Sealing vs. expungement in Rhode Island
If your case was dismissed, ended in a not-guilty verdict, ended with no true bill, or ended with no information filed, you are not looking for an expungement at all. You are looking for sealing.
Sealing is a far easier path. It does not care what else is on your record, and there is no waiting period.
Expungement is the other motion. It has waiting periods, it counts your whole record, and it excludes certain offenses entirely.
The rules sit in a dozen sections across four titles of the General Laws. That is why people are told "you're not eligible" all the time by someone reading the wrong one.
Rhode Island expungement paths and waiting periods
- First offender — one case, nothing else on your record. Five years after you complete a misdemeanor sentence, ten after a felony.
- Two to five misdemeanors — no felony that is a crime of violence or other prohibited offense (since June 2026, any other felony no longer bars this path), ten years since your last sentence closed, and ten clean years.
- Two to four felonies — new since June 2026: no crime of violence, no prohibited offense, fifteen years from your last sentence and fifteen clean years.
- Deferred sentence — expungeable on completion, with no five- or ten-year wait.
- Decriminalized offenses — no waiting period at all.
- Marijuana possession — automatic, and it overrides almost every normal bar.
- Traffic Tribunal and municipal court violations — automatic after three years and after any mandatory state or federal record-retention period; five years for a chemical-test refusal.
- Filings — automatically expunged when the filing period runs out. A domestic violence filing takes longer: it expunges without a motion three years after the filing if you are not charged with another domestic violence crime in that time, or, if you are charged, you are acquitted or the complaint is dismissed.
- Prostitution and loitering for prostitution — may be expunged one year after you complete the sentence, and the court may grant the motion in its discretion whether or not you are a first offender.
- Trafficking victims — a conviction for prostitution or solicitation to commit a sexual act, committed as a direct result of being a trafficking victim, can be vacated outright, not merely sealed.
What blocks an expungement in Rhode Island
Two bars apply almost everywhere.
A crime of violence, as the expungement law defines that term, cannot be expunged at all — not after five years, not after fifty. The definition is a specific list, and it is not the same as what most people mean by a violent crime. Read the actual list before assuming you are on it.
Pending charges and unpaid money block the order. Any criminal case pending anywhere stops an expungement. So do outstanding court-imposed fines, fees, costs, assessments or restitution — unless the court reduces or waives them, which you are allowed to ask for.
Eligible to file is not the same as granted
Every path above gets you to the courthouse door. None of them gets you through it. The court "may, in its discretion" order the expungement, and only if it finds good character, that rehabilitation has been attained to the court's satisfaction, and that the order is consistent with the public interest.
That is why this site tells you whether you are eligible to file, and never tells you that you will win.
The law behind this page
- The expungement chapter: R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 12-1.3.
- Sealing a case that was dismissed, found not guilty, no true bill or no information: § 12-1-12.1.
- First offender, five and ten years: § 12-1.3-2(a), (d) and (e).
- Two to five misdemeanors: § 12-1.3-2(b) and (g).
- Two to four felonies: § 12-1.3-2(c) and (h).
- Deferred sentences: § 12-1.3-2(f) and § 12-19-19(c).
- Decriminalized offenses: § 12-1.3-2(i).
- Marijuana possession: § 12-1.3-5.
- Traffic Tribunal and municipal court violations: § 31-41.1-10; the refusal statute is § 31-27-2.1.
- Filings: § 12-10-12(c); domestic violence filings: § 12-10-12(d).
- Prostitution and loitering for prostitution (violations of § 11-34.1-2 or § 11-34.1-4): § 11-34.1-5.
- Trafficking victims: § 11-67.1-17.
- The judge's decision: § 12-1.3-3(b).
