What you get from an expungement lawyer
- A straight answer on eligibility — read from your actual BCI record and the law that governs it, not a guess.
- The motion drafted and filed in the court that handled your case, on the right legal path the first time.
- Notice served correctly on the Attorney General and the police department that brought the charge, ten days before the hearing. This is where self-filed motions most often fail.
- Representation at the hearing, including the rehabilitation showing the court has to make findings on before it can grant anything.
- Follow-through after the order — making sure every agency holding your record is named and served with it.
Expungement and sealing cases handled
First-offender expungements, misdemeanor and felony. Multiple-misdemeanor petitions. Deferred sentences. Sealing of dismissals, acquittals, no true bills and no informations. Decriminalized offenses. Marijuana records that never got cleared automatically. Traffic Tribunal and refusal records. Prostitution convictions, and vacatur of prostitution or solicitation convictions for trafficking victims.
Statewide — Providence, Kent, Washington, Newport and Bristol counties, District Court and Superior Court.
When a lawyer changes the outcome
Some records are simple and some are not. A lawyer earns the fee where the answer is contested or the file is not clean: several cases under different laws, an out-of-state case, an earlier probation that may have cost you first-offender status, a charge whose classification is disputed, an Attorney General objection at the hearing, or a judge who needs to be persuaded on rehabilitation and the public interest.
It is also worth a phone call before you accept a "you are not eligible" that came from a summary rather than from the law. That answer is wrong more often than it should be. The crimes-of-violence list alone is narrower than most people are told, and the traffic and one-year paths are routinely missed.
You do not have to go to court
The firm drafts the motion, files it, and argues it. Attorney Thomasian appears at the hearing for you, so you do not have to take a day off work, arrange childcare, or walk back into the building where the case happened. For many people that last one is the real obstacle, not the law.
Distance is not a barrier either. The motion is filed in the court that handled your case and the hearing is attended for you, so living out of state does not stop you from clearing a Rhode Island record.
What an expungement lawyer costs
The court charges no filing fee for a motion to expunge, so the legal fee is the main cost of the process rather than one charge among several.
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.
Who does the work
Thomas C. Thomasian has been admitted to the Rhode Island bar since 2007. He began as an attorney for the Public Defender's Office, and criminal defense has been his only practice area since, in every district and superior criminal court in the state.
Clients rate the firm 4.9 out of 5 across 188 Google reviews. The expungement motion is the end of the work, not the middle of it: the point where you stop managing a record and are finished with it.
Which expungement path is yours
Rhode Island does not have one expungement law. It has several, and they do not all work the same way. Some need a motion, some clear on their own, and the waiting periods run from different events. These are the routes:
- First offender — five years after a misdemeanor, ten after a felony.
- More than one misdemeanor — up to five.
- Two to four felonies — a path that did not exist before June 22, 2026.
- Dismissed, acquitted or not guilty — sealing, whatever else is on your record.
- A completed deferred sentence — expungeable as soon as the deferral period ends.
- A Traffic Tribunal violation — expunged by operation of law after three years (five for a refusal) and after any mandatory state or federal record-retention period has expired, with nothing to file.
- Marijuana possession — automatic, with outstanding amounts related to the eligible conviction waived.
- A prostitution conviction — one year after the sentence, whether or not you are a first offender.
- A prostitution or solicitation conviction you were trafficked into — vacated, not merely sealed.
Start with the eligibility check
The checker on this site walks through the law with you and names the section behind every answer. If it says you appear eligible, you can send your answers straight through at the end and a lawyer will look at your case. No form to fill out twice — the questions that decided your eligibility are the ones the attorney needs answered.
The law behind this page
- No court filing fee for a motion to expunge: the $100 fee was eliminated effective July 3, 2021 by P.L. 2021, ch. 141 and ch. 142.
- Ten days' notice of the hearing to the Attorney General and the police department that brought the charge: R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-1.3-3(a).
- The court's findings, including rehabilitation and the public interest: § 12-1.3-3(b).
- First offender, five years after a misdemeanor and ten after a felony: § 12-1.3-2.
- More than one misdemeanor, up to five, with a motion for any or all of them: § 12-1.3-2(b).
- Two to four felonies: § 12-1.3-2(c).
- Sealing a dismissal, acquittal or not-guilty verdict: § 12-1-12.1.
- Traffic Tribunal violations expunged by operation of law: § 31-41.1-10; refusals: § 31-27-2.1.
- Marijuana possession expunged automatically: § 12-1.3-5.
- Prostitution convictions: § 11-34.1-5.
- Vacatur for trafficking victims: § 11-67.1-17.
- What you may say after an expungement, and the five exceptions: § 12-1.3-4.
