Clearing your record in Vermont — and making the background check catch up
Vermont does not seal records automatically, so relief here is petition-based: you apply, and a court decides. Separately — and this matters regardless — your federal FCRA rights let you force screening companies to correct or delete anything they are reporting inaccurately or unlawfully, today, without any court order.
Find out what yours says
We file your free federal file-disclosure requests with every major screening company and tell you which items are disputable in Vermont.
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Clearing a record in Vermont
Vermont has no automatic sealing, so relief requires a petition to the court. What follows is general information rather than legal advice, and eligibility turns on the specifics of your case.
- 01Get your complete record firstOrder your Vermont state criminal history. You cannot assess eligibility from memory, and dispositions are frequently recorded differently from how you remember them.
- 02Check eligibility against the statuteWaiting periods, offence classes and exclusions vary enormously. Dismissals, acquittals and non-convictions are usually the easiest category and the one most often overlooked.
- 03File the petitionThis is legal work. Legal aid, a public defender's expungement clinic, or a private attorney. We prepare the file and refer — we do not practise law.
- 04Then, separately, fix the databasesAn order changes nothing at the screening companies until you serve them. This is the part almost everyone misses, and it is the part we automate.
What a Vermont employer may and may not ask
Vermont restricts how private employers may use criminal history. Knowing the rule changes how you handle the application and what you can do about a rejection.
Vermont's comprehensive privacy law is scheduled to take effect January 1, 2028; the data-broker registry under 9 V.S.A. §§ 2446–2447 is already in force.
What every employer owes you, in every state
- A standalone written disclosure before they pull a report — it may not be buried in the application.
- Your written authorisation before the report is obtained.
- A pre-adverse-action notice with a copy of the report and a summary of your FCRA rights before they reject you because of it.
- A real opportunity to respond and correct errors before the decision is final.
- A final adverse-action notice naming the agency that supplied the report.
A large share of employers skip the pre-adverse-action notice. If you were rejected after a background check and never received a copy of the report, that is itself a violation — and it is why you never got the chance to point out the record was sealed.
See your file
You may demand a full disclosure of everything a consumer reporting agency holds on you. It is free once every 12 months, and free any time you have been denied employment or housing because of a report. Almost nobody exercises this, which is why most people never find out what their background check actually says.
Dispute what's wrong
On a written dispute the agency must reinvestigate and resolve within 30 days. If an item is inaccurate, incomplete, or cannot be verified, it must be deleted. A certified copy of an expungement or sealing order is the strongest possible attachment.
Maximum possible accuracy
An agency must follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy, and must have procedures preventing the reporting of records that have been expunged, sealed, or otherwise legally restricted from public access.
The companies reporting on you in Vermont
Employment screening is national, so the same handful of agencies produce nearly every report regardless of your state. Each holds its own database, so each needs its own dispute.
- Checkr
- Sterling
- HireRight
- First Advantage
- Accurate Background
- Cisive
- GoodHire
- Equifax Workforce Solutions (The Work Number)
- IntelliCorp
- Info Cubic
- ADP Screening and Selection Services
- Certn
- Shareable for Hires (Experian)
Vermont privacy rights
People-search sites publish arrest records alongside your home address, and they are not consumer reporting agencies — so federal dispute rights do not reach them. Removal does.
Elsewhere
This page is general information about Vermont law and federal law, not legal advice. ScrubMyInfo is not a law firm. Eligibility and procedure turn on the facts of your case — check the primary source or speak to counsel before relying on anything here.