Legal Blogs Discuss Expunctions
I was not alone in commenting on the recent New York Times story about expunctions. Here are some other posts about the same article from around the legal blogosphere.
Michael Pinard’s post focuses primarily on housing and employment problems arising from an unexpunged criminal record.
Brooks Holland remembers former private clients who were haunted by cases they thought had been sealed.
Daniel Solove proposes a solution: require a private company to promise to correct records, as a condition of granting access to them. (Note: I think the problem here is that the records are public to begin with; and these companies are broadcasting true information, that is, So-and-So got arrested on Such-and-Such a date for This-Offense. The defense against slander is the truth.)
Tim Armstrong argues that Web 2.0 makes information less transitory and ephemeral than ever before, and therefore this is the logical result. (I agree.)
Jeralyn Merritt, Marcia Oddi, Stuart Friedman, and Mary Whisner all weigh in as well.
