Your record was expunged. The background check still shows it. Here's why.

The mechanism

Background-screening companies do not look up your case when an employer orders a report. They buy court records in bulk — entire county and state datasets, continuously — and hold them in their own databases. Your case entered those databases the moment it was filed.

An expungement or sealing order operates on the government's copy. It tells the court and usually the state police repository to restrict or remove the record. It has no reach into a private database in another state that already bought the data.

There is no central notification system. No feed tells screening companies that a record has been sealed. No obligation requires the court to inform a company that already has it. So they keep selling the cached version, indefinitely, until somebody tells them in writing.

Why federal law is on your side here

Background-screening companies are Consumer Reporting Agencies under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. That places them under the same accuracy obligations as the credit bureaus, and it gives you rights that do not depend on which state you live in.

• §FCRA § 607(b) requires a CRA to follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy, and to maintain procedures preventing the reporting of records that have been expunged, sealed, or otherwise legally restricted from public access.
• §FCRA § 611 requires reinvestigation of a written dispute within 30 days. Anything inaccurate, incomplete, or that cannot be verified must be deleted.
• §FCRA § 609 entitles you to a complete copy of your file, free once a year and free any time you have been denied employment because of a report.
• §FCRA § 605 bars reporting most non-conviction information — arrests, dismissals — after seven years, regardless of whether it was ever expunged.

How to fix it

1. 01Get a certified copy of the orderFrom the issuing court. This single document is what makes the rest work. An uncertified printout is easier for an agency to set aside.
2. 02Find out who is actually reporting itRequest your file from each major screening company under § 609. Each holds a separate database, so a record cleared at one may be live at another — and you cannot dispute what you have not confirmed.
3. 03Send a written dispute to each one holding itIdentify the exact entry as it appears, state that the record has been expunged or sealed, attach the certified order, cite § 607(b), and request written confirmation of deletion. In writing, always — a phone dispute leaves you nothing.
4. 04Track the 30-day clock per filingDiary the deadline for each agency separately. Silence past 30 days is itself part of the record you may need later.
5. 05Ask for the correction to be sent onwardYou may request that the corrected report go to anyone who received the old one in the past two years for employment purposes. A correction nobody sees does not get you the job.
6. 06Re-check in 90 days, and keep re-checkingAgencies re-buy court bulk data continuously. A record deleted in March can be back by September. This is the step almost everyone skips and the reason this is a subscription rather than a letter.

The part that turns a nuisance into a claim

Screening companies commonly defend continued reporting by saying they were unaware the record had been sealed. That defence works exactly once.

Serving a written dispute with the certified order removes it permanently. If an agency keeps reporting the record after that, it is no longer an oversight — it is an FCRA violation carrying statutory damages and attorney's fees.

What this does not fix

An unexpunged conviction is a public court record and can be lawfully reported. No service can change that, and we will tell you so at intake rather than after you have paid.

People-search sites and mugshot sites that publish arrest data are generally not consumer reporting agencies, so FCRA disputes do not reach them. Those need removal requests instead, which is what the rest of our service does.