2018 Vermont Statutes
Title 13 - Crimes and Criminal Procedure
Chapter 230 - Expungement And Sealing Of Criminal History Records
§ 7606 Effect of expungement
§ 7606. Effect of expungement
(a) Upon entry of an expungement order, the order shall be legally effective immediately and the person whose record is expunged shall be treated in all respects as if he or she had never been arrested, convicted, or sentenced for the offense. The court shall issue an order to expunge all records and files related to the arrest, citation, investigation, charge, adjudication of guilt, criminal proceedings, and probation related to the sentence. The court shall issue the person a certificate stating that such person's behavior after the conviction has warranted the issuance of the order and that its effect is to annul the record of arrest, conviction, and sentence. The court shall provide notice of the expungement to the respondent, Vermont Crime Information Center (VCIC), the arresting agency, and any other entity that may have a record related to the order to expunge. The VCIC shall provide notice of the expungement to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's National Crime Information Center.
(b) In any application for employment, license, or civil right or privilege or in an appearance as a witness in any proceeding or hearing, a person may be required to answer questions about a previous criminal history record only with respect to arrests or convictions that have not been expunged.
(c) Nothing in this section shall affect any right of the person whose record has been expunged to rely on it as a bar to any subsequent proceedings for the same offense.
(d)(1) The court shall keep a special index of cases that have been expunged together with the expungement order and the certificate issued pursuant to this chapter. The index shall list only the name of the person convicted of the offense, his or her date of birth, the docket number, and the criminal offense that was the subject of the expungement.
(2) The special index and related documents specified in subdivision (1) of this subsection shall be confidential and shall be physically and electronically segregated in a manner that ensures confidentiality and that limits access to authorized persons.
(3) Inspection of the expungement order and the certificate may be permitted only upon petition by the person who is the subject of the case. The Administrative Judge may permit special access to the index and the documents for research purposes pursuant to the rules for public access to court records.
(4) All other court documents in a case that are subject to an expungement order shall be destroyed.
(5) The Court Administrator shall establish policies for implementing this subsection.
(e) Upon receiving an inquiry from any person regarding an expunged record, an entity shall respond that "NO RECORD EXISTS." (Added 2011, No. 131 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; amended 2015, No. 133 (Adj. Sess.), § 2a, eff. May 25, 2016; 2017, No. 57, § 6; 2017, No. 178 (Adj. Sess.), § 3; 2017, No. 201 (Adj. Sess.), § 3.)
