Criminal Record Sealing & Expungement Changes
Under current law, when a person is arrested in a case of mistaken identity, the arresting agency is required to petition the court for an expungement order. The bill allows the defendant in a mistaken identity case to petition for an expungement order if the arresting agency does not file a petition. The defendant is not subject to any fees or costs associated with expunging the record.
A court can grant an attorney access to a sealed record if the defendant in the sealed case provides permission and the attorney is accessing the record for the sole purpose of providing legal advice to or representing the defendant.
The bill clarifies procedures for automatic sealing.
The bill allows a hearing related to sealing matters to be conducted remotely.
The waiting period for sealing a municipal record without a subsequent conviction is lowered from 3 years to one year and for sealing a municipal record with a single subsequent conviction from 10 years to 3 years.
The bill creates a record sealing procedure for convictions records for when a statutory change legalizes previously prohibited conduct.
On or before January 1, 2025, the state court administrator shall compile a list of certain types of non-conviction criminal justice records (non-conviction records) with dispositions prior to August 2022. The state court administrator shall sort the non-conviction records by judicial district and send the final list to the chief judge of each judicial district.
(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced.)