By Mathew K. Higbee, Esq.
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Background Check - Coming Soon

Expungement - Coming Soon

Record Sealing - The process of sealing or destroying of court records. The term is derived from the tradition of placing a seal on specified court files that prevents anyone from reviewing the files without receiving a court order. The modern process and requirements to seal a record and the protections it provides vary by state and often vary between civil and criminal cases.

Generally, record sealing can be defined as the process of removing from public view the records pertaining to a court case. However, the records may not completely disappear and may still be viewed in limited circumstances; in most instances it requires a court order to unseal or view records once they are sealed. Some states order records to be destroyed after they are sealed. Once a record is sealed, in some states, the contents are legally considered never to have occurred and are not acknowledged by the state.

The '''public policy''' of record sealing balances the state's desire to free citizens from the burdens caused by the information contained in state records against the state's interest to preserve records that may be beneficial to the state or its citizens.

Restoration of Civil Rights - Coming Soon

NCIC - The National Crime Information Center (NCIC) is a computerized index of criminal justice information (i.e.- criminal record history information, fugitives, stolen properties, missing persons). It is available to Federal, state, and local law enforcement and other criminal justice agencies and is operational 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This information assists authorized agencies in criminal justice and related law enforcement objectives, such as apprehending fugitives, locating missing persons, locating and returning stolen property, as well as in the protection of the law enforcement officers encountering the individuals described in the system. The information contained in the system is exempt from privacy laws. Contesting the information contained on the report requires the subject of the report to ask the agency that is providing information to the NCIC "to initiate action necessary to correct any stated inaccuracy."


Mathew K. Higbee is a graduate of the University of Utah's S.J. Quinney College of Law. After serving both as a prosecutor and defender, he founded a law firm that specializes in record clearing in six states.

Content on this page may be distributed free of charged and used in its entirety if properly cited.