Expungement of Criminal Offenses in Michigan

What is an expungement?

• Michigan Law has long provided that individuals convicted of most state criminal offenses could be expunged or set aside, under certain circumstances and if certain pre-conditions are met.  Offenses that could not be expunged or set-aside included offenses like murder, criminal sexual conduct or any traffic offense.  When a record is expunged or set aside it no longer becomes accessible to public records so employers and others cannot locate them, however, the records are still accessible in a non-public record which is available to law enforcement agencies.

  Big changes to the Expungement Laws took place in 2021 when the Clean Slate Act went into effect.  The Clean Slate Act expands on the types and numbers of offenses that can be expunged and will eventually provide for the "automatic" expungement of certain convictions without the need for anyone to affirmatively petition or apply to the convicting court for such an action.

  With the expansion of the expungement laws, it is believed that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people are now eligible for their records to be expunged.  In 2021 the number of expungement petitions filed were over two times the amount of the preceding year.  The Attorney General's role in the expungement process is to determine whether an applicant is statutorily eligible to have the conviction(s) expunged from their record.  The current wait time to receive a response from the Attorney General's office is approximately six months.  Notice of hearing dates should be placed at least 6 months after the application has been received by the court.