Expungement Services
Expungement Services
1. What are Expungement Services?
Expungement Services is a program to help residents get their criminal records expunged to gain access to better job, housing, and education opportunities.
2. How do I register? Am I eligible already?
To learn more, call us at 313-962-WORK (9675). Our staff will help you register with Expungement Services to see if you’re eligible and get you started with the expungement process.
3. How long does the expungement process take?
On average, the expungement process takes up to 12 months from your first meeting with our attorney to your expungement hearing. You will get updates every week on your case status throughout this process.
4. Am I eligible?
Effective April 11, 2021, new legislation expanded the numbers and types of convictions eligible for expungement.
To be eligible to be assisted, the potential participant’s criminal record must have:
- Up to three felonies and an unlimited number of misdemeanors, with certain conditions on the types of offenses that qualify:
- No more than two assaultive crimes may be expunged.
- No more than one felony conviction for the same offense if the offense is punishable by more than 10 years imprisonment.
- The waiting period to apply after a person's monitoring by the justice system ends (i.e., sentencing, probation, release from incarceration, parole, whichever occurred last) if they remain conviction-free. The waiting period will be:
- Three years for misdemeanors.
- Five years for serious misdemeanors or one felony.
- Seven years for multiple felonies.
- Most traffic offenses will be eligible for expungement. This excludes convictions for:
- Driving while intoxicated.
- Traffic offenses that cause injury or death.
- Commercial Driver License violations.
- Misdemeanor marijuana possession and use that would not have been considered crimes after recreational marijuana was legalized in Michigan. Judges must grant expungements if prosecutors do not object.
- None of the offenses can be assaultive or involve the use or possession of a dangerous weapon.
- None of the offenses can carry a maximum penalty of 10 or more years in prison.
- Convictions that cannot be expunged from a criminal record include:
- Felonies that carry a maximum punishment of life in prison.
- Attempt to commit a felony for which the maximum punishment is life.
- Felony domestic violence (if the person had a previous domestic violence misdemeanor).
- Child abuse.
- Most criminal sexual conduct offenses.
- DUIs, and traffic offenses causing injury or death.
- Multiple felonies or misdemeanors arising from the same 24-hour period as one conviction for the purposes of expungement.