Traffic Tribunal expungement: the three-year rule
Every motor vehicle violation handled by the Traffic Tribunal or a municipal court is expunged by operation of law. That happens after three years following adjudication and after any mandatory record-retention period has run.
It comes off the records of the tribunal or municipal court and the records of the Division of Motor Vehicles.
The exception is a chemical-test refusal. It is expunged after five years rather than three.
It is in addition to everything else
The law 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. The criminal expungement law's multiple-misdemeanor path does exclude refusals — but that exclusion is about the criminal expungement law. It has nothing to do with this one, which clears the Traffic Tribunal adjudication on its own schedule.
Refusal vs. DUI: 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 law at five years. The criminal DUI conviction is not. It runs on the criminal expungement law, and if it is the only thing on your record it becomes filable five years from the plea, or five years from the end of any probation or suspended sentence.
If the violation 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. Check your driving record with the Division of Motor Vehicles separately.
The law behind this page
- Automatic expungement of Traffic Tribunal and municipal court violations, three years or five for a refusal: R.I. Gen. Laws § 31-41.1-10.
- Chemical-test refusal: § 31-27-2.1.
- The criminal expungement law, which this is in addition to: chapter 12-1.3.
- The multiple-misdemeanor path's refusal exclusion: § 12-1.3-2(b).
