Fix professional licensing issues - Several months ago I was contacted by a woman who applied for a licensed professional counselor (LPC) license. As with most license application forms, it included a criminal history question. She answered "no" when the correct answer was "yes". The state licensing board accused Martha of providing “false, misleading statements” on her application.
Read MoreIllinois Clemency - From January through November 20, 2020, Gov. Pritzker granted 38 commutation requests. In 2019, the governor commuted one prison sentence. Based on available clemency denial information (through October 12, 2020), Pritzker approved roughly one-third of the commutation requests reviewed. News reports of Gov. Pritzker’s commutations first surfaced in April after he’d commuted a dozen prison sentences. Seven (7) of those commutations involved convictions for murder. All told, the governor commuted seventeen (17) murder convictions and fourteen (14) life sentences (not all involved murder convictions).
Read MoreWhen Illinois legalized small amounts of cannabis last year it, in effect, invalidated a handful of misdemeanor and felony cannabis convictions. That said, individuals still need to ask a court to vacate and expunge their cases.
Even though this benefit contained in the cannabis law received much publicity in the months leading up to its effective date (Jan. 1, 2020), to date few people have had their convictions vacated and expunged -- setting aside those low-level misdemeanor convictions that have been pardoned by Governor Pritzker.
Read MoreIn the year since Illinois legalized small amounts of cannabis, a lot has been written about provisions in the law giving people convicted of certain cannabis crimes a chance to petition a court to vacate and expunge their convictions.
What these news stories usually neglect to discuss is that for those who are not U.S. citizens, the immigration relief they’re hoping to get (by vacating these convictions) may not exist.
Read MoreHow to Expunge a Criminal Record in Illinois - the process of expunging a criminal record in Illinois is relatively simple. Sadly, there are still many people who have yet to do it. Once someone realizes s/he should (or can) expunge their criminal record the next step is figuring out what criminal records can be expunged.
Read MoreEmployment Criminal Background Check Illinois. While some employers will hire someone with a criminal background, I can’t think of any employer (given today’s prevalence of performing pre-hire criminal background checks) willing to hire someone after learning that s/he lied about their criminal background.
Read More