Rule 48(a) dismissals in District Court: sealed automatically
If your District Court case was dismissed under District Court Rule of Criminal Procedure 48(a) on or after January 1, 2023, it was sealed automatically, by operation of law, not less than ten and not more than twenty days after the dismissal. You do not file a motion.
If your Rule 48(a) dismissal came before that date, you still do not need a motion. The clerk seals it administratively when you ask. The order goes to the Bureau of Criminal Identification within five days and is carried out within ninety.
Sealing a not-guilty verdict or other dismissal by motion
This covers anyone acquitted or otherwise exonerated of all counts. That includes a dismissal not covered above, a no true bill, or a no information.
You file a motion to seal, and the court sets a hearing. If the court finds you are entitled to sealing, it orders the records sealed, and the clerk seals them within forty-five days.
One requirement people miss: at least ten days before the hearing, you must give notice of the hearing date to the Department of the Attorney General and to the police department that originally brought the charge.
Your prior record does not affect this. Sealing turns on how this case ended, not on what else you have. And no waiting period applies, other than the domestic violence rule below.
Wrongful arrest or mistaken identity with no charge filed
A separate law covers a person "wrongfully or incorrectly arrested as a result of mistaken identity or any other reason" where, "as a result of such wrongful arrest, no charges have been filed in any court of this state."
Here the sealing is done by the law enforcement agency that decides the arrest was wrongful, not by a court on your motion. If a charge was filed in court, this is not your path; the sealing routes above are.
Filed domestic violence charges: the three-year hold
This is a real limit. Where a domestic violence charge was filed after a plea of not guilty, guilty, or nolo contendere, the court must keep the records for three years from the date of filing, and they "shall not be expunged or sealed" during that time.
The law behind this page
- Automatic sealing of District Court Rule 48(a) dismissals on or after January 1, 2023: R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-1-12.1(a)(1).
- Clerk sealing, at your request, of Rule 48(a) dismissals before that date: § 12-1-12.1(a)(2).
- Sealing by motion after an acquittal or other exoneration on all counts, and the ten-day notice to the Attorney General and the police department: § 12-1-12.1(b).
- The three-year hold on filed domestic violence charges: § 12-1-12.1(c).
- Sealing after a wrongful arrest where no charge was filed in any Rhode Island court: § 12-1-12.2.
