How to Complete and File Your Maryland Petition for Expungement (CC-DC-CR-072A)

Maryland’s Petition for Expungement Form CC-DC-CR-072A is the two-page court form you use to ask a judge to erase police and court records from a case that ended in your favor, including acquittals, dismissals, nolle prosequi, stet, probation before judgment, findings of not criminally responsible, and transfers to juvenile court.¹ You file it with the clerk of the court that heard your case, there is no filing fee, and once the judge grants the petition, every agency holding your records has 60 days to destroy them and confirm compliance.²

Who Should Use This Form

Form CC-DC-CR-072A covers case outcomes that fall short of a guilty verdict. The qualifying dispositions listed in Maryland Criminal Procedure § 10-105(a) are:³

Acquittal or not guilty verdict at trial.
Dismissal of the charges by the court.
Nolle prosequi entered by the prosecutor.
Stet, meaning the court indefinitely postponed the case on the stet docket.
Probation before judgment (PBJ), except for alcohol-related driving offenses under Transportation Article § 21-902.
A finding of not criminally responsible.
Transfer of the case from adult court to juvenile proceedings.

If your case ended in a guilty verdict or plea, this is the wrong form. You would use CC-DC-CR-072B, which carries a $30 filing fee and different eligibility rules.⁴ One narrow exception lets you use 072A after a guilty finding: certain low-level nuisance offenses, such as public urination, panhandling, loitering, drinking in public, and fare evasion, qualify after a three-year wait from sentence completion.³

When You Can File

The waiting period depends on how your case ended, and filing too early is one of the most common reasons petitions get rejected.

Acquittal, dismissal, or nolle prosequi: three years after the disposition, unless you file a General Waiver and Release (Form CC-DC-CR-078) with your petition, in which case you can file immediately.³
Stet: three years from the date the case was placed on the stet docket. No waiver shortcut applies.⁵
Probation before judgment: the later of three years after the PBJ was granted or the date you were discharged from probation. A waiver does not shorten this.⁵
PBJ for drunk or impaired driving under Transportation Article § 21-902: fifteen years after discharge from probation.³
Nolle prosequi with required drug or alcohol treatment: after you complete the required treatment.³
Not criminally responsible: three years after the court made the finding.³

The Unit Rule for Multi-Charge Cases

If your arrest involved more than one charge, check this before you file. Under Maryland Criminal Procedure § 10-107, charges arising from the same incident are treated as a single unit, and if any charge in the unit is ineligible for expungement, none of them can be expunged.⁶ So if you were arrested on three charges, two dismissed and one resulting in a non-expungeable conviction, the dismissed charges stay on your record too.

Minor traffic violations and simple cannabis possession under Criminal Law Article § 5-601 are evaluated independently and do not drag the rest of the unit down.⁶ Possession with intent to distribute cannabis is not carved out and does fall under the unit rule.⁷

What to Gather Before You Start

Pull these details together before you touch the form. Mismatches between what you write and what the court has on file are what stall otherwise clean petitions.

Case number from the original proceeding. If you no longer have your papers, look it up on the Maryland Judiciary Case Search at casesearch.courts.state.md.us.⁸
Your State Identification Number (SID). It appears on any criminal background check you have received. If you don’t have it, you can request your own criminal history from the CJIS Central Repository at the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.⁹
The exact date of your arrest or citation.
The disposition date, meaning the day the judge ruled, the prosecutor entered the nolle prosequi, or the case was otherwise resolved. This is the date that starts your waiting period.
The full name of the arresting law enforcement agency.

Filling Out CC-DC-CR-072A

You can download the form from the Maryland Courts website or pick up a paper copy at any District Court or Circuit Court clerk’s office.² The form runs two pages.

At the top, enter the name of the court where the case was originally heard, the case number, and your full legal name exactly as it appeared in that case. The court you name here is the same court you’ll file with, so if your case was in the District Court of Maryland for Baltimore City, that’s what goes on the form.

