Background/fingerprint hold, what to do?

[inlimbo]

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I was supposed to start internship a month ago but was not allowed to, due to a hold on my fingerprint clearance by the department of justice (DOJ). Some background: I've had some legal issue as an adult, but all criminal charges have been dismissed. I've also had a juvenile record, but all charges were droped to a misdemeaner and my juvenile records ordered sealed.

I spoke to someone at the DOJ and they said they are waiting to get the documents from the courts stating the dispositions of my court cases. It's been a month now and I'm still on a hold, and not cleared to work in the hospital. Has anybody had experience with this type of situation before? What was the outcome? Is there anything I can do to expedite my background clearance? What's taking so long, when we live in an age of computers and email? Should I talk to a lawyer, if so which kind? Before starting med school I spoke to a criminal lawyer and he told me since any criminal charges as an adult where dismissed and my juvenile records ordered sealed, that I should be okay to practice medicine. I spoke to my PD and intially he told me that while I was on hold I would just be using up my vacation time, and I thought that the clearance would come soon. But now all my vaction time is exhausted and I have no idea if this is ever going to clear and how long will it take to clear. My PD said that it may cause me to graduate from internship off cycle. How would this affect my specialty res that I'm supposed to start next year? Will I lose my spot for next year?
Would I have to do the match over again, if this thing ever clears?

Can I make a complaint or take legal action against the department of justice for such a delay, that is really jacking up my career, or is this just going to open up a can of whoop ass with me on the losing end. Should I just forget medicine all together and just get a job. I wanted to know if anyone had experience or heard of others with similar problems, and what they did to try and resolve it. I've seriously been depressed this whole time (SIG E CAPS and all), please help.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I can try to answer some of your questions. Your experience demonstrates why an "expunged" record is not a 100% sure solution to legal problems in the past.

1. I doubt there is much you can do to expedite this. You need legal advice, not free advice on this forum to answer this. You've already spent a bunch of money on med school, etc -- I would invest some in a lawyer to review the situation.

2. I doubt you can sue anyone for this. The gov't is doing it's due diligence, "checking you out". Given the terrorism scare issues and the proliferation of identity theft, I think they can probably take as long as they want. People whose trips were ruined because they couldn't get passports in time due to the processing delays can't sue the passport office.

I can be much more specific about what happens next:

3. Your PD can delay your start as much as they want. They also can terminate you any time they want. Your contract almost certainly has a clause about being "fully employable" on the first day of work, which you were not. Most PD's will delay for a few months at least, in the hopes that this will come through.

4. You will almost certainly be off cycle. You need to complete 12 months of internship, and the first month is almost gone. Using all of your vacation time up front is a nice offer from your PD -- it's probably not legal. Since you can't work at the hospital, you really can't take vacation either. The same is true for IMG's who have visa issues. In any case, at this point you will probably finish later than June 30th. Once you have a start date (and a presumed end date), you contact your future PD and inform them of the problem. If your advanced program is at another institution, you might want to start this process very early to prevent a repeat. Most PD's will delay the start of your advanced program and honor your match -- given enough notice it's not usually a big problem to build the schedule with a late start. Your future PD does have the right to not honor your match due to your late start, but that rarely happens if you're off cycle by less than 2-3 months.

 

[Apollyon]

As to the last point from aPD, it's RRC-dependent. For example, the RRC for EM requires 46 weeks out of the 52-week year be in training. That 6 weeks left over can be used for nothing (if required).