Wisconsin Expungement Law: Eligibility, Effects, and Employment

Wisconsin’s expungement law, set out in Wis. Stat. § 973.015, is one of the narrowest in the country. To get a conviction expunged, you must have been under 25 when you committed the offense, the offense must carry a maximum prison sentence of six years or less, and the sentencing judge must order expungement at the sentencing hearing itself. Miss that hearing without an order, and under current law the opportunity is almost always gone.¹

The Three Requirements You Have to Meet

All three must be true before a Wisconsin court can even consider expungement:

You were under age 25 at the time of the offense.
The offense carries a maximum prison sentence of six years or less.
The judge orders expungement at the sentencing hearing.

The third requirement is where most people lose eligibility without realizing it. Wisconsin courts have held that if the defendant does not raise expungement at sentencing, the chance to request it is gone. The sentencing hearing is the single most important moment in the whole process, and expungement needs to be on your attorney’s agenda well before that date.¹

Meeting the criteria does not force the judge’s hand. The court weighs whether expungement would benefit you and whether society would be harmed by sealing the record, and a judge can deny the request even when every box is checked.¹

Which Convictions Qualify

Most misdemeanors are eligible if the age and sentencing requirements are met. On the felony side, only Class H (six-year maximum) and Class I (three years, six months maximum) felonies fit within the statutory ceiling. Everything from Class G up is categorically out.¹

A Class H or Class I felony becomes ineligible if either of these is true:

You have any prior felony conviction, from any point in your life.
The felony is a “violent offense” under Wis. Stat. § 301.048(2)(bm), or one of several specifically listed crimes involving stalking, child abuse, sexual assault of a student by school staff, or child enticement.

The violent-offense definition is broad, covering homicide, sexual assault, armed robbery, arson, reckless endangerment, and a long list of offenses against children.² For Class H felonies, the statute separately bars expungement for violations of § 940.32 (stalking), § 948.03 (physical abuse of a child), and § 948.095 (sexual assault of a student by school staff). For Class I felonies, § 948.23(1)(a) (child enticement) is separately excluded.¹

Two Situations Where the At-Sentencing Rule Does Not Apply

Certain Privacy Offenses by Minors

If you were convicted under Wis. Stat. § 942.08 (invasion of privacy) and were under 18 at the time, the court must order expungement at sentencing. The judge has no discretion to deny it.¹

Trafficking Survivors

If you were convicted of prostitution under Wis. Stat. § 944.30 because you were a victim of sex trafficking, a court can vacate the conviction or expunge the record at any time after sentencing. This is the one path that lets a person file years later. The motion must show the prostitution offense was a direct result of being trafficked.¹

What Happens After the Judge Orders Expungement

An expungement order at sentencing is conditional. Nothing is sealed yet. The actual expungement happens only after you successfully complete your entire sentence, which the statute defines two ways: you have not been convicted of any new offense, and if you were on probation, your probation was not revoked and all probation conditions were satisfied.¹

Once you finish cleanly, the detaining or probationary authority issues a certificate of discharge and forwards it to the court. That certificate triggers the sealing. If you were incarcerated, a copy also goes to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. The process is largely automatic, but follow up with the clerk of court to confirm the certificate was filed and the record was actually updated. If an order was entered but never carried out, you may need to file paperwork with the circuit court; Wisconsin Court Form CR-266 covers non-probation and non-incarceration cases.³

What Expungement Actually Clears

Expungement in Wisconsin means the court strikes from its own records all references to your name and identity in connection with the case. The conviction itself is not reversed or set aside. You were still convicted; the court-level public record is sealed.

What that leaves intact matters as much as what it clears:

Court records. Once expungement takes effect, the case should drop off the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access (CCAP) system. Verify this yourself; administrative delays happen.
State criminal history. The Wisconsin Department of Justice has said conviction records in the state criminal history repository cannot be removed even when the court record was expunged, because courts lack the authority to reopen and dismiss cases for that purpose. This gap catches people off guard.⁴
Driving records. Expungement does not apply to conviction information kept by the Department of Transportation under Wis. Stat. § 343.23(2)(a). Traffic convictions stay on your driving record.¹
Private background check databases. Companies that collected your conviction data before expungement may still have it. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, consumer reporting agencies must maintain reasonable procedures for accuracy, and reporting an expunged record may violate that duty, but you may have to dispute inaccurate reports directly with the company.

Expungement and Employment

Wisconsin’s Labor and Industry Review Commission has concluded that employers cannot rely on expunged convictions when making adverse employment decisions, even where the conviction would otherwise be substantially related to the job. A properly expunged record should not be held against you in hiring. Applicants are free to disclose expunged convictions voluntarily, which can create awkward moments when application forms ask broad criminal-history questions.

Because the DOJ repository keeps the conviction even after a court-level expungement, some background checks will still surface it. If that happens, federal law gives you the right to dispute the accuracy of the report.

Is There a New Wisconsin Expungement Law?

As of 2026, no major expungement reform has been enacted. Multiple bipartisan proposals have been introduced to remove the age-25 cap, allow petitions after sentencing, and apply the law retroactively. Governor Evers included similar provisions in his 2025 executive budget proposal, which would have created a post-sentence petition process, removed the age restriction, and limited each person to one lifetime expungement. The Legislature stripped the expungement provisions from the final budget before it was signed as 2025 Wisconsin Act 15 on July 3, 2025.

The proposals that failed would have required a one-year waiting period after completing community supervision and paying all outstanding court fees and restitution. Violent felonies and prior felony convictions would have remained disqualifying. For now, none of that is law.

If you are currently facing charges for an eligible offense and you are under 25, raising expungement at sentencing is still the only reliable way to protect your record. Once that hearing ends without an order, the door closes under current Wisconsin law.

1
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Code 973.015 – Special Disposition
2
Justia. Wisconsin Code 301.048 – Intensive Sanctions Program
3
Wisconsin Court System. Wisconsin Circuit Court Form CR-266 – Petition to Expunge Criminal Court Record of Conviction (Non-Probation/Non-Incarceration)
4
Wisconsin Department of Justice. Removal of Arrest Information