Ignorance of the Law is no Excuse

IGNORANCE OF THE LAW IS NO EXCUSE

Imagine that you have applied for a job that pays upwards of 40k a year with the prospects of earning as much as 45k, but on your way to your first day of work you get stopped for a minor traffic offense. The cop runs your name and an old conviction comes up, you explain your reason for the conviction and explain that it is over 20 years old. The cop refuses to listen and detains you for over 30 minutes making you late for your new job.  As a result, you are told that they changed their mind because to take a chance on you does not seem worth the risk after what happened.

Though that may seem far-fetched, situations like those do occur. That is why the Criminal Identification act is important, the Illinois Legislature has taken steps to make it easier for those who have been convicted of certain felonies to have those felony convictions either expunged or sealed.

The recent passing of 2 new Public Acts helps those who have been recently convicted of felonies by shortening the time in which they can do so.

Public Act 99-0385 allows for the sealing of eligible criminal records in 2 years instead of the 3 or 4 year waiting period, and 3 years, rather than 4 years for other eligible felonies after the end of the case. Public Act 99-0378 allows a person who earned a high school diploma, Associates degree, vocational technical certification, Bachelor’s degree, or GED during the period for early sealing.

All of the information is contained in 20 ILCS 2630/5.2.  This is an important tool to clean up your criminal history, however,it does not apply to minor traffic offenses, divorces, order of protection or other civil matters. This act establishes a procedure so that citizens who have certain felonies can clear their records without having to hire an attorney to do so,

Though not all felony convictions are eligible to be expunged or sealed under the Criminal Identification Act, the ones that are can even go as far back to when you were a juvenile but, the ones that are not eligible for expungement or sealing can still be expunged through the Executive Clemency/ Pardon process from the Governor.

The Criminal Identification Act covers a lot, in order to get all of the information and the documents you will need, you can go to http://www.illinois.gov/osad, or for the Executive Clemency process www.state.il.us/prb. If you qualify for either it is important that you take advantage of this act, no matter how old or recent the felony is, you may still qualify for one of the processes.

Curtis “Delayahu” Ferdinand