You got your record expunged. The background check still shows it.
That is not a mistake in your paperwork. An expungement order reaches the government’s copy of your record — it does not touch the private databases that screening companies sell from. They keep reporting the cached version until someone serves them a formal dispute with the order attached.
That is what we do, and federal law gives them 30 days to answer.
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The gap between a court order and a commercial database
Four steps, and the failure is structural rather than anybody's fault. Which is precisely why nobody fixes it unless you make them.
- 01A screening company buys court records in bulkNot case by case. They purchase entire county and state datasets, continuously, and cache them. Your case entered their database the moment it was filed.
- 02You get the record expunged or sealedA judge signs an order. The court restricts its copy. The state repository complies. This is the part you paid for and it worked.
- 03Nobody tells the screening companyThe order binds the court, not a private database in another state. There is no central notification, no feed, no obligation on the court to inform anyone who already bought the data.
- 04An employer pulls your report and the record is thereYou are declined. Often you are never told why, because a lot of employers skip the adverse-action notice they legally owe you. You conclude the expungement failed. It didn't — the database just never got the memo.
Screening companies routinely argue they had no way to know a record was sealed. That argument works exactly once. A written dispute with a certified copy of the order removes it permanently — and if they keep reporting the record after that, the dispute becomes a claim with statutory damages and attorney’s fees.
These apply in all 50 states, whatever your record says
Background-screening companies are Consumer Reporting Agencies under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. That subjects them to the same accuracy duties as the credit bureaus, and gives you a private right of action when they fail.
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 seven-year limit
Most non-conviction information — arrests that led nowhere, dismissed charges — may not be reported after seven years. If a stale arrest is still on your report, that is disputable on its own without any court order.
Notice and a chance to respond
An employer must give you a standalone written disclosure before pulling a report, and must send you a pre-adverse-action notice with a copy of the report and a summary of your rights before rejecting you because of it. You are entitled to respond before the decision becomes final.
What we actually file
In order. You can follow along in the dashboard, and every filing produces a document you keep.
- 01See what employers seeWe file your FCRA § 609 file-disclosure requests with every major screening company. It is free under federal law. Most people have never done it and have no idea what their report says.
- 02Screen your relief optionsWe match your record against your state's expungement, sealing, set-aside and Clean Slate rules — including whether automatic relief has already happened without anyone telling you.
- 03Hand off to counsel where neededPetition-based expungement is legal work. We prepare the file and refer you to vetted expungement counsel or legal aid. We are not a law firm and we do not pretend to be one.
- 04Dispute the expunged and sealed entriesFormal § 611 disputes with the certified order attached, to every agency holding the record. The 30-day clock is tracked per filing.
- 05Dispute everything else that's wrongArrests past the seven-year limit. Dismissals reported as convictions. Charges that were reduced. Records belonging to someone with a similar name. Each is independently disputable without any court order.
- 06Clear the people-search layerMugshot sites and people-search sites publishing arrest data are not CRAs, so federal dispute rights do not reach them. Our removal engine does.
- 07Arm you for the interviewYour state's and city's fair-chance rules in plain language: when they may ask, what lookback applies, and the individualised assessment you are owed before a rejection.
- 08Re-pull quarterly, foreverBecause they re-buy court data and cleared records come back. We refile automatically and tell you before you find out the hard way.
We do not conceal a lawfully reportable conviction, and we do not take on roles where screening is legally mandated — childcare, eldercare, healthcare, education, security, finance, commercial driving, firearms, federal clearance.
If that is your situation we will tell you at intake, before you pay, and explain what the law actually allows instead.
If an agency keeps reporting a record after we have served the order, that is an FCRA violation with statutory damages and attorney’s fees attached. We refer those to consumer-rights firms at no cost to you.
A violation is an asset, not just a grievance.
ScrubMyInfo is not a law firm, does not provide legal advice, and is not a credit repair organisation. Eligibility screening and dispute filing are administrative work. Where legal representation is needed we refer you to licensed counsel.
Your rights depend heavily on where you live
Clean Slate automatic sealing exists in 13 states and none of them notify you. Fair-chance hiring rules reach private employers in 14 states and over 150 cities. Both change what we file for you.
States with automatic Clean Slate relief
If you live in one of these, you may already be sealed and not know it.
