By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News

People who have been arrested at any point in their life, whether charged or even convicted or not, still have a criminal record following them around, but steps to have those cases sealed or expunged can be taken.

Adrian Barr, managing attorney for Prairie State Legal Services, explains the difference between the two.

“Only certain convictions or charges are eligible to be expunged or sealed. Expungement is where they take the file and physically destroy it and destroy all record of the file, so after you’ve gone through the expungement process, if someone were to run a background check on you, they would not find your criminal conviction. Sealing is a little bit different. With sealing, it’s effectively the same as an expungement, except the file is taken and put in a place where it can’t be found by the general public,” Barr said.

Barr also said it’s a fairly easy process.

“Simply put, you need to work out what your criminal record is, what was charged and what was the resolution, analyze if it’s eligible for expungement, fill out and file the paperwork if you are eligible, and wait a couple months and you should have those records removed,” Barr said.

For more information, call 309-827-5021.