Rhode Island expungement filing fee: zero
There is no filing fee for a motion to expunge in Rhode Island. There used to be a $100 fee, and it was due when the motion was granted, not when it was filed. The law ordered the expungement "after payment by the petitioner of a one hundred dollar ($100) fee to be paid to the court." That language was struck effective July 3, 2021.
A lot of advice still online was written before that date and still quotes the $100. If the cost put you off at some point, that cost no longer exists.
Unpaid fines and costs can stop your expungement
This is the part that catches people. Before it can grant the motion, the court has to find that the petitioner "does not owe any outstanding court-imposed or court-related fees, fines, costs, assessments, or charges, unless such amounts are reduced or waived by order of the court."
So an unpaid balance from the original case — court costs, a fine, restitution, an assessment you forgot about — is not a billing problem. It is an eligibility problem, and it will stop the motion no matter how long ago the case ended.
The same rule leaves a door open: the amounts can be "reduced or waived by order of the court." That takes its own motion, and it is worth making before the expungement is denied, not after.
Decriminalized offenses: expunged without cost
If your record is for conduct that has since been decriminalized, and the court finds your sentence complete and all fines, fees and costs paid, it "shall ... order the expungement without cost to the petitioner." That is the only place in the expungement law that uses those words.
The costs that are real
Two things do cost money, and the court charges for neither.
The first is your BCI record. The Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Identification charges $5 for a Rhode Island state background check. You want it before you file, because it is the official version of what you are asking the court to clear.
The second is a lawyer, if you use one. Fees depend on how many cases are involved and which legal path applies. A single straightforward motion is quoted flat, so you know the number before anything is filed. With no filing fee, the legal fee is the main cost, and the $5 BCI record is the only other.
Is an expungement lawyer worth paying for
It depends on the record. Some motions are just paperwork. A lawyer earns the fee where the answer is contested or the file is not clean: several cases, a charge whose classification is arguable, an old disposition nobody can read, or a balance that has to be waived before anything else can happen.
The eligibility checker will tell you which of those you are looking at.
The law behind this page
- The $100 fee, once due when the motion was granted, struck effective July 3, 2021: P.L. 2021, ch. 141, § 2 and ch. 142, § 2, shown in the amendment history of R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-1.3-3.
- No outstanding court-imposed or court-related fees, fines, costs, assessments or charges, unless the court reduces or waives them: § 12-1.3-3(b)(1)(i).
- Decriminalized offenses expunged without cost to the petitioner: § 12-1.3-3(e).
- Source: R.I. Attorney General, Bureau of Criminal Identification — $5 for a Rhode Island state background check.
