Expungement

In some common law jurisdictions, an expungement or expunction is a legal process, usually defined by statute, through which a person may petition to have records relating to a prior criminal matter, such as an arrest or conviction, destroyed or sealed so that they are not accessible to the general public. The precise legal effect of expungement varies by jurisdiction. Black’s Law Dictionary defines “expungement of record” as the “process by which a record of criminal conviction is destroyed or sealed from the state or federal repository.”