What happened
The Rhode Island Clean Slate Act was filed in both chambers in February 2026, and advocates gathered at the State House in March to launch the campaign around it. The idea was straightforward and genuinely significant: rather than requiring people to file a motion, it would have instructed the courts to identify eligible records and clear them by operation of law.
The Senate bill was held for further study by the Judiciary Committee on March 10, and did not come back. The session adjourned in June without it passing. In Rhode Island, as in most legislatures, "held for further study" is where most bills quietly end.
What this means for you
Nothing about your eligibility changed. Every path in the statute works exactly as it did — but they are still paths you have to walk. Nobody at the courthouse is going to identify your record and clear it on their own initiative.
The exception, and it is an important one, is that some Rhode Island relief already happens automatically without any Clean Slate law. Traffic Tribunal and municipal court violations are expunged by operation of law after three years and after any mandatory state or federal record-retention period has run — five years for a chemical-test refusal. A completed filing expunges itself at the end of the filing period; a filed domestic-violence complaint clears only if, for three years after the filing, you are not charged with a domestic-violence crime, or if charged, are acquitted or the complaint is dismissed. Marijuana possession records were supposed to have been cleared automatically. District Court Rule 48(a) dismissals since January 2023 are sealed automatically within twenty days.
So the honest answer is: a good deal already clears on its own, and the rest still needs a motion.
The thing worth doing instead of waiting
Bills come back. A version of this may well be filed again next session, and it may pass. But a bill that might become law in some future year is not a reason to leave a record sitting on you now, particularly when the waiting period on your own path may already have run.
The more useful question is not "when will the law change" but "what does the law already let me do" — and for a surprising number of people the answer is more than they were told.
The law behind this page
- The Clean Slate Act: S 2711 (2026), held for further study by the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 10, 2026.
- Traffic Tribunal and municipal court violations, and refusals, expunged by operation of law: R.I. Gen. Laws § 31-41.1-10. Chemical-test refusal: § 31-27-2.1.
- Filings, and the three-year domestic violence filing: § 12-10-12(c) and (d).
- Marijuana possession: § 12-1.3-5.
- Automatic sealing of District Court Rule 48(a) dismissals: § 12-1-12.1(a).
