If you are wondering whether an old conviction can be expunged or sealed in your state, the LawSensai Record Clearing Screener is built for that question. It checks eligibility against state-specific relief paths in a few minutes, returns a categorized result, names the relief path, and tells you what to do next.
This post walks through how the screener works and what it covers.
What the Record Clearing Screener does
Record clearing is a state-by-state body of law. Two states with similar-sounding statutes can have very different eligibility rules and very different procedures. The screener encodes the state's eligibility rules in a structured form, runs your situation against them, and returns a result that names the relief path (expungement, sealing, set-aside, certificate of relief, or pardon depending on the state) and the next concrete step.
The screener has DB-backed relief paths for the top 15 states, and eligibility seeds for the territories. The Trust Center publishes the live coverage and the screener's safety stats at lawsens.ai/trust/record-clearing.
The intake
The intake is short. It asks for the state of conviction, the offense category, the disposition, the conviction date, the completion date for any supervision, and whether you have other convictions on your record. It also asks whether you currently have any pending charges. The intake is available in English and Spanish.
The intake does not ask for your name, your date of birth, or any record-identifying detail. It asks for the facts the eligibility rules turn on.
The eligibility evaluation
The evaluation runs the intake against the state's relief paths. For a top-15 state, the evaluation uses the DB-backed rule set. For a territory, the evaluation uses the eligibility seed and surfaces a coverage note that tells you the rule set has not yet been fully encoded for that jurisdiction. The screener does not pretend to know what it does not know.
The output is a categorized result. Eligible, conditionally eligible, ineligible at this time, or out of scope. Each category includes a plain-English explanation of why, and conditionally eligible results include the condition (a waiting period that has not yet elapsed, for example).
The Kovel Agency Framework on record clearing
The Criminal Defense Command Center includes the Kovel Agency Framework for record clearing privilege. When the screener returns a result and the user wants attorney support, the matter routes through the Kovel agency designation step before any privileged conversation begins. Until the attorney accepts the designation, the screener notes you generate are not privileged.
The relief path output
The screener names the relief path that applies. In Illinois, that might be expungement under 20 ILCS 2630/5.2 or sealing under the same statute, depending on the offense. In California, that might be a Penal Code 1203.4 dismissal. In Pennsylvania, that might be a limited-access order or an Act 5 sealing. The screener uses the right name for the right state.
The next-step output
The screener does not file your petition. It produces a draft petition or a packet, depending on the state, and gives you the filing steps. The user takes the packet to the court of conviction (or to an attorney) for the actual filing. For users who want attorney support, the matter routes to the Criminal Defense attorney match queue.
Spanish support
The screener is available in English and Spanish. The intake, the eligibility output, the relief path name, and the next-step guidance all carry the language preference forward.
Common misreads we see new users make
Misread one: assuming a clean federal background check means the conviction is already cleared. It does not. Federal databases pull from state records and from court records. Until the state clears the record, the conviction is still there.
Misread two: expecting the screener to file the petition. It does not. The screener evaluates and packages. Filing is a court action the user or an attorney completes.
Misread three: treating ineligible as permanent. Many ineligible results are conditionally ineligible, meaning a waiting period has not yet elapsed. The screener tells you when to come back.
Practical next steps
Step one: sign in at https://lawsens.ai/dashboard and open the Record Clearing screener.
Step one and a half: if you are in a top-15 state, the rule set is DB-backed and the result will be specific. If you are in a territory, the result will include a coverage note.
Step two: complete the intake at https://lawsens.ai/record-clearing. Have the conviction date and the supervision completion date ready.
Step three: review the result, name the relief path, and either request attorney support through the Criminal Defense attorney match or take the packet to the court of conviction.
How the Record Clearing screener connects to the rest of LawSensai
The screener is the relief-side counterpart to the Criminal Defense Command Center. Many users move from defense to record clearing once their case is closed and the waiting period elapses. The screener hands off to Smart Legal Documents when the petition needs attorney-drafted modifications. It shares the Brain audit log with every other LawSensai product. The sibling consumer surfaces are the Criminal Defense Command Center, the Family Law Center, the Personal Injury Recovery Center, and EasySuit.
LawSensai provides legal information, document organization, and attorney matching. It is not a law firm and it does not replace advice from a criminal defense attorney. This post is informational. It is not legal advice.
Information shared with LawSensai before an attorney has accepted a Kovel agency designation is not protected by attorney-client privilege.
Read more
- Record Clearing screener: eligibility check
- Trust Center for Record Clearing: coverage and safety stats
- Criminal Defense Command Center: defense workspace
- Trust Center for Criminal Defense: audit posture
- Dashboard entry point: sign in
- National Inventory of Collateral Consequences of Conviction: authoritative reference
Last verified: 2026-04-09.