Expunge your criminal record online with ClearMyRecord.com

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

It happens to the best of us: You go to apply for a job and the interviewer brings up that time (or times) you were arrested for urinating on some guy’s doorstep. And then you don’t get the job because many employers just aren’t sure about hiring someone with a criminal record, even if it’s for a misdemeanor such as getting caught with a small amount of marijuana in your car (it wasn’t yours, you swear).

But now, with as we enter prime season for presidential pardons, a company in Lexington, Kentucky, can help all you ex-criminals out there begin the process of clearing your record with just a few mouse clicks.

ClearMyRecord.com has used the Internet to help 15,000 people with a criminal record apply for clemency, have their record expunged or even get a presidential pardon. Now it’s automating the service, allowing you to quickly find out if you’re eligible for an expungement or clemency and apply. The service will then ...

... tell you where and how to file the forms. ‘We’re the Turbo Tax for getting your record cleared,’ said Brian Poe, the company’s chief executive and the author of ‘A Guide to Expungements and Pardons.’

The cost? A flat fee of $199 for each state in which you’re looking to clear your record. That may seem steep, but it’s less expensive than a lawyer or a high-tech prison escape plan involving tanks or explosives or nail files baked into cakes.

But really, can you put a price on freedom? No, Poe says. ‘People who have already served their time -- it’s like a life sentence,’ he said. ‘They can’t get a job because of their record.’

They get better jobs when their record is cleared, he said. About 75 million people are eligible for some sort of relief such as record sealing or clemency, he said.

They can definitely get better jobs if they’re not in prison anymore. ClearMyRecord.com helped one person get a federal pardon from President Bush this year. Poe said there are dozens more pardon applications from ClearMyRecord.com sitting on the president’s desk.

-- Alana Semuels