Filling Out A Job Application When You Have a Criminal Record
One advantage of hiring a criminal defense attorney is that the attorney may discover ways to have your case dismissed or some type of plea bargain where the case may be expunged. One issue that comes up is how to answer a job application. My short answer is truthfully. Two potential lawyers who were denied admission to the Georgia bar found out the hard way.
It appears they denied any criminal convictions on their law school admission application. However , they admitted the convictions on their applications to take the bar exam. The State of Georgia denied them a law license.
The lesson is to always disclose a criminal conviction anytime the application asks for that information . In the age of the Internet , a few keystrokes can reveal your entire background in minutes. For college students , fight the case from the start. Don't go to court alone . The government has a lawyer . You should too.One word of advice from my grandmother , " The truth never blushes'.
Rob, you might add that when an employer, school, etc., pays for a background check those companies (and former cops) who perform that service will find the original charge and NOT the disposition. If one has been granted judicial diversion, for example, and all "public records" expunged, that does not apply to "administrative records" which remain forever. So, if an applicant says - truthfully in the eyes of the law - no prior criminal history and the charge is discovered that person will be accused of either being untruthful or out right lying. The appropriate answer is that there was a charged but it was dismissed and expunged after satisfying the court's conditions. I can't tell you the gazillions of letters I wrote on behalf of clients who had being granted judicial or pre-trial diversion. Thanks to the mental giants in the legislature, pre-trial diversion may not be the issue it once was.