Expunging a first DUI in Rhode Island
A DUI is a misdemeanor — the DUI law says so — except for a third or subsequent offense, which is a felony. Two other forms are felonies too: driving under the influence while your license is suspended or revoked for a DUI, and a second or subsequent offense with a child under thirteen in the vehicle.
The first-offender path has no DUI exclusion in it. The only offenses it bars are crimes of violence, and DUI is not on that list. So a person whose DUI is their only conviction may move to expunge it five years "from the date of the completion of his or her sentence."
"First offender" is a defined term, and it is stricter than it sounds. You must never have been convicted of or placed on probation for another felony or misdemeanor, and nothing can be pending against you in any court. The first-offender page goes through it.
When the five-year DUI clock starts
No probation and no suspended sentence: five years from the date of your plea.
Probation or a suspended sentence: five years from the day that sentence ends.
Either way, every fine, assessment and fee has to be paid before the court will grant the motion. And the clock never runs from the arrest.
Separately, in the five years before you file you must not have been convicted of or arrested for any felony or misdemeanor. Both conditions have to be met.
Check the money before you count the years
A DUI sentence carries more than the fine. Every conviction adds a $500 highway assessment and an $86 fee, and the driving-while-intoxicated course carries a $175 fee plus tuition.
All outstanding "court-imposed or court-related fees, fines, costs, assessments, charges, and/or any other monetary obligations" must be paid before the record can be expunged, "unless such amounts are reduced or waived by order of the court."
An old unpaid assessment will stop a motion that is otherwise on time. You are allowed to ask the court to reduce or waive it.
Two DUIs, or a DUI and anything else
A second conviction of any kind — another DUI, or an unrelated misdemeanor — takes you off the first-offender path. The two paths built for people with more than one conviction both exclude DUI by name:
- Two to five misdemeanors: DUI and refusal convictions "are not eligible for and may not be expunged under this subsection."
- Two to four felonies, added in June 2026: the same exclusion, in the same words.
The DUI stays. The others may not have to.
The exclusion is aimed at the DUI conviction, not at you. The multiple-misdemeanor path lets you move to expunge "any or all" of your misdemeanors, and a DUI on your record does not by itself stop the others from qualifying.
If you have a DUI and an unrelated misdemeanor, the unrelated one may still come off even though the DUI cannot.
Felony DUI, serious injury and death
Third offense. A third or subsequent DUI within ten years is a felony. By definition it comes with prior convictions, which rules out the first-offender path, and the multiple-felony path excludes DUI by name.
DUI resulting in death is on the new "other prohibited offenses" list. A conviction on that list closes the multiple-felony path, and a felony on it closes the multiple-misdemeanor path.
DUI resulting in serious bodily injury carries one to ten years. It is a separate crime from ordinary DUI, and it is not named in the crimes-of-violence list, the prohibited-offenses list, or the DUI exclusion, which names ordinary DUI alone. So if it is your only conviction, it runs on the first-offender path as a felony: you can file ten years after you complete the sentence.
The same is true of a DUI resulting in death that is your only conviction. The first-offender path bars only crimes of violence, and DUI resulting in death is not one; its place on the prohibited list closes the multiple-conviction paths, not this one. Ten years after the sentence is complete, the motion can be filed — and, as with every path here, the grant is up to the judge.
The refusal is a separate record, and it clears on its own
One traffic stop can produce two records: a criminal DUI in District Court and a chemical-test refusal. They are expunged on different tracks.
Traffic Tribunal violations are expunged by operation of law — no motion, no hearing — and a refusal gets a five-year period instead of three.
A second or later refusal within ten years is a different matter. The refusal law makes it a misdemeanor, "except with respect to cases of refusal to submit to a blood test" — a second or later refusal of a blood test "shall be a civil offense." The Traffic Tribunal page has the detail.
Five years to expunge, ten years to count: both are true
Since July 1, 2025, a prior DUI counts toward a second or third offense for ten years. That sounds as if it should push the expungement wait to ten years too. It does not. The two numbers come from different laws doing different jobs.
The ten years is a sentencing rule in the DUI law. It decides how a new DUI is punished. It says nothing about when an old record can be expunged.
The five years is the expungement rule, and neither the 2025 change nor the June 2026 act touched it.
What connects them is the section on what an expungement does. An expungement seals the record; it does not destroy it. A court may consider an expunged conviction "as a prior conviction in determining the sentence to be imposed" for a later crime.
The custodian of the sealed record may also answer "a sentencing court following the conviction of the individual for the commission of a crime," and "any law enforcement agency when the nature and character of the offense with which an individual is to be charged would be affected by virtue of the person having been previously convicted of the same offense." "Law enforcement agency" is a defined term here: state police organizations, the enforcement division of the Department of Environmental Management, the state fire marshal, the capitol police, and federal agencies.
So a DUI expunged in year five is gone for most job and license applications, with five exceptions. If there is a new DUI in year eight, it is not gone: a sentencing court can still count it.
What changed in July 2025: a ten-year look-back
Until July 1, 2025, a DUI counted as a "second" or "third" offense only if the earlier one fell within five years. A 2024 law changed that to ten years, in both the DUI law and the refusal law.
It did not change the five-year expungement wait. Why both numbers stand together is explained above, under five years to expunge, ten years to count.
What changed in June 2026
A law signed June 22, 2026 opened a new path for two to four felonies. It helps many people with more than one conviction. It does not help with a DUI: DUI and refusal are excluded from the new path in the same words as the misdemeanor path, and DUI resulting in death is on the new prohibited list.
The published General Laws have not yet caught up with the 2026 act. If you are reading the expungement section on the legislature's statute pages, you are reading the version before June.
Eligible to file is not the same as granted
Every path on this page gets you to a hearing. The court "may, in its discretion" grant the motion, and only on findings of good character, rehabilitation, and consistency with the public interest. That is a hearing you prepare for.
The law behind this page
- DUI is a misdemeanor: R.I. Gen. Laws § 31-27-2(a). Felony forms: third or subsequent offense, § 31-27-2(d)(3); while suspended or revoked for a DUI, § 31-27-2(d)(4); second or subsequent with a child under thirteen, § 31-27-2(d)(5)(ii).
- The first-offender path, which bars only crimes of violence, and the unpaid-money rule: § 12-1.3-2(a).
- Who is a first offender: § 12-1.3-1(3).
- Five years for a misdemeanor: § 12-1.3-2(d). Ten years for a felony: § 12-1.3-2(e).
- The five-year clean period: § 12-1.3-3(b)(1)(i).
- The $500 highway assessment and $86 fee: § 31-27-2(d)(6). The $175 course fee and tuition: § 31-27-2(j).
- DUI and refusal excluded from the multiple-conviction paths: § 12-1.3-2(b) and (c).
- DUI resulting in death: § 31-27-2.2, on the prohibited list at § 12-1.3-1(6). DUI resulting in serious bodily injury: § 31-27-2.6.
- Chemical-test refusal, including second or later refusals: § 31-27-2.1(c)(2) to (c)(5).
- Traffic Tribunal expungement by operation of law: § 31-41.1-10.
- The ten-year look-back: § 31-27-2(d) and § 31-27-2.1(c), as changed by P.L. 2024, ch. 217 and ch. 218, effective July 1, 2025.
- What an expungement does, and its use at a later sentencing: § 12-1.3-4(a), (b) and (c). Law enforcement agency defined: § 12-1.3-1(4).
- The June 2026 act: P.L. 2026 (H 7079 Sub A / S 3036 Sub A).
- The judge's decision: § 12-1.3-3(b).
