How to File for Expungement in Rhode Island

The expungement notice requirement

Once the court sets your hearing date, you must give notice of it to two places: the Attorney General's office and the police department that brought the charge. The notice must go out at least ten days before the hearing.

In the law's words, you "shall give notice of the hearing date set by the court to the department of the attorney general and the police department that originally brought the charge against the person at least ten (10) days prior to that date."

A motion to seal has the same requirement. Both recipients, ten days, every time. This is the step to get right.

What the court has to find

The judge does not have to grant the motion. After a hearing that considers all relevant testimony and information, the court may order the expungement if it finds that you meet the waiting and clean-period requirements, that nothing is pending against you, that you owe nothing, and that you have shown good character.

The court must also find that your "rehabilitation has been attained to the court's satisfaction," and that expungement "is consistent with the public interest."

So bring proof: work history, letters, certificates, treatment records, anything about the years since. Being eligible gets you the hearing. This is what wins it.

Expungement filing fee: none

There is no filing fee. The $100 fee was eliminated effective July 3, 2021.

If your record is for conduct that has since been decriminalized, the law tells the court to order the expungement "without cost to the petitioner."

After the expungement order

The court orders the records expunged and all index and other references removed from public inspection. It sends a copy of the order to any law enforcement agency and any other agency known to hold the records — known by you, by the Attorney General, or by the court. If you know of an agency that holds your records, tell the court.

At the hearing you will be told that any bail money still on deposit and unclaimed at the time of expungement goes to the state's general treasury. Claim it.

If a DNA sample was taken in your case, expunging it is a separate process.

Start with your BCI record

File from your BCI record, not from memory. The Bureau of Criminal Identification, part of the Attorney General's office, issues the official version of your Rhode Island record.

Counts, dates and how each case ended all matter. People are wrong about their own records more often than they expect.

The steps, in order

1. Look your case up firstThe Judiciary's public portal at publicportal.courts.ri.gov is the fastest way to see your own file. Open Smart Search, type your last name then your first name — Smith, John — and press enter. Read the disposition and note the date your sentence closed; those two decide everything.
2. Get your BCI recordGo to the Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Identification, 4 Howard Avenue, Cranston, RI 02920 — the corner of Pontiac and Howard. Open weekdays, 8:30am to 4:30pm, and the fingerprint process stops at 4:00pm. Bring photo ID and $5 for the Rhode Island state record. This is the official version of your record — file from this, not from memory.
3. File in the court of convictionThe motion to expunge is filed in the same court that handled the case. There is no filing fee.
4. Give notice — at least 10 days before the hearingThis is the step people miss. Once the court sets your hearing date, you must give notice of it to the Department of the Attorney General AND to the police department that originally brought the charge, at least 10 days before the hearing.
5. Attend the hearingThe judge must find good character, rehabilitation, and that expungement serves the public interest — bring proof: work history, letters, certificates. The grant is discretionary even when you are fully eligible to file.
6. After the orderThe court sends the order to the agencies known to hold your records; tell the court about any you know of. If your DNA sample was taken in the case, its expungement is handled separately And claim any bail money still on deposit — unclaimed bail is escheated to the state's general treasury at expungement.

The law behind this page

• 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 same notice on a motion to seal: § 12-1-12.1(b)(1).
• What the court must find — waiting and clean periods, nothing pending, nothing owed, good character, rehabilitation, and the public interest — and that the order is discretionary: § 12-1.3-3(b).
• The $100 fee eliminated effective July 3, 2021: P.L. 2021, ch. 141 and ch. 142.
• Decriminalized offenses expunged without cost to the petitioner: § 12-1.3-3(e).
• The order, and copies sent to agencies known to hold the records: § 12-1.3-3(c).
• Unclaimed bail on deposit goes to the state's general treasury: § 12-1.3-3(d).
• Expunging a DNA sample: § 12-1.5-13.
• Source: R.I. Attorney General, Bureau of Criminal Identification (the official state record).