Expungement — what is it good for?

That's Tom Bruno's musical question in the latest ISBA Human Rights newsletter, and you Edwin Starr fans know the answer. OK, maybe not absolutely nothin'. But not much. Why not? "Try this experiment," Tom suggests. "Type the phrase 'background check' into your Google search bar. Your Web browser comes alive with hundreds of private sector Web sites located around the world that will gladly provide a compendium of everything that ever appeared on the Internet in exchange for your modest fee. In the modern era this is how employers frequently vet potential employees." And, sadly, you can't expunge yourself from the World Wide Web. But even so, expungement does have value, Joshua D. Carter argues in the same issue. He notes that "legal protections...arise from a criminal record being expunged or sealed. Such records are not available to employers through the official channels and, perhaps more importantly, it is illegal under the Illinois Human Rights Act for an employer to consider any criminal history information which has been ordered expunged or sealed." Read Tom's article here, Josh's here.