When a person is charged with a crime or convicted of a crime, the information stays on the person’s criminal record and may be accessed by the court or other federal, state, municipal, or county agencies—or by private persons or entities conducting a background check. Under limited circumstances a person with a criminal record of arrest or conviction may be able to have the criminal record expunged—meaning the record will be permanently destroyed or deleted so it is no longer accessible by the court or other federal, state, municipal, or county agencies—or by private persons or entities conducting a background check.
Such an expungement or expunction of a criminal record is different from having a record sealed—which means the record still exists, but access to it is limited. A person whose only criminal record has been expunged may truthfully answer “no” when asked on an employment, licensing, or other application whether the person has ever been convicted of a crime. Under both state and federal law, in most cases it is not possible to have a person’s criminal conviction expunged.
Under state laws a person who has been convicted of a crime, pleaded guilty, or pleaded no contest (nolo contendere) is often ineligible to have their criminal record expunged. When a person is eligible to have a criminal record expunged, it is often dependent upon the person successfully completing a probation or deferred adjudication program. And in some states juveniles may be eligible to have a criminal record expunged if the criminal offense was committed before they turned 17 years of age, for example.
Expungement or expunction laws vary from state to state and are generally located in a state’s statutes—often in the penal or criminal code.
In Nevada, expungement is referred to as 'record sealing,' and it is the process by which a person's criminal record is made inaccessible to the general public. Nevada law allows for the sealing of both arrest and conviction records under certain conditions. Generally, a person must wait a specified period after the case is closed or after being discharged from parole or probation before applying to have their record sealed. This waiting period varies depending on the severity of the crime, ranging from one year for certain misdemeanors to 10 years for certain felonies. Some serious offenses, such as crimes against children, sex offenses, and DUIs with substantial bodily harm, may not be eligible for sealing. Juvenile records can also be sealed, and the process is somewhat easier than for adult records. Once a record is sealed in Nevada, the individual can legally state that they have not been convicted of a crime on applications for employment, licensing, or other purposes. However, sealed records may still be accessed by certain entities, such as law enforcement and criminal justice agencies. It's important to note that Nevada's record sealing laws do not apply to federal convictions, which have their own set of rules and are generally not subject to expungement.