A criminal record can be a bar to certain types of employment, licensing, holding public office, and even the right to vote. Most states allow for a process called expungement that will remove certain arrests or criminal convictions from the offender’s record.

Depending upon the laws of the state in which you live and the nature of the crime, you may be able to get an arrest or conviction sealed or erased from your legal record. After the expungement process is complete, you will not need to disclose the conviction on a job or school application, and in most instances no record of the arrest or conviction will show up during a public records inspection or background check commonly done by potential employers, landlords, and educational institutions.

An expunged arrest or conviction may not be completely erased, however, and ordinarily will remain an accessible part of a person's criminal record, accessible to certain government agencies, including law enforcement and the criminal courts. This limited accessibility is also known as a criminal record being "under seal." In some legal proceedings, an expunged conviction that is under seal may still be considered as proof of a prior conviction.

In Alabama, an accurate criminal arrest or record cannot be expunged, but if a mistake has been made, it can be corrected. To do this, the individual must complete the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center (ACJIC) form Requests to Review, Appeal, or Challenge and return it to the ACJIC. For each item challenged, the applicant must state what they believe to be the correct information and if possible, cite official documents to support the challenge, attaching copies of the documentation. In Alabama, the only way to absolutely verify the accuracy of a criminal record is through fingerprint comparison. Anyone requiring a fingerprint-based criminal history search must contact the Alabama Department of Public Safety.