Students will help people determine eligibility and prepare paperwork to file petitions to expunge criminal records or obtain orders of nondisclosure of criminal records. Expunging records allows people to legally deny offenses and erases records from criminal histories, mitigating future harm stemming from arrests that do not result in a criminal conviction. Orders of Nondisclosure direct police departments and other agencies to not disclose criminal records on background checks, and allow a person to not disclose offenses on applications for housing or employment. At the Day of Service 2016, students may sign up to conduct expunction clinic intake interviews or to assist applicants on a one-day expunction “fast track,” which the Expunction Project will be piloting for the first time. Students who work with applicants on the “fast track” will conduct intake interviews, prepare petitions, prepare applications for waiver of filing fees, review completed petitions, and give filing instructions through a single-day process.
Organization
Educational Equity Project, Mithoff Pro Bono Program
The Expunction Project is an internal project of the Richard and Ginni Mithoff Pro Bono Program’s Educational Equity Project.
Project Details
- Project Date
Saturday February 27
- Project Time
- 8:30am-4:00pm
- Approximate hours of work requested
- 3-9.5 hours
- Training
- Students who have not previously volunteered for an expunction clinic must attend a 2 hour training on Monday, February 22, 5pm-7pm, (Room TBD) or on Thursday, February 25, 2:15pm-3:15pm, CCJ 1.324; returning expunction clinic volunteers to not need to attend training
- Skills used
- Client interviewing; document preparation/review
- Project location
- Travis County Law Library, 314 W. 11th Street
- Address
- 727 E. Dean Keeton Street, Austin, TX 78705
- Number of student volunteers requested
- 40
- Class year preference
- 1L, 2L, 3L, LLM
- Required skills
- Language: Spanish helpful but not necessary
- To Apply
- Submit email stating interest to Sarah Sedgwick at ssedgwick@law.utexas.edu; please indicate which shift you would like to attend (students who volunteer to work with a client through a complete “fast track” cycle will receive preference for “fast track” shifts) and whether you are a returning volunteer