Getting Restraining Order Expunged

[spk15]

My question involves expungements or pardons for the state of: California.

I had a restraining order filed against me by an exgirlfriend in Nov of 2007. I fought it since but I could not prove that I had not done the things that she accused me of i.e. driving past her house, the judge ordered a non-clets restraining order for one year. My problem is that I am trying to get into the fire department and aside from this I am never been in trouble with the law. I have contacted a lawyer but he told me that since I did not violate the restraining order and that there was no conviction that it would be hard to expunge a record of a restraining order. I have attempted to go to court to fill out paperwork for a expungement they sent me to the supercourt website, but when I went online there were no forms for an expungement for my particular case. Could anyone point me in the right direction or tell me how I could solve my problem any and all suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

[aardvarc]

Part of the problem you're facing is that the RO is a civil order of a court - not a criminal conviction (it only becomes a criminal matter if the order is violated), so there's nothing TO expunge. If your worry is that it would show up on a typical criminal history check, it shouldn't. Most employers are looking for an arrest history. Of course since you're talking about a position of public trust, it's possible that they would find the order as part of a deeper background investigation (police employees and firefighters get more scrutiny). In other words, most "automated" employment screening processes wouldn't see it - more in depth ones done by actual persons, might. Even if found, it shouldn't play into screening you out since most public civil positions are based on either actual convictions or incidents that involve things like perjury or moral turpitude (or for firefighters drug-related or theft charges since they have access to people's homes and belongings, etc.). Anyone can have a restraining order placed against them and HR people "get it".

Since it's a non-CLETS order, someone would really have to go extra steps to find it.

[spk15]

Thank you for the reply the problem is that it is getting in the way I just applied to be a volunteer with the police department in my area and they denied me. this is not the first time that I have applied to the fire/police and have been denied. So i know that the RO is the reason. I have no other legal problems besides this just a couple of traffic tickets (no dui, no exsessive speeding etc)paid long ago the last ticket I got was over 7 years ago. So the RO has to be the reason. I have paid a lawyer $1500 to try and see if he could resolve the matter and he said the samething you did since the order was not violated there is nothing to expunge. This thing is killing me.

[aardvarc]

Until either you go back to court and successfully argue to have the order vacated, or the order expires on its own, you should stop applying for such positions anywhere. Once you've applied, that department or agency will have a file on you and even if or when the order goes away, they'll still be aware that there was one. For such positions they simply can't take the chance, even if you are 100% clean and the order is based on something bogus. So once they know about it, they can't "un-know" about it later and your odds of being welcomed into either a volunteer or paid position dry up.

Another possibility is that if the police were EVER called on you (like by this ex girlfriend), even if there was no official report or arrest, it WILL be part of the CAD record and that's the very FIRST place any law enforcement agency is going to look for info about you. They can put in your name or address and find each and every contact you've ever had - either as a witness, a complaintant, or a party to some problem, or anything that happened at your address (even if you weren't there at the time) - from every time you've called 911 to report an accident, to every complaint of a loud party at your home, or a verbal fight, or anything else where your name shows up for any reason. If the ex called the police to solve some conflict between you two, even that COULD be enough. Law enforcement positions (even for civilians) are among the hardest to get for exactly these reasons - they can't justify putting people in positions to help others resolve conflict when they can see a documented history of not being able to manage their OWN conflicts.

[spk15]

Thank you for the information. The RO expired in Dec 2007 so I thought I was safe in applying for the civilian position now. As I stated earlier I have never been in trouble with the law except for a few tickets, all paid nothing execessive ie dui or excessive speeding. What is the procedure I need to go through in order to have the RO vacated and tell my side of the story to a judge. My exgirlfriend and I never had a problem that needed police involve ment nor have I had the police called about me at anytime in my life, so my name should not should up on any CAD system. Please if you could supply some information that would help me start the process of getting the RO vacated. What paperwork do I need to fill out? What is the process I need to go through. I have already hired an attorney and he is trying to have the RO expunged but since I did not violate the RO and there was no conviction he said it would be hard to get it expunged.