Legal services providers are frequently presented with the challenge of communicating complicated and evolving legal advice to large numbers of constituents. The Clean Slate Screening Project (CSSP), developed by Philadelphia-based Community Legal Services (CLS) in partnership with the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA), was conceived as a solution to that predicament when in 2018, the state…
Contact with the criminal legal system comes with a price tag that a growing number of Americans cannot afford to pay. With one in three Americans living with a criminal record, it is no surprise that an estimated ten million Americans owe a total of 50 billion dollars in court imposed fines and costs.
Expungements: Good or Bad? Discuss. Two quite different perspectives on the value of record clearing (which I will refer to here as “expungements” as a shorthand) are sometimes articulated. Here’s one. “Expungement is the best remedy for people with records. It really does provide a clean slate. It doesn’t require employers or landlords to follow…
The following post was written by CLS Litigation Director Sharon Dietrich. I sometimes am asked for authority for the proposition that the reporting of an expunged or sealed case by a commercial screener violates the FCRA. Unfortunately, the dearth of case law directly on point keeps me from just succinctly giving a citation, even though…
You probably are wondering, “What is she talking about, with a subject line like that?” The answer to your thought is that I use this phrase when giving clients an important warning about the effect of their expungement orders. I am illustrating for them the idea that I can’t guarantee removal of their expunged cases…
In 2018, Governor Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania signed the Clean Slate Act. With its signing, Pennsylvania became the first state
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (the FCRA) governs the accuracy of criminal background checks prepared by commercial screeners. While there is not much case law holding that the FCRA prohibits commercial screeners from reporting expunged or sealed cases, there is little doubt that it does. Two FCRA provisions apply: Commercial screeners must use “reasonable procedures”…
