– The St. Martinville City Council granted a waiver of its rental fees for the Sterling Alexander Center at Adam Carlson Park for an expungement clinic to be held in August.
Kevin Dalcourt of the Justice Reform Initiative said his group provides the clinic at no cost to participants to help them prepare documents and go through the expungement process, which is the process of legally sealing a record of arrest or conviction from public access. Once expunged, the record is generally removed from background checks and is no longer considered a public record, though it is not completely destroyed and remains accessible to law enforcement agencies.
“Expungement is one of the most effective tools for providing public safety, increasing employment and strengthening families,” Dalcourt said. “A single cleared record can open the doors to jobs, housing, education and stability.”
The Justice Reform Initiative has held such clinics in Lafayette and Opelousas recently and prepared more than 400 expungement motions statewide in the last year. The organization prepared 60 expungement motions at its Lafayette clinic last year and 189 after the clinic. Forty-five were prepared at the Opelousas clinic, which was during January’s freezing weather. The post clinic total was 101 motions prepared.
Expungement
Dalcourt said the group would expect 50 to 100 people from the St. Martinville area to attend the August clinic.
“Each person represents a family that is trying to move forward,” he said.
Justice Reform Initiative collaborates with several groups for the clinics. The Opelousas clinic included representatives of the group’s national partner, Clean Slate Initiative; Innocence and Justice Louisiana, formerly The Innocence Project, which provided legal insight; Wider Circle; Voices of the Experience (VOTE), a grassroots organization founded and run by formerly incarcerated people and their families and allies that supports civic engagement and re-entry resources; and All4One Foundation, which provides community outreach and support.
Dalcourt said the wide range of collaborating groups shows the initiative provides multiple layers of support for legal, social and basic needs to help residents move forward.
The clinic organizers will speak to the local bar association to ask for local attorneys to volunteer to help with the clinic, either before the clinic, after the clinic or during the clinic. Those attorneys can receive Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits for their work. A volunteer attorney from New Orleans will lead the legal team for the clinic, and a team of paralegals has been set up for the clinic.
While the services provided by the expungement clinic participants is free, filing the paperwork with the Clerk of Court’s office will require a $550 fee per expungement. The law allows for the District Attorney to sign a waiver of the costs in some cases. In other cases, financial hardship paperwork can be filed with the expungement paperwork and the judge can grant or deny a request for the person not to have to pay the fee.
Dalcourt said the team screens applicants for expungement before the clinic to ensure that they are eligible to have their record expunged.
There is a deadline to turn in paperwork but those who miss the deadline can attend the clinic and have the work done after the clinic.
Once the paperwork is filed, it goes out to the State Police, the local sheriff and the arresting agency, which have the right to object to expungement for various reasons. If there are no objections, the paperwork then goes to a judge to sign it.
While the expunged record is sealed from being viewed by most private employers, housing agents and the general public, law enforcement agencies still have access. Boards such as nursing boards or teaching boards can see the record and see that it is expunged, and ask the person about the charge and the rehabilitation process but cannot discriminate based on the record.
Josh Edmond of the All4One Foundation, said he became aware of the need for people to go through the expungement process while running for a seat on the Lafayette Parish School Board, where he serves as the District 3 representative.
“We noticed right away in Lafayette that the need was great,” he said.
Giving someone the ability to go to nursing school or truck driving school after having their record expunged impacts not only that person but also their family members, giving children good role models, he noted.
The council approved waiving the rental fee and approved having the mayor and council listed as partners for the clinic. The clinic is planned for 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on Aug. 1.
