What the statute says
§ 31-41.1-10 provides that all violations within title 31 that are in the jurisdiction of the Traffic Tribunal or of a municipal court shall, by operation of law, after three years following adjudication and after expiration of any mandatory record-retention period, be expunged from the records of the tribunal or municipal court and from the records of the Division of Motor Vehicles.
The exception is alcohol-related: offenses under § 31-27-2.1 — refusal to submit to a chemical test — are expunged after five years rather than three.
It is in addition to everything else
The statute is explicit: these expungements "shall be in addition to and not in place of any expungement provided for by chapter 1.3 of title 12." Getting this relief costs you nothing on the criminal side.
This matters if you have been told your refusal is a dead end. Chapter 12-1.3's multiple-misdemeanor path does exclude § 31-27-2.1 offenses — but that exclusion is about the criminal expungement statute. It has nothing to do with § 31-41.1-10, which clears the Traffic Tribunal adjudication on its own schedule.
Refusal and DUI are two different records
In Rhode Island a chemical test refusal is adjudicated at the Traffic Tribunal, while a DUI is a criminal charge in District Court. One incident can produce both, and they clear on entirely different tracks.
The Traffic Tribunal refusal is covered by this statute at five years. The criminal DUI conviction is not — it runs on Chapter 12-1.3, and if it is your only conviction it becomes filable five years after you complete your sentence.
If it is still showing up
The relief is automatic, but records systems are not perfect. If a violation still appears after the three or five years have run, contact the clerk of the Traffic Tribunal or the municipal court that handled it, and check your driving record with the Division of Motor Vehicles separately.
