New forms available for use for expunging and sealing records in Illinois

The Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice has approved new statewide forms for expunging and sealing records in Illinois. This will greatly streamline and simplify the expunging and sealing process as there will no longer be different forms from county to county that pro se petitioners and attorneys alike must familiarize themselves with. Moreover, the new forms deal with a wide range of possible scenarios a petitioner is confronted with, including when/if he or she is receiving an expungement post gubernatorial pardon: pursuant to 20 ILCS 2630/5.2(e), “Whenever a person who has been convicted of an offense is granted a pardon by the Governor which specifically authorizes expungement, he or she may, upon verified petition to the Chief Judge…have a court order entered expunging the record of arrest from the official records of the arresting authority and order that the records of the circuit court clerk and the Department be sealed until further order of the court…” (emphasis added). While this is patently unfair, in my professional opinion, and a person who has been granted a pardon with authorization to expunge should receive the full benefit of the expungement (i.e., not sealing), this is how the statute is currently worded. In the past, an entirely separate form dealing with this particular type of petitioner was necessary. The new forms, specifically the Order to Expunge and Impound, account for this scenario along with many others.

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