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A landlord in Ohio runs a tenant screening report and finds a 2016 theft charge. The same charge in Pennsylvania might never surface at all, because Pennsylvania seals many older non-violent convictions automatically under its Clean Slate law. Same criminal history, two very different outcomes, and the reason usually comes down to one question: was that record expunged or sealed?
People use those two terms interchangeably all the time, including plenty of lawyers talking fast in a hallway. They are not the same thing, and the gap between them matters when you fill out a job application, apply for an apartment, or sit across from a licensing board.
The Core Difference in Plain English
Expungement is legal erasure. A judge signs an order, and the agencies named in it are directed to destroy the record, return it, or treat it as though it never existed. In most states that means you can lawfully answer “no” when an employer asks whether you have ever been convicted.
Record sealing leaves the record intact. It just closes the public door. The file stays in the courthouse, the arrest stays in the police database, and a defined list of people can still open it. Everyone else, including most employers and landlords running background checks, gets nothing back.
A useful shorthand: expungement is a delete, sealing is a permissions change.
What Expungement Really Does to a Record
Expungement is typically reserved for cases that ended without a conviction, or for old, low-level convictions after a waiting period. Arrests that were never charged, charges that were dismissed, juvenile adjudications, and misdemeanors like a first-time retail theft are common candidates in states that allow it.
The process is a court petition. You file in the county where the case was handled, notify the prosecutor and sometimes the state police, and appear before a judge. If it is granted, copies of the order go out to every agency that touched the case. Budget three to nine months in most jurisdictions, and expect filing fees anywhere from nothing in a few states to roughly $300 to $500 in others.
Records that can survive an expungement
Erased on paper is not always erased in reality. Three things tend to linger:
- Private background check companies. These firms scrape court indexes on their own schedule. If the index still shows the case when they scrape, the entry can sit in a commercial database for months after the court file is gone.
- Immigration consequences. Federal immigration agencies generally are not bound by a state expungement order. A conviction expunged under state law can still be used in removal proceedings.
- Other states and federal databases. An expungement order from one state does not automatically scrub an FBI rap sheet or a neighboring state’s records.
What Record Sealing Really Does
Sealing restricts access rather than destroying anything. The record becomes invisible to the general public, to most employers, and to landlords running standard screenings. It stays visible to police, prosecutors, and judges, which is the whole point: if you pick up a new charge, the earlier one is still on the table at sentencing.
A handful of employers can often still see a sealed record, and the exceptions are worth knowing before you assume the problem is solved. Depending on your state, that list may include:
- Police departments, sheriff’s offices, and corrections agencies
- School districts and childcare providers
- Hospitals, nursing homes, and other healthcare employers
- State licensing boards for professions like nursing, teaching, and real estate
- Banks and other institutions regulated under federal banking rules
Many states also allow a sealed record to be considered in a later criminal case or in a firearm purchase background check, and sealing frequently does not restore gun rights the way a full pardon or expungement might.
How the Two Compare Side by Side
- Public court records: gone after expungement, hidden after sealing.
- Job applications: most states let you answer “no” to a conviction question after either one, but sealed records can still be disclosed in some government and licensed-profession applications.
- Eligibility: sealing is usually available for a wider range of offenses, including some felonies, while expungement tends to be narrower and often limited to dismissals and low-level convictions.
- Reversibility: a sealed record can be unsealed by court order; an expunged record is gone, which is harder to undo but also harder to use against you.
- Time to complete: both run on similar timelines, though sealing petitions are often less contested.
Why the Vocabulary Changes at the State Line
There is no national standard, and this is where most people get lost. California calls its relief a dismissal under Penal Code 1203.4, and the case still shows an entry with a notation that it was dismissed. Texas separates an expunction from an order of nondisclosure for cases that were deferred. North Carolina uses “expunction” for what several other states would call sealing. Illinois awards certificates that seal or expunge depending on the offense. Pennsylvania runs automatic sealing for certain older convictions and petitions for expungement of arrests and summary offenses.
So if you read advice written for a national audience and it contradicts what your county clerk tells you, trust the clerk and your own state statute.
Eligibility Usually Hinges on the Same Three Things
1. What the offense was
States sort relief by charge level and by whether the offense involved violence, a weapon, or a victim. Understanding whether your case was charged as a felony or a misdemeanor is the starting point, because most expungement statutes draw a hard line between the two and often exclude felonies entirely or require much longer waiting periods.
2. How the case ended
A dismissal, an acquittal, or a dropped charge is the easiest path to expungement. A conviction is harder. If you completed probation instead of prison time, that often satisfies the sentence-completion requirement sooner, and some states treat a successfully finished probation as the trigger for eligibility.
3. How long it has been
Waiting periods run from three to ten years in most places and start counting from the date of sentencing, the date probation ended, or the date of arrest, depending on the statute. One new conviction during that window usually resets the clock.
What Neither Remedy Can Do
Neither one touches a federal conviction, and neither removes a sex offender registration obligation. Neither will erase a charge that is still pending or a case where you are actively on supervision. Neither forces a private data broker to delete an entry the next morning, which is why people who win their petition often spend another month submitting removal requests to the big background check companies directly. And neither changes what a professional licensing board already knows if that board has a statutory right to your sealed file.
How to Figure Out Which One Applies to You
Start with your actual court record, not a $29 online report. Go to the clerk’s office in the county where the case was filed, or check the court’s public access portal, and write down the case number, the exact charge and statute number, the disposition, and the sentencing date. Then search your state’s statute using the phrase your state uses, whether that is expunction, expungement, sealing, or vacatur.
Legal aid societies, law school clinics, and court self-help centers handle these petitions regularly and often at no cost. If your record is from more than one county, file in each one separately. And if you were arrested but never charged, do not assume it just disappears: an arrest with no conviction is one of the most common and most winnable expungement petitions out there.
The Job Application Question That Trips People Up
“Have you ever been convicted of a crime?” is where the distinction becomes real money. With an expunged record, the answer is generally no, full stop, and a few states make it illegal for an employer to ask about it at all. With a sealed record, the answer is no for private employers in most states, but it can be yes for government jobs, positions requiring a professional license, and any role that involves children, patients, or vulnerable adults.
Read the question carefully and read the state statute behind it. If the form asks about arrests as well as convictions, a sealed arrest may still fall inside the question, while an expunged one does not. Guessing wrong on that line is one of the few ways a cleaned-up record can still cost you an offer, so when the wording is ambiguous, ask a legal aid attorney in your state for a five-minute answer before you sign.
