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BYU Law Students Develop Web Resource To Address Flaws In Expungement Process

Bob Ambrogi

Eight students in the LawX legal design lab at BYU Law have developed an online resource, called Goodbye Record, that is designed to address flaws in the process for expunging criminal records in Utah and potentially other states as well.

I’ve written a number of times about LawX, a lab program launched in 2017 in which law students use design thinking to analyze and address critical issues in access to justice. In each semester-long lab, the students tackle a different issue.

Previous LawX projects have resulted in the development of SoloSuit, to help consumers respond to debt collection lawsuits, and which spun off as a private company, and Hello Landlord, designed to help tenants more effectively communicate with their landlords about issues that can lead to eviction.

In an interview yesterday, Marie Kulbeth, one of three adjunct professors who led the lab this semester, and Tanner Schenewark, a 2021 graduate who participated in it (and who will now join Clifford Chance in its New York office), told me that they chose expungement as their topic this year in part because of BYU Law’s past experience offering a Pro Bono Expungement Clinic.

The students initially planned to develop an app to help individuals apply for expungement. But as they investigated the issue as part of the design-thinking process, they found the bigger problem was that expungement often failed to result in the fresh start it was designed to provide.

They found that flaws in the system and outdated online information often make it difficult to fully erase a criminal past, even after obtaining expungement, resulting in online remnants that show up in background checks and often prevent individuals from obtaining housing or employment.

Given these findings, the students abandoned the app idea and instead built an online resource that addresses three main constituencies that can play a role in helping to ensure second chances for those who have had their records expunged: employers, individuals and governments.

“The idea is really to provide an electronic toolkit for the problem,” Schenewark said.

The employer component, which Goodbye Record calls the partner component, is directed at employers and invites them to take the Fair Shot Pledge to implement and support a series of measures to help reduce instances of misreporting, thus giving qualified individuals a fair shot at employment. Companies that take the pledge may display their corporate logo on the Goodbye Record website to let potential employees know they support individuals seeking a fresh start.

The individual component informs people on how to navigate post-expungement roadblocks, including how to report violations to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department pf Housing and Urban Development, and how to communicate with the expungement clearinghouse to help background-check companies remove expunged records from commercial databases.

Currently in Utah, individual petitioners are responsible for reaching out to all the different agencies to make sure their records are expunged. This cannot be done electronically and often requires individuals to take time away from their work or job searches.

The government component addresses potential legislative and administrative solutions, including ways states and courts can improve the final step of expungement, limit access points and require commercial data subscribers to update their databases.

One solution the students developed to address the government component is improved contract language between governments and data subscribers. The students found that courts and government agencies have contracts with public records companies to regularly provide criminal data, and that those companies often resell their data even further downsteam. But when expungements are granted, the companies do not always update their data, so criminal records still appear in online databases and in criminal records checks.

The students developed contractual language for governments to use with these companies that does two things. First, it requires the companies to regularly update their databases to reflect expungements. Second, it provides an audit procedure to ensure that companies comply.

The students are also pushing for states to adopt legislation to shift the burden of distributing expungement orders from the individuals who are granted expungement to the agencies that maintain these records.

Earlier this month, the LawX students presented their findings to the Utah Supreme Court and Utah’s Administrative Office of the Courts. As a result, the Administrative Office has committed to amending its Compiled Data Dissemination Agreement to incorporate the students’ language.

It is also considering backing the legislation that would shift the burden of distributing expungement orders from individual petitioners to the Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification, which would be authorized to electronically request that other state agencies remove expunged information from their records.

While the students’ efforts have so far focused on Utah, they designed Goodbye Record to be a national resource and they plan to take their lobbying efforts to other states now that this has been launched.

In addition to Kulbeth, who is also COO and general counsel at SixFifty, the lab was also led by adjunct professors Eric Vogeler, general counsel and CCO at Genesis Block, and Justin Whittaker, principal at Invisible Co., who shared his expertise in product and business development and design thinking.

The lab also consulted with Utah Supreme Court Justice Constandinos “Deno” Himonas, known nationally for his role in developing Utah’s regulatory sandbox.

“I am really excited about this project,” Himonas said in a statement provided by LawX. “It is such a powerful example of design thinking and application. Rather than trying to replicate other efforts, LawX studied the space and sought to understand what the real choke points are to create some really innovative approaches to the expungement process.”

Given that Schenewark is now headed off to begin a career as an associate in the transactional group at Clifford Chance, I asked him if he thought his LawX work on a criminal justice problem contributed anything to his future career.

As it turned out, it was his summer associate position at Clifford Chance, a firm known for innovation and where he had the opportunity to work with the legal automation startup Josef, that whet his appetite for legal tech and led him to enroll in LawX.

Working through the design-thinking process in LawX showed him how complex legal problems can be and how many moving parts must be managed to address them, he said.

“When you’re able to come up with a solution that’s elegant and effective, I think that was a huge outcome,” he said. “I hope that I’ll take that forward in my career.”

Kulbeth pointed to something else the students learn. BYU Law seeks to instill in students not just a sense of justice, but also of mercy, she said, and expungement is one aspect of the criminal justice system that truly implicates mercy.

The person granted expungement has done their time, completed any probation, paid any fines, and now wants a chance to live their life and be part of their community.

“To me, that’s the meaning behind the project,” Kulbeth said. “We can’t have a perfect justice system. We know we don’t have one. So we have to have a way for mercy to be incorporated into the system.”

"Ditat Deus" - God Enriches - Visiting Arizona

District Track Meet

 

With All My Love

Dear Elder Schenewark,

So sad we missed your phone call last week. I was lifting boulders of bags off your grandmother's deck, and your father was in class.  We'll be looking forward to reconnecting this week.

