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I currently live and was charged in PA but am applying for certification in WA state. The DUI occurred over 4 years ago. My record was expunged about 1 1/2 years ago. The application question reads: In the last 10 years, have you ever been arrested for any crime or violation of the law? (Note: For “yes” responses, even if your case was dismissed or your record was sealed you must answer this question in the affirmative.) Why would I have to answer yes to this question if the record in question is no longer on file?
Asked on October 10, 2011 under Criminal Law, Pennsylvania
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
The reason you *should* answer yes is that expungement is not the same as never having done something in the first place. Expungement removes the record of the conviction from most (but not all; e.g., law enforcement can still access the record under some circumstances) records, but it does not "undo" the original act. You can liken expungement to having deleted a document from your computer--it makes the document mostly inaccessible (though it can still be accessed under some circumstances, such as with the right tools), but does not mean that you never wrote that document.
Therefore, if asked about whether you were ever arrested, the answer is "yes"--you were. The arrest might not come up on a background check--therefore there might be no way to verify your answer, unless someone in the know mentions what happened, there's an old newspaper blurb about the arrest which can be "google searched" on the web, etc.--but the arrest still did happen.
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