5 ms·

How does it have access to sealed court records? I thought the whole point of "sealed" meant that the contents of the case were off-limits to the public for an

How does it have access to sealed court records? I thought the whole point of "sealed" meant that the contents of the case were off-limits to the public for any and all reasons

vorticalbox 3y ago
In this case they are probably just keeping a record of the fact you have a sealed record.
droopyEyelids 3y ago
They are off limit to the public, but if at one time they werent then lexis scooped them up.
anigbrowl 3y ago
Little stays sealed for ever, and sealed documents are often mistakenly filed openly. IF you're in the data collection/scavenging business it's not that hard to get hold of stuff that wasn't meant to be circulated.
phil21 3y ago
Most cases are not sealed from the outset - so anything already out there is indexed forever, regardless of current legal status. This was the case at least when I looked into in ~20 years ago. There simply was no point in following the expungement process since all the usefulness of it was already gone due to the records existing in private databases.
- droopyEyelids 3y ago
  Expungement is still useful (though less useful) because the record can no longer be used as a part of the legal process.
nonameiguess 3y ago
All they had to do was scrape public records before they were sealed or expunged. When a record is sealed or expunged, that only means the court stops publishing it or deletes their record. Anyone who retrieved it before that doesn't have to give it back and nobody's memory gets wiped.
- jameshart 3y ago
  But the court also can’t confirm the veracity of the claimed record. Anyone can say ‘there was a record of nonameiguess being charged with this crime in this court on this date but it’s since been expunged’. Okay, but you’re not that court, and the official records don’t exist so… what good does it do?
  - pixl97 3y ago
    LN: "Sorry you don't get a house|job|whatever" You: "Um, why not?" LN: "That's our secret" Course you won't even know LN is even involved in the loop. You're being judged in a court of opinion with no recourse.

How does it have access to sealed court records? I thought the whole point of "sealed" meant that the contents of the case were off-limits to the public for any and all reasons

vorticalbox 3y ago

In this case they are probably just keeping a record of the fact you have a sealed record.

droopyEyelids 3y ago

They are off limit to the public, but if at one time they werent then lexis scooped them up.

anigbrowl 3y ago

Little stays sealed for ever, and sealed documents are often mistakenly filed openly. IF you're in the data collection/scavenging business it's not that hard to get hold of stuff that wasn't meant to be circulated.

phil21 3y ago

Most cases are not sealed from the outset - so anything already out there is indexed forever, regardless of current legal status. This was the case at least when I looked into in ~20 years ago. There simply was no point in following the expungement process since all the usefulness of it was already gone due to the records existing in private databases.

droopyEyelids 3y ago
Expungement is still useful (though less useful) because the record can no longer be used as a part of the legal process.

nonameiguess 3y ago

All they had to do was scrape public records before they were sealed or expunged. When a record is sealed or expunged, that only means the court stops publishing it or deletes their record. Anyone who retrieved it before that doesn't have to give it back and nobody's memory gets wiped.

jameshart 3y ago
But the court also can’t confirm the veracity of the claimed record. Anyone can say ‘there was a record of nonameiguess being charged with this crime in this court on this date but it’s since been expunged’. Okay, but you’re not that court, and the official records don’t exist so… what good does it do?
- pixl97 3y ago
  LN: "Sorry you don't get a house|job|whatever" You: "Um, why not?" LN: "That's our secret" Course you won't even know LN is even involved in the loop. You're being judged in a court of opinion with no recourse.