Weeks or months after you return home from the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, an arrest from the trip may appear when you apply for a job or housing. South Dakota makes public criminal court information available through its Unified Judicial System. That record can also appear on background checks requested by employers or landlords in your home state.
If your case was dismissed or ended without a conviction, seeing the arrest on a background report can be frustrating. However, you may have ways to check the record, correct mistakes or ask the court to seal eligible arrest records.
Check what the background report says
Get a copy of the background report that raised the concern. Compare the charge, case status and outcome with state court records or your criminal history from the Division of Criminal Investigation.
Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), you generally have the right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information reported by a background-check company. Keep court documents showing how your case ended so you can support the dispute.
Find out whether your arrest may qualify for expungement
In South Dakota, expungement primarily seals court and agency records from public access and restores you, under the law, to your status before the arrest. Under state law, you may seek expungement:
- One year after an arrest if no charging document was filed
- One year after the prosecutor formally dismissed the entire case
- At any time after an acquittal
- Within one year after the prosecutor dismissed the entire case if you can show a compelling necessity
These expungement provisions generally apply when an arrest does not result in a conviction. State record-clearing rules also remove certain charges or convictions involving petty offenses, municipal ordinance violations and Class 2 misdemeanors from the public record after five years if you complete all court-ordered conditions and have no further convictions during that period.
Take steps before your next background check
If your arrest may qualify, South Dakota courts provide forms for filing a motion for expungement. You can also gather your case records and confirm that public records show the correct outcome.
Know what your record actually shows
The right response depends on more than the fact of your arrest. How the case ended and what appears in official records can determine which options are available. Legal guidance can help you distinguish between information that may qualify for expungement and information you need to correct, so you can address the right issue instead of assuming every background-check problem has the same solution.