Benefits Of Expungement & Clemency For Insurance

The fact is insurance companies are not fair. If they were, they would probably go out of business. Insurance companies are in the business of assessing risk. The greater a risk they think a person poses in the area where they offer protection, the higher your premiums will be. Overweight people will pay more for health and life insurance, bad drivers will pay more for auto insurance.

If you have been convicted of a crime, you may expect to pay more for a variety of different types of insurance. Insurance companies are looking for people who are responsible, and a criminal conviction is a bright red flag signaling a tendency towards irresponsible behavior. This means you may have to pay higher premiums for your insurance or you may even be denied insurance entirely. If asked, you cannot deny that you have a criminal conviction, so this is a problem that could follow you whenever you try to get insurance for anything.

Some people may wonder if clemency is a solution. Clemency is a type of forgiveness of your conviction, most commonly in the form of a pardon. If you are pardoned, it goes on the record that you have been forgiven for your crime and are subject to no further penalties. However, insurance companies are not obligated to abide by this decision and are still free to discriminate against you based on your past, which will still be a matter of public record. In addition, clemency is very difficult to get. You can only get it by petitioning the president (for a federal offense) or the governor or state clemency or parole board (for a state offense) or by having a petition drawn up on your behalf. The governing entity must then choose your petition to accept for you to receive your pardon.

Expungement may be a much better option when looking for a way to keep your past criminal record from insurance companies. Expungement is effectively a way to erase criminal records. When your record is expunged, it is gone. There is nothing for insurance companies to find. Even sealing criminal records can do the job. If your criminal record is sealed, no one can access it without a court order. You can fail to acknowledge it on applications and if someone checks with the appropriate agency they will be told that they have no record of a conviction. This will make it difficult if not impossible for insurance companies to boost your rates based on your past.

In many cases, obtaining an expungement or a sealed record can actually be easier than getting clemency. You do not need the president or the governor to approve an expungement. Expungement is a determination made by a judge. What you will need to do is fill out the proper paperwork and correctly complete an application for expungement. You don't need a lawyer for this. ClearUpMyRecord.com can help. Sign up for an account with ClearUpMyRecord.com.com and you can get all the forms you need added to your account for easy download, in addition to specific instructions on how to fill out the application and where to send it. Once that's done, just wait to hear from the court. You may have to appear to defend your petition, and not all convictions qualify for expungement, but if the judge rules in your favor, you can move on with your life as if the conviction never happened.