Your grandmother's stove, that is fed wood pellets, was broken this winter because her pellets, stacked on the deck, absorbed moisture. The increased size of the pellet clogged the feeder and burned out the engine. Or something like that. Because the bag of pellets is about the cost of a bag of mulch, I asked if I could clear her deck, and spread the pellets around the yard like mulch. Basically the pellets are sawdust reconfigured. I think I moved more than ten but less than twenty bags all over the yard, and then hauled her table and chairs out of the shed so she and Grampy could sit in the sunshine. Aaron and Rachael joined us for a rousing game of Uno, won by Rachael, who wins every game I play with her.

Tuesday morning, while getting ready to leave for the airport, I heard unusual sounds coming from Grampy's room. Upon further investigation we found him with a fever, unresponsive, and his chest rattling with what sounded like pneumonia. He had an incident the night before swallowing his pills, and probably aspirated then. His system is so fragile he developed an infection overnight. We called an ambulance, got your grandmother packed, and off they went to the hospital. I had arranged with Sara to pick us up and drop us off, so we had no problems getting to the airport.

We got off our plane, walked down 12 gates, and waited 5 minutes for Porter's plane to land and deplane. It's so good to see him in person. We were going to go straight to Miller's second day track meet but after checking in with some classmates' parents determined we would not make it in time to see him in his running events so we went home. His relay team qualified by placing in fourth, but his two individual runs were not quick enough.

One of the first things Breyer did when she got home was have me hang her new curtains: rattlesnake skins. We'll take a picture so you can get the full effect of her room. She's very serious about her love of all things animals.

Wednesday Porter took two three hour long economic exams in Dad's library. I ran around trying to get the wash done and the meals planned and started. 

Miller had double header baseball games Thursday evening. I knew I would miss the first game, but laughed when I pulled up to the start of the second game, and your brother Porter was coaching first base.

Also Thursday, Tanner graduated from BYU Law School. What a wonderful milestone in his life. Such a difficult path to trod, and to do it with family and children being born, even more so, and with honors - exceptional. You children make me so proud! And your father's example of continued education has set the bar high.

By Tuesday evening Grampy was classified as combative, so he was restrained and tranquilized. Your grandmother decided that she would spend the night with him Wednesday and he did much better. Uncle Rich covered Thursday night. I'm not sure when he came home but he is home and back to getting in trouble. And on some oxygen. Which makes Grampy Grumpy.

Friday Dad and your siblings went to see Godzilla vs King Kong. It's always interesting to hear them come home from an outing and hear that the culture is talked about more than the movie. Dad wasn't a fan but it was entertaining outing. Wagner and I had a walking date instead.

Here it is Tuesday and I never even thought about finishing your letter or remembering, until you called, that it was your preparation day on Monday. This will be a quick wrap up so I can push the enter button - 

Saturday Janel and Luke came down to see Porter and stay overnight to meet Ingrid and the gang. We always love to have them in town. I know they played outside a lot while I was working - frisbee golf, baseball, basketball...lots of games. Tanner and AnneMarie flew into the airport Sunday just after lunch, picked up by Dad.  

We're excited to hear you've been moved into the office, and that the President shared with you as to how he had been inspired. You're very talented on the computer, and I'm sure being in charge of making and editing movies for the mission is right up your alley. Also, helping them get their social media account on Instagram up and running is a piece of cake.

What impresses me more is the effort you made to make your home a clean one. I appreciate that you're not only willing to work hard, but to raise the bar in terms of your standard of living. Cleanliness is next to Godliness. Your future wife will be a lucky lady to not only have a man who knows how to help in the kitchen, but the house as well.

We love you. We loved talking to you even though the day was not as we expected. Miller getting hurt while on his practice jumps for the long jump, not even getting to compete in the high jump was disappointing to say the least. He's still not sure how he landed so off balance, on one leg, but his left knee is swollen, and he's in pain. He feels even worse about missing today's running event of the 4x100, as his team was a half second off of breaking the school record, and if they ran their fastest time, would have come in second. He's on crutches this morning, and I'm working to make a doctor appointment.

Until next week - 

Love,

Mom

Saturday Night Smores

 

Porter Pops In

 

Bach ByLines

Dear Family:

Can you tell we watched the BYU Law Convocation last night, I only saw it twice, but Sis. B. was doing her Legal Research all night and I think has captured every time a Schenewark was mentioned, or appeared on the screen.  She made a great montage picture of everyone we knew.

To quote a most famous American Lawyer; “Cool, Cool, Cool……….”

We look forward to the next BYU Graduation in 2022 (Porter) and the next BYU Law Graduation in 2023 (Hunter L3, Porter L1) when we get to see 2 more Schenewark brothers in the crowd.  2024 (Cooper) but be careful not to have it at the same time as the Full Eclipse in Texas (April 8th), we’ve got reservations for a tent in the backyard at Darby Dan for that date.  And Porter again from BYU Law in 2025.  But mostly we just look forward to seeing everyone a couple of times this summer and enjoying our time with you.  Elder Cooper, maybe late in the year we come up to San Jose and take you to a nice dinner appointment.

Hunter, feedback for 2023 Graduation photos.  We loved the family photos’ of couples (Tanner & AnneMarie in Sydney were the best), but the one’s with the little children were ever so cute.  1 would be good, we’ll give you extra credit for 2 in the photo, or follow Mimi’s good example, twins not once, but twice.

It was so good to see Mom and Breyer, but we do so miss everyone else, Zoom has been our lifeline.

Love to all,

Bro. B.

 

BYU Law School Graduation

 

Acton Middle School High Jumper Eyes National Record

 

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