An arrest is not a conviction. Search results do not make that distinction.
Most people who contact us about an arrest record were never convicted of anything. Charges were dropped, the case was dismissed, or it went to court and they were acquitted. None of that stops the arrest listing from sitting near the top of their name for years afterwards, usually with no mention of how the case ended.
Employers, landlords and clients do not read to the end. They see an arrest, they move on to the next candidate, and you never find out that was the reason. That is the actual cost of leaving it up, and it is why the outcome of the case is the first thing we ask about.
Arrest records live in three different places
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The official record
County sheriff and jail sites, court dockets and state repositories. These are the hardest to touch because public records law often requires them to be published, but they are also the source everything else was copied from.
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Aggregators and background check sites
Private companies that scrape official records and republish them, usually with an SEO operation behind them so their page outranks everything else for your name. This is where most of the damage is, and it is also where most of the removals happen.
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News and arrest blotters
Local outlets that publish arrest roundups. These are real publishers with editorial standards, which means the argument is completely different: you are asking for an update or an unpublish, not filing a removal request.
Background check sites are their own fight
The sites that resell arrest data mostly claim they are not consumer reporting agencies, which is how they avoid the rules that would otherwise apply to them. That claim is worth testing. Where a site is genuinely being used for employment or tenancy screening, the Fair Credit Reporting Act sets limits on reporting arrests that never led to a conviction, and pointing that out changes the conversation quickly.
Most of these sites also run opt-out processes that they do not advertise and do not make easy. They expire, they need to be repeated, and removing yourself from one company’s site often does nothing about the four other brands that company operates. We work through them properly and keep checking, which is the part people cannot realistically do themselves.
What we can get removed
Usually removable
- Aggregator and background check listings
- Data broker profiles built around the arrest
- Records where charges were dropped or dismissed
- Records from cases that were expunged or sealed
- Pages carrying your address, employer or family details
- Duplicate listings across a company’s multiple brands
Harder or not possible
- The county or state record itself
- Court dockets held by the court
- Accurate reporting by a legitimate news outlet
- Convictions that remain on your record
- Anything a public records statute requires to stay public
If the case was dismissed, dropped, expunged or sealed, say so early. It moves items from the right column to the left.
What arrest record removal costs
Quoted per case, based on how many sites are carrying the record and whether background check networks are involved. Somebody with three aggregator listings and somebody whose record has been picked up by a dozen data brokers are not the same job.
Nothing is payable up front, and on removals nothing is payable until the listing is gone. If part of your case is suppression rather than removal, we will price and explain that separately rather than folding it in.
How we remove an arrest record
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We map every listing
Aggregators, data brokers, news, and the official source. Clients usually know about two or three of these. The full list is normally longer.
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We confirm the outcome of the case
Dismissal, acquittal, expungement or sealing is the strongest lever available, and it needs to be documented before we start filing rather than halfway through.
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We work the aggregators
Each network gets its own route: the opt-out that actually functions, the legal argument that applies, or a letter from our legal team where neither is working.
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We clear the search results
A removed page can keep appearing in Google until the listing is de-indexed. That is a separate request and it is the step most people never make.
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We keep checking
Data brokers refresh from public sources. Records that were removed have a habit of returning under a new brand, and we watch for it.
Choosing an arrest record removal service
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They ask how the case ended first
Any company that quotes you before asking whether you were convicted is not going to use the strongest argument you have.
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They know the networks
A handful of companies operate most of the background check sites under many different names. Removing yourself from one brand at a time is a treadmill.
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They do not promise the court record
Nobody deletes a court docket by asking nicely. Promising it means they have not understood the case or they are hoping you will not check.
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They monitor afterwards
Removal without monitoring is temporary on this kind of record, because the sources get re-scraped.
If the record cannot be removed
Where an official record has to stay published, the work becomes making sure it is not what people find. Most searches never go past the first page, so the objective is that your name returns your professional profiles, your own site and your accounts rather than a booking entry from a case that was dropped.
If there is a booking photo attached to the arrest as well, that is handled differently and usually more successfully. See mugshot removal for how that side works.