The middle of the form lists checkboxes for each qualifying disposition. Check only the one that matches your case as it is recorded in the court file. If you’re not certain how the case was officially resolved, check Case Search or ask the clerk before you file. Picking the wrong box gives the State’s Attorney a clean reason to object.

Below the checkboxes, fill in the arrest date, the arresting agency, and your SID. Every entry needs to match your official records. Typos in a case number or a date off by a few days can get the filing bounced.

Sign and date the petition at the bottom. Your signature confirms under penalty of perjury that the information is true and that you meet the legal requirements for expungement. Print legibly if you’re completing the form by hand.

When to Add the General Waiver and Release

If your case ended in an acquittal, dismissal, or nolle prosequi and you want to file before the three-year waiting period is up, you must include Form CC-DC-CR-078, the General Waiver and Release.¹⁰ Signing it gives up any civil claim you might have against the state, the arresting agency, or their employees for wrongful arrest, detention, or confinement tied to the charge.¹¹

The waiver requires your signature and a witness signature. It does not need to be notarized.¹⁰ Think about this one before you sign. If you believe your arrest was unlawful and you might want to sue, waiting out the three years and filing the petition without the waiver keeps those claims alive.

Filing the Petition

Submit the completed petition to the clerk of the court that heard the original case. You can file in person at the courthouse, mail the documents to the clerk, or file electronically through the MDEC system if you are self-represented.¹²

Along with the original, you need enough copies for the clerk to serve the State’s Attorney and every law enforcement agency you named on the form.¹³ For a typical single-agency case, that’s two extra copies: one for the State’s Attorney and one for the arresting agency. Include an extra copy for each additional agency involved. The clerk handles service once you provide the copies.

There is no filing fee for any petition submitted on Form CC-DC-CR-072A, regardless of the disposition.²

What Happens After You File

Once the clerk serves your papers, the State’s Attorney has 30 days to file an answer. An objection must state specific grounds. If no answer arrives within 30 days, the law treats the silence as consent and the court enters the expungement order.¹⁴

If the State’s Attorney or a victim objects, the court schedules a hearing. The judge looks at whether the disposition qualifies under the statute, whether you pose a risk to public safety, whether any court-ordered restitution has been paid, and whether expungement serves the interest of justice.¹⁵ Come prepared to speak to your rehabilitation and your reasons for seeking expungement.

Confirming the Records Are Gone

After the judge signs the order, the clerk sends a copy of it and a blank Certificate of Compliance to every agency holding your records, including the CJIS Central Repository. Each agency must find and destroy the records, then file an executed Certificate of Compliance and serve a copy on you.¹⁶

Agencies have up to 60 days after the order is entered to complete this. If the order includes a stay, the 60-day clock starts 30 days after the stay is lifted.¹⁶ Keep every Certificate of Compliance you receive. If the record ever resurfaces on a background check, those certificates are your proof that the records were ordered destroyed.

1
Maryland Courts. Maryland Petition for Expungement of Records
2
Maryland Courts. Expungement (Adult)
3
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Criminal Procedure 10-105 – Expungement of Police and Court Records
4
Maryland Courts. CC-DC-CR-072B Instructions
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Maryland Courts. Expungement Part 5 Tip Sheet
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New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Maryland Criminal Procedure 10-107 – Charges Arising from Same Incident, Transaction, or Set of Facts
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Maryland Courts. Expungement of Cannabis Charges
8
Maryland Judiciary. Case Portal
9
Maryland DPSCS. Background Check – DPSCS
10
Maryland Courts. General Waiver and Release (Criminal Procedure 10-105)
11
Maryland Courts. Expungement – Forms You Need to File Part 4
12
Maryland Courts. E-filing – Maryland Courts
13
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Maryland Rule 4-504 – Petition for Expungement when Charges Filed
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New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Maryland Rule 4-505 – Answer to Application or Petition
15
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Criminal Procedure 10-110 – Expungement of Record After Conviction
16
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Maryland Rule 4-510 – Compliance with Court Order for Expungement