Niquana Wilson is a 44 year old mother of two daughters and a grandmother to five grandchildren, yet her life was put on pause when, in 2019, Wilson was in a relationship that led her to have a record. Wilson’s field of work is focused on healthcare and childcare services, so extensive backgrounds checks are routine.
Wilson faced difficulty when it came to employment due to the nature of the background checks and requirements within her field. Since then, Wilson has not only freed herself from her unhealthy relationship, but also freed her name from charges, giving her back the power and the credibility that was once taken from her with some help from LegalWorks.
Q: What were the biggest challenges you were facing before expungement? Were there any specific doors that you felt were closed off to you due to your record?
A: Employment, of course, and background checks; since I am working with children and the elderly patients, background checks were the biggest challenge. I was facing violation of protection order, criminal damage and disorderly conduct.
I was was going through a bad breakup and I was in several different courtrooms following that relationship. I still had a lot of guilt, shame and embarrassment from those pending charges.
Q: How did you first hear about LegalWorks and what made you want to reach out?
A: I first heard about LegalWorks when they brought their expungement clinic to the Hough neighborhood. I found LegalWorks through a flyer and a councilman, who was campaigning at the time.
Q: What did the overall expungement process look like for you?
A: [The expungement process] was a little overwhelming at first. When you first get there [LegalWorks] had an order where they were taking numbers and then had you to fill out information. I felt like they worked together efficiently and they got things done.
When I got there, I filled out paperwork, I paid [the fee], I had a court appearance — given either by email, phone or text messages — within a month or so, and we began the expungement process. Right away, they told me what was eligible to be expunged, and we just got right to work.
Q: Is there a moment that you feel like things started to change? Can you describe that moment?
A: The moment was when I did my first court appearance for the expungement and Mr. James Levin showed up by my side. He was successful in that initial appearance, and from that moment it was just a trickle effect with the other cases.
He was able to see what I was going through with my ex-partner, and the difficulties that occurred as a result, so he advocated and spoke with the judges on my behalf to get the expungement set. I’ve been able to gain employment with ease, without having to wait for a long period of background checks, as well as gain some clarity and have my name cleared.
Q: What message would you give to someone who’s in the same place as you were before expungement?
A: Don’t even hesitate to think about it: just go through the process. Start right away! Do whatever they ask you to do, whenever they ask you to comply with as far as coming down, make an appointment, filling out paperwork, whatever. It really wasn’t that complicated or hard at all.
Q: If you could talk to policy makers or the public, what would you want them to understand about people with records?
A: I would say that literally, some people are legitimately fighting for their names — their good names — and they really haven’t done anything. Once, an attorney that I was working with, explained to me that when you are in the system, you have to fight your way out of it to clear your name, and that shouldn’t be the case. O
Once you’re not found guilty of something, it shouldn’t even touch your record at all, and it shouldn’t even touch your record prior to you being found guilty of anything. The laws need to change in regard to how police reports are made.
I think that it is most important to examine how police reports are made when it comes to relationships, domestic violence situations and things of that nature.
Q: What is one word that you’d use to describe your experience with legal works?
A: Liberating!
