Expungement & Clean Slate

Last updated June 22, 2026

What expungement actually does

A Michigan expungement, formally a set-aside, removes a conviction from your public record. After it is granted, the offense should no longer appear on the background checks that employers, landlords, and licensing boards run. It is one of the most direct ways to undo the long tail of an old charge, and since the Clean Slate Act of 2021, far more people qualify than before.

Two ways a record gets cleared

Automatic expungement. In effect since April 2023, this clears qualifying records on a timer with no application: certain misdemeanors after seven years, and certain felonies after ten years, measured from the relevant date and assuming no disqualifying activity in between. You do nothing, but you also do not control the timing, and plenty of offenses fall outside it.

By petition. For everything else, or when you want a record cleared sooner than the automatic timeline, you file a petition to set aside. Under current law an eligible person can clear up to three felonies and an unlimited number of misdemeanors, within the statute’s limits. A petition involves fingerprints, a filing with the Michigan State Police, notice to the prosecutor and the Attorney General, and usually a hearing.

What cannot be cleared

The statute carves out serious offenses. First-degree criminal sexual conduct, offenses that carry a maximum of life, certain traffic offenses, and a handful of other categories are not eligible. Part of our first conversation is checking your specific convictions against those exclusions, so you are not waiting on something that can never happen.

Waiting periods

The clock depends on what you are clearing, generally three, five, or seven years from the completion of the sentence, with longer periods for multiple or more serious offenses, and five years for a qualifying first-offense OWI. New convictions during the waiting period reset or block eligibility, which is why timing the petition correctly matters.

How we handle it

We start with an eligibility review: you tell us what is on your record, and we tell you what qualifies, under which path, and when. If you are eligible now, we prepare and file the petition, coordinate the fingerprinting and State Police steps, and appear at the hearing. The goal is a clean grant the first time, because a denied petition can mean waiting years to try again.

This is a focused part of our criminal defense practice. Call (313) 425-5555 to talk through your situation.