January Hotline call of the month

Posted

Have you gotten a letter from someone asking you to take down an old story because the person has gotten their record expunged?  Or maybe a lawyer has written and cited G.S. § 15A-152, a statute that requires criminal history database companies to remove expunged records from their databases.  (Think www.123nc.com.)  This is a different question from whether you might publish a correction or update if you got something wrong.  To confirm what you probably already know: You have absolutely no obligation to comply with those requests. And there are very good reasons not to.  As soon as you start tinkering with your archives, you become a less reliable record of history. We are happy to field any question you have about this on the NCPA Hotline, but to save you the call, we’ve prepared sample letters you can use to respond to such inquiries.  One letter cites the statute that sometimes is mis-used by lawyers attempting to demand a take-down of an old story, and the other is more generic. If you still have questions, please email (amartin@smvt.com) or call (919.833.3833).