How to Expunge a Record in DC: Sealing, Motions, and Waiting Periods

To clear a criminal record in Washington, D.C., most people will pursue sealing rather than true expungement, either through an automatic process the court runs on its own or by filing a motion in D.C. Superior Court. Which path is open to you depends on whether your case ended in a conviction, what the offense was, and how much time has passed since you finished your sentence. True expungement, meaning full erasure, is reserved for two narrow situations: offenses D.C. has since decriminalized or legalized, and cases where you can prove you were actually innocent.

Sealing and Expungement Are Not the Same Thing

Sealing hides your record from public view. Employers running standard background checks, landlords, and the general public will not see it, and you can legally deny the arrest or conviction ever happened without committing perjury.¹ Prosecutors, law enforcement, corrections, pretrial services, and certain licensing boards keep access.

Expungement goes further. It restores you to your pre-arrest status as though the event never occurred. Under the Second Chance Amendment Act of 2022, D.C. only offers expungement in two situations: decriminalized or legalized offenses, and actual-innocence claims. Everything else that qualifies for relief qualifies for sealing, not expungement.

Automatic Expungement for Decriminalized Offenses

If you were cited, arrested, charged, or convicted for conduct D.C. has since decriminalized or legalized, or that a court has struck down as unconstitutional, the record qualifies for automatic expungement. The most common example is simple marijuana possession before February 15, 2015. You do not file anything. The court handles it on its own, with a deadline of October 1, 2027, or within 90 days after final disposition, whichever comes later.²

Automatic Sealing: When You Don’t Need to File

Two categories of records seal automatically under the Second Chance Amendment Act.

Non-Conviction Records

If you were cited, arrested, or charged but the case was dropped, dismissed, or otherwise ended without a conviction, the court must seal it. For cases that concluded before the Act took effect, sealing must happen by October 1, 2027. For cases ending after that, sealing happens within 90 days of final disposition.³

You do not have to wait. If your case ended without a conviction, you can file a motion to seal immediately rather than wait for the court to reach it.

Misdemeanor Convictions After 10 Years

Eligible misdemeanor convictions also seal automatically, but only after 10 years have passed since you finished your sentence, including any probation, parole, or supervised release. The offense cannot appear on the excluded list below.³

Sealing by Motion: Waiting Periods

If automatic sealing doesn’t apply, or you don’t want to wait, you can file a motion to seal. The waiting periods track how the case ended.

For non-conviction cases, there is no waiting period. File as soon as the case reaches final disposition.³

For convictions:

Misdemeanors: at least 5 years after completing your sentence
Felonies: at least 8 years after completing your sentence

“Completing your sentence” means everything, including incarceration, probation, parole, and supervised release. The clock doesn’t start until all of it is done.³

On a conviction-based motion, you must show by a preponderance of the evidence that sealing is in the interests of justice. The judge weighs your behavior since the offense, the nature of the crime, and your reasons for seeking sealing.⁴

Expungement Based on Actual Innocence

If you were arrested or charged for something you did not do, you can seek full expungement instead of sealing. The bar is higher, but the remedy is complete. You must show by a preponderance of the evidence that the offense either did not occur or that you were not the person who committed it.⁵

There is no waiting period. Your motion should lay out the facts supporting your innocence, with exhibits and affidavits as needed. The court must decide within 180 days of filing absent good cause for delay. At any hearing, both sides can present witnesses, and hearsay is admissible.⁵

Offenses That Cannot Be Sealed

Not every record qualifies. Check eligibility before you file.

Excluded From Automatic Sealing

The following categories are excluded from both the automatic sealing of non-conviction records and the automatic sealing of misdemeanor convictions after 10 years:

Domestic violence offenses (intrafamily offenses)
DUI, DWI, and operating while impaired
Misdemeanor sexual abuse
Crimes of violence and dangerous crimes as defined in D.C.’s pretrial detention statute
Sex offenses requiring registration where the registration period has not expired
Elder or vulnerable adult abuse and financial exploitation
Parental kidnapping and incest
Child neglect by a guardian

Excluded From Sealing by Motion

Felony convictions in Severity Groups 1, 2, or 3 of the D.C. Sentencing Commission’s Master Grid are completely ineligible for sealing. These include the most serious violent offenses, such as murder, armed carjacking, and first-degree sexual abuse.³

