What does it mean to “seal” a juvenile record?
A record only can be “sealed” three years after a person has finished serving his or her sentence for a crime. Sealing removes the record from the main record file and secures it in a separate file available only to a restricted group of readers. Sealed juvenile records can still be used by judges in later criminal cases against the same person, even after the person becomes an adult. If the police or a court asks about the record of a person whose record has been sealed, they are told that the person has a “sealed delinquency record over 3 years old.” All other people that ask about the record are told that the person has “no record.” What does it mean to “expunge” a record? Expunging a record destroys the record entirely. Juvenile records cannot be expunged in Massachusetts, although several other states do allow some form of expunging. A few states do not allow courts to seal or expunge records at all. How can I seal a juvenile record? A person with a juvenile record must wait three
