Expunging Criminal Records And Driving Records

In the United States, criminal records can be expunged or sealed, but laws vary by state. Many different types of offenses, anything ranging from parking fines to felonies, may be eligible to be expunged.  Each state sets its own guidelines for what records are eligible for record clearing relief or for whether any such relief is available at all.

In general, once sealed or expunged, all records of an arrest and the subsequent court case are removed from the public record.  Most laws allow for the individual to legally deny ever having been arrested for or charged with any crime that has been expunged.  Some jurisdictions allow for records to be expunged, which means the record is completely destroyed, and some states provide for a record sealing, which just seals the record from the public view but does not completely destroy the records.

Each state sets its own requirements that an individual must meet in order to have their criminal record expunged or sealed. The petitioner will have to complete the forms and follow all the other instructions when submitting the petition to the appropriate authority, often a county court. The petitioner may choose to hire an attorney to guide him or her through the process, or he or she can decide to represent him or herself.

One of the major ways that expungement laws differ among states is in the way that driving offenses are handled.  Driving related offenses are quite often considered very minor, and in many instances driving violations are not even considered a criminal offense. Because of this, many states do not allocate resources to the processing and deciding of record clearing relief for traffic offenses; in these states driving offenses are simply ineligible to be sealed or expunged.

Some states, such as NewJersey and Michigan, do not offer the option to expunge or seal any traffic or driving offense. Sometimes they are simply not provided for in the expungement law, because the offenses are not included in the criminal code but rather are contained within a separate vehicle code. 

In other states, certain driving violations are considered criminal offenses, and these offenses are graded like all other crimes, such as being classified as either a misdemeanor or felony.  These more serious driving offenses can result in the same collateral consequences as any other criminal prosecution or conviction, such as difficulties in securing employment and housing.  And while some jurisdictions still do not provide for expungement or sealing, in many states, these misdemeanor or felony convictions for driving offenses are eligible to be sealed or expunged just like any other criminal record. 

Some serious driving offenses are “Driving Under the Influence” (DUI) or “Hit and Run” violations.  These serious driving offenses are often considered criminal in nature, and therefore, in many states, assuming other eligibility criteria are met, the arrest or conviction of these offenses can be expunged or sealed by the court like any other criminal offense.  

Expungement Benefits and Requirements Vary By State

Typically, when an expungement is granted, all records on file within any court, detention or correctional facility, law enforcement or criminal justice agency relating to a person's detection, apprehension, arrest, detention, trial or disposition of an offense within the criminal justice system will be destroyed.  However, for driving offenses, the former offender cannot necessarily be fully confident moving forward, because the offense will not have been removed from every place that records are maintained.  

Even in jurisdictions that permit driving offenses to be sealed or expunged, the defendant is not able to completely remove all traces of the case, because a criminal record expungement or record sealing does not affect the defendant’s driving record. The expungement process is handled through the court, and it only seals or expunges the records held by the court and other criminal justice agencies; the state DMV or equivalent state agency is generally not required to comply with an expungement or sealing order from the court.

Driving offenses will remain on an individual’s driving record, which is maintained through the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) or the equivalent division in each state. A violation on the driving record, unlike on the criminal record, cannot typically be expunged or sealed.  However, unlike your criminal record that does not disappear automatically, a driving offense will usually come off of the driving record after a specified number of years.  Generally entries will be removed after 5 or 10 years; however very serious violations can remain on the driving record for even longer.