D.C. law also defines a long list of “ineligible misdemeanors.” Beyond the categories above, the list includes fraud-related offenses like identity theft, credit card fraud, insurance fraud, and public assistance fraud, along with trademark counterfeiting, child labor violations, and election fraud.⁶

How to File a Motion to Seal

Pull Your Records First

You need two documents to build your motion: your arrest history report from the Metropolitan Police Department and the official case disposition from D.C. Superior Court showing how each case ended. Your motion must list all of your unsealed arrests, charges, and convictions as reasonably known to you.⁴

You will also need your full legal name, date of birth, current address, the court case number for each charge, and the specific legal basis for your request: non-conviction, eligible misdemeanor, eligible felony, or interests of justice.

File With the Court

D.C. Superior Court provides motion-to-seal forms on its website. Submit the completed motion with one copy to the Criminal Information Office at the Moultrie Courthouse, 500 Indiana Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20001. The criminal case management team can be reached at 202-879-1373.⁷

Serve the Prosecutor

After filing, deliver a copy of your motion to the prosecutor who handled your case. In D.C. that means the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, which prosecutes most felonies and many misdemeanors, or the Office of the Attorney General, which handles certain misdemeanors. Serve whichever office prosecuted your case. The prosecutor is not required to respond unless the court orders them to.⁴

What Happens After You File

Be prepared to wait. After filing and service, the court decides whether to order the prosecutor to respond. That step alone can take months. If the prosecutor responds, you may wait additional months for a hearing date.

If the government opposes, the court schedules a hearing. You can represent yourself or bring an attorney. If the prosecutor does not oppose, the judge can grant the motion without a hearing.

The judge issues a written order granting or denying the motion. If granted, the court sends the sealing order to the Metropolitan Police Department, the FBI, and other relevant agencies, which have 90 days to comply. Delays in implementation are not uncommon, and enforcement tools are limited if an agency is slow.

What a Sealed Record Actually Does

Once sealed, your record won’t appear on standard background checks used by most employers and landlords, and you can legally answer “no” to questions about past arrests or convictions.¹

Sealed does not mean invisible. Prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement, corrections agencies, and pretrial services can still access sealed records for lawful purposes, including charging decisions and sentencing. Certain licensing boards and employers in regulated industries may also retain access.¹

Federal Security Clearances Are a Separate World

If you apply for a federal security clearance, a sealed D.C. record will not protect you. The Standard Form 86 (SF-86) explicitly requires you to report criminal history “regardless of whether the record in your case has been sealed, expunged, or otherwise stricken from the court record.” Federal agencies are not bound by D.C.’s sealing laws, and failing to disclose a sealed arrest can be treated as deliberate falsification, which by itself can lead to clearance denial even if the underlying offense would not have been disqualifying.

Fee Waivers and Free Legal Help

If you cannot afford filing costs, D.C. Superior Court offers an in forma pauperis application that waives court fees. You are automatically presumed eligible if you receive public benefits such as TANF, SSI, or POWER. Without those benefits, the court reviews your income, expenses, assets, and dependents to decide whether paying would cause substantial hardship.⁸

You do not need a lawyer to file a motion to seal, but it is easier with one. Rising for Justice, a D.C.-based legal aid organization, runs a free expungement program for eligible residents. The D.C. Bar’s Lawyer Referral Service and other local legal clinics may also provide assistance at no cost.

1
D.C. Law Library. District of Columbia Code 16-807 – Effect of Sealing of Criminal Records
2
D.C. Law Library. District of Columbia Code 16-802 – Automatic Expungement of Criminal Records
3
D.C. Law Library. D.C. Law 24-284 – Second Chance Amendment Act of 2022
4
D.C. Law Library. District of Columbia Code 16-806 – Sealing of Criminal Records by Motion
5
D.C. Law Library. District of Columbia Code 16-803 – Expungement of Criminal Records by Motion
6
D.C. Law Library. District of Columbia Code 16-801 – Definitions
7
District of Columbia Courts. Sealing Criminal Records
8
Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Application to Proceed Without Prepayment of Costs, Fees, or Security