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- New Jersey
- New York
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Utah
- Virginia
- District of Columbia
Every other state
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Mexico
- North Carolina
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Vermont
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
The companies that actually write your background check
Your employer does not run the check. One of these does, and each holds its own database — which is why a record cleared at one can still be live at another.
Checkr
Employment screeningHigh-volume employment screening built around API integrations, heavily used by gig platforms, delivery, rideshare, staffing and hourly hiring.
If you were deactivated or rejected by a gig platform, Checkr almost certainly produced the report. Its scale means database-cached county records are common, which is exactly where stale and expunged entries survive.
Sterling
Employment screeningOne of the largest global screening firms, used across enterprise hiring, healthcare and financial services.
Long-established, which means a deep historical database. Sterling has been the subject of FCRA litigation over reporting accuracy.
HireRight
Employment screeningEnterprise employment screening across transportation, healthcare, manufacturing and professional services.
Widely used for DOT and commercial-driver screening, where accuracy rules are stricter and an error is more costly.
First Advantage
Employment screeningGlobal background screening and identity verification, including criminal, employment and education verification.
Merged with Sterling's business lines in recent years, so a single dispute may need to reach multiple legacy databases.
Accurate Background
Employment screeningEmployment screening across criminal records, verifications and drug testing.
Cisive
Employment screeningScreening focused on regulated industries — healthcare, financial services, transportation.
GoodHire
Employment screeningSmall-and-medium-business employment screening, often the default for a first corporate hire.
Equifax Workforce Solutions (The Work Number)
Employment screeningThe largest commercial database of payroll and employment records in the US, sold to lenders, employers and government agencies.
The Work Number holds your income and employment history at a level of detail most people do not realise exists. It is FCRA-regulated, so you can demand the file and dispute what is wrong.
Including the one you're actually asking
Can you hide my criminal record from employers?
No, and we will not pretend otherwise. An unexpunged conviction is a public court record and no service can delete it. What we can do is make sure that what gets reported about you is accurate and lawful: that expunged and sealed records are not reported, that dismissed charges are not reported as convictions, that arrests older than seven years are not reported at all, and that records belonging to someone else are not attached to your name. Those are federal rights with real teeth.
My record was expunged. Why is it still showing up?
Because an expungement order operates on the government's copy of the record. It tells the court and usually the state police to restrict or remove it. It does not reach into the private databases that screening companies built by buying court bulk data — often years before your order issued. Those companies keep selling the cached version until someone tells them, in writing, with the order attached. That is the single most common problem we solve.
What does an FCRA dispute actually do?
It starts a 30-day statutory clock. The agency must reinvestigate, and anything inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable must be deleted. Screening companies often argue they did not know a record had been sealed. Serving them a written dispute with a certified copy of the order destroys that defence — and if they keep reporting it afterwards, you may have a claim with statutory damages and attorney's fees.
Do you handle the expungement itself?
We screen your eligibility against your state's rules and prepare the file, then refer you to vetted expungement counsel or legal aid. Petition-based expungement is the practice of law and we are not a law firm. Where your state has automatic Clean Slate relief, we check whether it has already happened — 13 states seal records automatically and none of them write to tell you.
Is this legal?
Entirely. Every step is either a federal right (file disclosure, dispute, adverse-action notice), a state right (expungement, sealing, fair-chance hiring rules), or a removal request to a commercial website. We do not conceal lawfully reportable records, and we do not work on roles where screening is legally mandated — childcare, eldercare, healthcare, education, security, finance, commercial driving and federal clearance. We will tell you plainly if that is your situation.
Why is this a subscription rather than a one-off?
Because screening companies re-buy court bulk data continuously, and cleared records reappear. A dispute resolved in March can be back in the database by September. We re-pull your file quarterly and refile automatically. If you only want a snapshot, buy the one-time Background Check Audit instead — we would rather sell you that than an annual plan you don't need.
Start by finding out what it actually says
You have a federal right to a copy of your own background check, and it costs nothing. We file those requests for you, read what comes back, and tell you which items are disputable — before you commit to anything.
Most people in this situation also want their address off the people-search sites — the same sites that publish arrest records. Total covers both for $12.99 a month, which is less than either DeleteMe or Incogni charges for privacy alone.