Indiana Second Chance Act: Eligibility, Waiting Periods, and Filing

The Indiana Second Chance Act, codified at Indiana Code 35-38-9, lets you petition a court to seal or expunge certain criminal records after you meet a waiting period and other conditions. What you get depends on the offense: lower-level records are truly sealed from public view, while higher-level felony records stay public but are marked as expunged and gain anti-discrimination protection. For convictions, you generally get one shot at this in your lifetime, which makes getting the filing right the whole game.

Which Records Qualify

Indiana sorts eligible records into five categories, and the category controls everything else — waiting period, outcome, and how much discretion the judge has.

Category 1: arrests that didn’t lead to a conviction, including dismissed cases, acquittals, and juvenile allegations that weren’t adjudicated.¹
Category 2: Class A and Class B misdemeanor convictions, plus Class D or Level 6 felonies that were later reduced to misdemeanors.²
Category 3: Class D or Level 6 felonies that did not involve bodily injury.³
Category 4: felonies above Level 6 that did not result in serious bodily injury or death.⁴
Category 5: remaining eligible felonies that did not result in death, but only with the prosecutor’s written agreement.⁵

If you’re currently in a pretrial diversion program, you can’t file a Category 1 petition unless the prosecutor allows it.¹

How Long You Have to Wait

Each category has its own clock, and for felonies the clock has two hands that must both pass before you can file.

Category 1: one year after the arrest, charge, or juvenile allegation, whichever came later. For cases dismissed or acquitted after June 30, 2022, the court must expunge the record automatically 60 days after the dismissal or acquittal, with no petition required.¹
Category 2: five years from the date of conviction.²
Category 3: eight years from the date of conviction.³
Category 4: the later of eight years from conviction or three years from completion of the sentence.⁴
Category 5: the later of ten years from conviction or five years from completion of the sentence.⁵

The prosecutor can agree in writing to a shorter waiting period for any category. It isn’t common, but if you have a reason to ask, the written consent has to be attached to your petition.²

What Else You Have to Satisfy

Time alone isn’t enough. When you file, no criminal charges can be pending against you, and all fines, court costs, fees, and restitution from the original case must be paid in full. You also must have stayed conviction-free: no felony or misdemeanor in the previous eight years for Categories 3 and 4, or ten years for Category 5.³

Unpaid restitution is the most common reason otherwise valid petitions get denied. The court has no discretion to waive it, no matter how much time has passed.²

Category 5 adds one more hurdle that changes the whole calculation. The prosecutor must consent to the expungement in writing, and without that consent the court cannot grant the petition even if every other requirement is met.⁵

Offenses That Never Qualify

Some convictions are permanently excluded, and the Second Chance Act cannot reach them. Confirm your offense isn’t on this list before you invest time in a petition:

Category 3 also excludes convictions that caused bodily injury. Category 4 sets the bar at serious bodily injury.⁴

Sealed Versus Marked: What Expungement Actually Does

The word “expungement” suggests the record disappears. That’s roughly true for some categories and clearly false for others.

Records under Categories 2 and 3 are permanently sealed and excluded from public access. Private employers running background checks won’t find them, and access is limited to law enforcement or a court order.² Category 1 arrest records are handled similarly: they can’t be destroyed, but they’re pulled out of public view and remain available only to courts and criminal justice agencies for official purposes.¹

Category 4 and 5 records don’t get sealed. They stay public, but they’re visibly labeled “expunged” in the court system, and the label carries legal restrictions on how the record can be used against you in employment and licensing. A background check will still show them.²

One Petition Per Lifetime for Convictions

Indiana allows you one expungement petition for convictions in your entire lifetime. The rule covers Categories 2 through 5, which is why consolidation matters so much. If you have convictions in more than one county, you must file a separate petition in each county — but all those filings count as your single lifetime petition only if you complete them within a 365-day window. Miss the window and you’ve spent your one chance on an incomplete filing.⁶

