My friend, you are exactly right and good catch
[QUOTE=TooDrunkToFuk;3686167]Note also, Sealing is only available of you were not adjudicated guilty. Must be withheld adjudication or dropped or found Not guilty.[/QUOTE]I try to remember as much as possible but this is why the collective minds is so integral on this site. In order to get a record sealed, you cannot be convicted of the crime. You must enter a plea of either nolo contendere or not guilty. The judge can essentially withhold adjudication and allow you to plead no contest. Then you can proceed with sealing. Even if you did enter a plea of guilty and you were subsequently convicted, your lawyer can still come back later and get the judge to withhold adjudication and allow you to plead no contest or not guilty.
Something else I forgot to mention. Once you are arrested, that criminal record is now in the hands of the sheriff's office, the prosecutor's office, and the courts. Now here is where it gets interesting, so please, LISTEN UP! You know how the credit bureau or your phone company can sell your personal data and make mega bucks? Well, the courts do the same thing. They sell your data to various mom and pop shop, so to speak, background check companies or third party background check companies. So you might say, "what are the implications for this?" If you delay in getting the record sealed and these third party companies get ahold of your information, not only do the 3 agencies I mentioned have that info, but several hundred third party companies have it too. It would be easy to seal the record and ensure no one else has it as long as the 3 agencies ALONE have it but once the third party entities get ahold of it, now you have to hunt down just about all of them to let them know you want your name removed from their database- quite the arduous task! Of course, in order to do this, you have to present the court order wherein the record was sealed.
If the job you're seeking does a background check directly from the court that has your record (which is now sealed, for instance), then you're fine (again, as long as it is sealed). However, if a corporation where you're seeking employment uses one of those third party joints, the ones who purchased your record, then you're phucked! So what does this mean? It means do not delay; do not procrastinate; do not wait to have that record sealed ASAP before the third party folks purchase your record. Otherwise, it can be a disaster.