Noella Sudbury, a former public defender, is changing the way people move past their criminal records. After watching individuals struggle to secure work or housing due to past arrests, she founded Rasa Legal. Her organization uses software to automate the expungement process, turning a typically slow and costly legal hurdle into a three-minute digital check.
Traditional methods for clearing criminal records are labor-intensive. Lawyers often spend hours sifting through paper files to determine eligibility under state laws. By building an app that scrapes necessary data and drafts petitions, Rasa Legal has slashed the time needed for legal filings by over 50 percent. Since its launch in 2022, the platform has helped 34,000 people in Utah, Arizona, and Pennsylvania clear their records.
The impact on those served is substantial. Research indicates that individuals with cleared records see an average wage increase of 22 percent within a year. By reducing the barrier of entry for housing and employment, these legal updates help address the cycle of poverty that often leads to repeat offenses. This approach finds bipartisan support because it benefits local economies and reduces recidivism costs.
While the technology handles the heavy lifting of data analysis and form generation, the human element remains central to the mission. Virginia Mireles, who once held five felony records, now works on the client onboarding team. She provides direct support to people navigating the system, offering personal encouragement alongside the technical service. The team reviews all automated documents to ensure accuracy before filing.
Expanding this model remains a logistical challenge. The United States lacks a single, national expungement database, meaning the team must build custom legal logic for every state and county they enter. Despite this, the goal is clear: make legal pathways accessible to the millions of adults across the country with records that currently prevent them from entering the workforce.