Disclosing expunged misdemeanor on ERAS?

[gtmtb]

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I'm a 4th year med student applying on ERAS and I am wondering if I need to disclose a 10 year old expunged misdemeanor. I contacted ERAS and they had no official policy. They told me to contact my school but I don't want to disclose this to them and I don't think they would have any useful info. I'm aware that I will need to disclose for my license,but what about ERAS/residency spot? Suggestions please, thanks

 

[NotAProgDirector]

I'm a 4th year med student applying on ERAS and I am wondering if I need to disclose a 10 year old expunged misdemeanor. I contacted ERAS and they had no official policy. They told me to contact my school but I don't want to disclose this to them and I don't think they would have any useful info. I'm aware that I will need to disclose for my license,but what about ERAS/residency spot? Suggestions please, thanks

This is a common question. I am not a lawyer, so take the following with a grain of salt:

There is no "right" answer, per se. First of all, expungement is a state specific issue. Each state has specific rules about what can be expunged, how it is expunged, and what "expunged" actually means. So, it's impossible to know exactly what to do without knowing what state you had this legal problem in, and what was "done" about it.

That being said, in general you're going to need to disclose it even though it's expunged. Here's why:

You probably are on good legal footing by not disclosing an expunged record to hospitals looking to hire you for a residency position. Hospitals will almost certainly do a background check as part of the hiring process, and if your record has been expunged, then the commercial background check that they do should show nothing, and you'd be fine.

But, there's a catch. Actually, there are two catches:

1. When you apply for a license, you will almost certainly have to disclose this. Most (if not all) expungement systems have an exception for state licensing procedures. Even if the state where you had your record expunged does not, if the state where you are getting a license does, it's possible that they would find this. This might not be a problem if you were actually applying for a license -- but you're not in most states. Most interns will start with a training license, and your residency program applies for that in your name. Hence, your residency program is very likely to find out about your expunged record. When they do, they may be quite angry. They will be very angry if it delays, or prevents, you from getting a licence.

2. If you match to a program that has a VA, all bets are off. All VA's do a background check through the DOJ. No expungement will hide anything from this type of check. Trust me, they'll know about everything, and it is almost certain to get reported to your PD. If you fail your VA background check, you'll be terminated.

Since you only have one ERAS application, you have to choose to disclose to everyone, or no one. It's possible that you could find a program in a state that won't trigger either of these two catches, but they are going to be few and you won't be able to be certain that you will match there.

Hence, although you may not be legally required to disclose an expunged record, it is very likely in your best interest to do so anyway. This may cause you to lose some interview invites -- some PD's may see this as a "red flag" on your application and pass; some may recognize that you'd fail a licensing app / VA credentialing process. You won't be able to tell -- if you're rejected, you won't know if it's because of the misdemeanor or just your overall competitiveness.

One last point is that if you don't disclose, you will be sweating it from match day to the start of residency. This should be a happy, carefree time.

One last option would be to not disclose it on your ERAS app, match, and then immediately disclose it to your program. If it doesn't create a problem with your license nor with VA credentialing (which most expunged misdemeanors will not), now at least your PD won't be taken by surprise if/when it shows up. Still, you have to ask yourself if the first communication you have with your new PD after you match is about your legal history that you "hid". This would be completely legal, but could start things on a sour note.

 

[gtmtb]

Thank you for the information and your response. The misdemeanor was in Washington state and was for drug paraphernalia (marijuana) for the record. I agree with everything you said, I don't want to start off residency being somewhat dishonest. I want to be able to look people in the eye and I don't want to always be waiting for the other shoe to drop. My mental health and integrity is worth more to me than residency. I'm a pretty weak applicant on paper so there is going to be an even greater chance I won't match because of this but at least I'll be able to sleep at night.

You mentioned that I would fail the VA background check. Does that mean that it would show up and the PD would know or does this mean I can't work in a VA and should not bother applying to VA based programs?

For the ERAS question regarding, I'm paraphrasing here, "is there anything that would prevent you from getting a license", how do I answer this? If I put the info about the misdemeanor in the misdemeanor question do I still need to address it in this other question as well. I'm sure the affect on licensure is state to state and depends on the individuals deciding, how am I suppose to know what the outcome will be?

Thanks for the help

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Regarding the VA, you misunderstand what I was saying. I was pointing out that it's possible that, whatever you were not disclosing because it was expunged, could possibly cause problems with VA credentialing. I can't say for certain, but I highly doubt a drug para conviction that is old would cause a problem. Some old weapons violation, or a dishonorable discharge from some branch of the military, perhaps a problem.

For the license question, I would answer no. I doubt any state will care about this. You've already disclosed it elsewhere.

Of note, you can certainly mention on your ERAS app that the conviction has been expunged.

 

[viciouz]

One last option would be to not disclose it on your ERAS app, match, and then immediately disclose it to your program. If it doesn't create a problem with your license nor with VA credentialing (which most expunged misdemeanors will not), now at least your PD won't be taken by surprise if/when it shows up. Still, you have to ask yourself if the first communication you have with your new PD after you match is about your legal history that you "hid". This would be completely legal, but could start things on a sour note.

I cannot imagine this going well.

I have two separate expunged misdemeanors on my record, one which was not my fault and the other was. The second one occurred during medical school

I am in an ethical dilemma regarding reporting my "expunged" record. The ERAS question is very vague and it states "Have you ever been convicted of a misdemeanor?" But an expungement, overturns your conviction from guilty to not-guilty. So technically you have never been convicted...

I just don't see how it can help at all to report it if its "expunged" already rather than risk not getting any interviews at all for residency.

If i was to do the last option, how would one go about doing it?

aProgDirector.... how would you feel if someone disclosed it to you after an interview? Is this appropriate?