your past that resulted in your arrest, or landed you in criminal court or even jail or prison. Your record has become a burden impacting major aspects of your life or ‘keeping you back’. Last fall, attorneys in Springfield, Alton, Rockford and other Illinois cities, some volunteering pro bono, assisted clients (free of charge) in completing and filing petitions seeking to expunge or to seal their records. These petitions sought to erase certain arrests of record or seal certain convictions, potentially unburdening hundreds from public access to their criminal past. But only certain arrests and crimes can be expunged or sealed and only after certain criterion are met.

According to Black’s Law Dictionary: “‘[E]xpunge’ means ‘to destroy; blot out; obliterate; erase; strike out wholly.’” In Illinois, expungement is the process of physically destroying the records of, or returning those records to a petitioner, and obliterating that petitioner’s name in any official public index or public record. 20 ILCS 2630/5.2(a)(1)(E). Sealing under Illinois law means a record is to be physically or electronically maintained which means the record is generally unavailable to the public without a court order. 20 ILCS 2630/5.2(a)(1)(K).

Eligibility to petition a court to expunge or to seal one’s criminal record has recently been expanded as part of Illinois’ criminal justice reform under Public Act 100-284 signed into law in 2017. More felony convictions are now eligible to be sealed and more arrests and crimes may be deemed in the nature of a “non-conviction,” making them eligible to be expunged, depending upon the relief, disposition or sentence imposed. For example, arrests that were not prosecuted, not guilty verdicts, supervision and certain probations that were successfully terminated are generally eligible for expungement. While many misdemeanor and felony convictions are now eligible to be sealed, examples of those that still are not eligible include: domestic battery, violations of orders of protection, DUIs, reckless driving, most sex crimes and those for animal cruelty. In some cases, waiting periods apply and a clean drug test taken within thirty days before filing is required. The Illinois Supreme Court, through its Commission on Access to Justice, even provides the forms to complete or to file with one’s request for expungement, as well as line-by-line directions and guidance. Search: Illinois Supreme Court Standardized State Forms/Expungement and Sealing.

After the petition or request is filed, notice is provided to the law enforcement agency that made the arrest, to the State’s Attorney or other prosecuting attorney and to the Illinois State Police to allow objections to the petition to be filed. A hearing is scheduled and often, if there is no objection, the hearing is pro forma. However, whether to grant the request, that is, whether to allow the sealing of one’s record, is discretionary with the court. In that respect, the trial court judge decides the petitioner’s fate.

In Springfield, an Expungement and Record Sealing Summit was held on October 19, 2019, sponsored by several organizations, including Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance, the Sangamon County Bar Association, the Goodwill Career Center, and the Sangamon County Circuit Court Clerk. Cabrini Green Legal Aid provided invaluable training and assistance. Staff of the Sangamon County Circuit Clerk was present, enabling the client or petitioner to file his or her petition at the Summit, without having to go the courthouse to do so. Filing fees and attorney fees were waived, meaning that the Summit enabled a client to complete and to file a petition for free—not only saving clients substantial money, but also enabling many to participate who might otherwise be precluded due to the cost of attorney and filing fees. 

At that Springfield Summit, 125 clients who were predetermined to be eligible had their petitions prepared and filed. This author, who participated in assisting clients in completing petitions, learned the heavy impact of even a dated and relatively minor criminal record. But my reward was also learning the value in the possibility of having one’s past arrests and convictions either erased or sealed. Moreover, clients voiced hope, relief, and appreciation for the opportunity for a second chance. David Blanchette of the Illinois Times interviewed several at the

Springfield Summit who explained both the impact of an arrest or criminal record and the hope and opportunity the summit offers, in “A Second Chance in Life,” www.illinoistimes.com/October 31-November 6, 2019. A similar summit held in Rockford called “Second Chance Summit” resulted in an even larger number of clients seeking assistance and similar expressions of hope as reported by the Rockford press.

These summits were held before, and are distinguishable from, the types of expungements available under Illinois’ new Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act effective January 1, 2020. This recent law, among other provisions, makes possession and sale of under 30 grams of cannabis legal in certain circumstances and allows for the expungement of convictions for possession and sale of under 30 grams. It has been estimated that some 770,000 pot convictions are now “automatically” eligible for expungement. See, “Make It Go Away: A Practical and Realistic Guide to Expungement, Sealing and Other Criminal Record Reforms” in the September 2019 Illinois Bar Journal, Vol. 107, No. 9 at page 30, footnote 26. Imagine the second chances likely to result from Illinois’ new recreational marijuana law and the thousands of expungements this new law affords.