Jurisdiction:
Area of Law:
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.
Nevada Revised Statutes permit courts to order the sealing of criminal
records if certain conditions are met and the court is satisfied that the
subject has been rehabilitated. Sealing is
a procedure in which a record is physically removed from a record system and
its release is substantially or completely restricted. Sealing of criminal
records prohibits access to record information except to employees of the
Repository for record management purposes, a party or agency for an
authorized search under Nevada Revised Statutes or a party authorized
pursuant to a court order.
For a full overview of expungement law in the state of Nevada, see the
USLegal website.