Within a single county, you must consolidate every conviction from that county into one petition. Piecemeal filings in the same county aren’t allowed.⁶ A denial on the merits doesn’t count as your lifetime petition, so you can refile if the court rejects your first attempt. Category 1 arrest records are exempt from the lifetime limit — you can petition to expunge them as often as needed.²

How to File

File in the circuit or superior court in the county where the conviction was entered. For arrest records where no charges were filed, file in the county where the arrest happened. Your petition must include your full legal name, date of birth, current address, Social Security number, the case number for every arrest or conviction you want expunged, and the name of the court that handled each case.⁷

The Indiana courts publish standardized forms through a self-service portal at in.gov, with a guided Easy Form option and blank forms you can complete by hand. A civil filing fee applies, and the court may reduce or waive it if you can show financial hardship.² Accuracy is critical. Errors in case numbers or dates can result in summary denial without a hearing.

What Happens After You File

You must serve a copy on the county prosecutor, who then has 30 days to respond. If the prosecutor doesn’t respond, any objection is waived.²

For Categories 2 and 3, if you’ve met every statutory requirement, the court must grant the petition. The judge has no discretion to deny.³ For Categories 4 and 5, the court has discretion. Even with every condition satisfied, the judge can grant or deny. If the prosecutor objects, expect a hearing.

The court can summarily deny a petition without a hearing if the paperwork doesn’t meet statutory requirements or if the petition itself shows you aren’t entitled to relief.²

What You Get If the Court Grants It

A granted petition restores civil rights lost because of the conviction: voting, holding public office, and serving on a jury.² Firearm rights are restored for most offenses, with one important exception. Someone convicted of a crime of domestic violence does not regain firearm rights through expungement alone. A separate petition under Indiana Code 35-47-4-7 is required, and the person must wait at least five years from the date of conviction before filing.⁸

Indiana law also makes it unlawful to refuse employment, deny a license or permit, refuse admission, or otherwise discriminate against someone based on an expunged or sealed record. Employers who ask about criminal history must phrase the question to exclude expunged records, using language such as “Have you ever been arrested for or convicted of a crime that has not been expunged by a court?” Violating these protections is a Class C infraction, and the person who discriminated can be held in contempt by the court that granted the expungement. Injunctive relief is also available. Law enforcement agencies, probation departments, and community corrections departments are exempt when hiring for their own agencies.⁹

Who Can Still See the Record

Sealed records don’t fully vanish. Law enforcement officers acting in official capacity keep full access to records sealed under Categories 2 and 3. Prosecutors can obtain access by court order when the record is relevant to a new prosecution, and if that record is admitted as evidence in a new case that leads to a conviction, the court doesn’t have to reseal it. Defense attorneys with a court order, probation officers preparing pre-sentencing reports, federal agencies operating under information-sharing agreements, the Indiana Supreme Court and Board of Law Examiners for bar applicants, and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles under federal commercial driver rules also retain access.²

For Categories 4 and 5, the record stays publicly accessible because it’s only marked, not sealed. The value there sits in the anti-discrimination protections and the formal legal recognition that you’ve completed the requirements the law sets for a second chance.

1
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-38-9-1 – Expunging Arrest Records
2
Indiana Office of Court Services. Detailed Information on Criminal Case Expungement
3
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-38-9-3 – Expunging Minor Class D and Level 6 Felony Convictions
4
Indiana Public Defender Council. Indiana Code 35-38-9 Chapter 9 – Sealing and Expunging Conviction Records
5
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-38-9-5 – Expunging Certain Serious Felony Convictions
6
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-38-9-9 – Duties of Court in Ruling on Expungement Petitions
7
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-38-9-8 – Petition to Expunge Records
8
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-38-9-6 – Effect of Expunging Misdemeanor and Minor Felony Convictions
9
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-38-9-10 – Use of Expunged Records and Collateral Actions