Criminal Law · Expungements
You can answer “no.”
To an employer. Not to a court, and not at your next sentencing. The difference matters.
Missouri’s expungement law is more generous than most people believe and narrower than most people hope. Since the 2018 rewrite and the amendments that took effect in January 2025, a great many old cases can be cleared — and a hard list of offenses never can, including some that surprise people badly. The waiting periods are shorter than they used to be, the lifetime caps are real, and the single most valuable thing to understand is what an expungement actually does, because it is not the total erasure the word suggests.
The clock
Three waiting periods, and they run from the end of your sentence.
Felony — three years
Measured from the date you completed the authorized disposition under § 557.011 — not from the offense, not from the plea. Probation ending late moves the date.
Misdemeanor — one year
Same measuring point. Applies equally to a misdemeanor, a municipal ordinance violation, or an infraction.
Arrest with no charge — eighteen months
Where you were arrested but never charged, § 610.140.7 permits a petition no earlier than eighteen months from the date of arrest. This was shortened from three years effective 1 January 2025.
Lifetime caps. § 610.140.13 permits expungement of not more than two felony offenses and not more than three misdemeanor offenses or ordinance violations that carry a possible jail term. Infractions are not capped. Because the cap is a lifetime allowance rather than an annual one, which cases you clear — and in what order — is a decision worth making deliberately.
What an expungement actually does, and the three things it does not do. Under § 610.140.11 you may lawfully “answer ‘no’ to an employer’s inquiry into whether the person has ever been arrested, charged, or convicted of a crime” — provided you have no remaining public record. Subsection 9 restores your civil rights “as if such events had never taken place,” expressly including voting, holding public office and jury service. But: records are closed and sealed, not destroyed. You must still disclose the expunged offense to any court when asked or upon being charged with a subsequent crime. It “may be considered a prior offense in determining a sentence” for any later offense. And subsection 10 requires disclosure on applications for professional licences and permits, gaming and lottery licensing, emergency services employment, federally insured banks and credit unions, and insurance entities — where it may still be disqualifying. Yes to ordinary private employers. No to courts, no at your next sentencing, and no in those licensed industries.
The exclusions
What can never be expunged in Missouri.
§ 610.140.3 makes eleven categories permanently ineligible. In substance:
Any class A felony. Any dangerous felony as defined in § 556.061. Any offense requiring registration as a sex offender. Any felony where the death of a person is an element.
Felony assault; kidnapping; and — the one that catches people — both misdemeanor and felony domestic assault. A class A misdemeanor fourth-degree domestic assault under § 565.076 is permanently non-expungeable in Missouri. That consequence is decided at the plea, years before anyone thinks about clearing it, and it is the strongest argument for taking a domestic charge seriously at the outset rather than resolving it quickly to make it go away. See domestic violence and orders of protection.
Intoxication-related traffic and boating offenses, which route instead to § 610.130 — and motor vehicle offenses committed by a CDL holder or in a commercial vehicle, which are excluded outright.
There is also a list of specific enumerated statutory offenses, and ordinance violations substantially equivalent to any excluded offense. Whether a particular charge falls inside one of these categories is genuinely a question to check against the statute rather than assume — including § 571.030 unlawful use of weapons, which is excluded but carries two real carve-outs that remain expungeable.
DWI is its own statute, and the wait is ten years. An intoxication-related traffic offense cannot be expunged under the general statute. It goes through RSMo § 610.130, which requires ten years from the date of conviction, permits one expungement per lifetime — “A person shall only be entitled to one expungement pursuant to this section” — applies only to a first offense that was a misdemeanor or ordinance violation, and does not apply at all to anyone who has been issued or is required to hold a commercial driver’s licence. If you have seen § 577.054 cited for this, that section no longer exists; the provision was moved into chapter 610.
Marijuana
Automatic — but narrower than the ballot language suggested.
Amendment 3 took effect 8 December 2022. Under Mo. Const. art. XIV, § 2.10(7), courts were required to expunge “all government records” of qualifying marijuana offenses automatically — including suspended impositions of sentence and dismissed charges — by 8 June 2023 for misdemeanors and 8 December 2023 for felonies. People still incarcerated proceed by petition, and Missouri courts publish a form for it.
The 2025 narrowing
In C.S. v. Missouri State Highway Patrol, No. SC100944 (Mo. banc, October 2025), the Missouri Supreme Court construed “marijuana offense” narrowly, limiting eligibility to offenses involving three ounces or less. That is a substantially smaller pool than the ballot language appeared to promise, and it cuts against many felony possession cases.
Do not assume it happened
Compliance with the 2023 deadlines was uneven across circuits, and records remain uncleared in some counties. If you were told your case would clear automatically, verify it rather than trusting it — a background check is how most people discover it did not.
What is excluded
Offenses involving violence, distribution or delivery to a minor, and operating a vehicle while impaired by marijuana are outside the automatic expungement entirely.
The other routes
Not every clean-up is a § 610.140 petition.
Closed records — § 610.105
Where a case was nolle prossed, dismissed, ended in acquittal, or resolved by a suspended imposition of sentence, the official records “shall thereafter be closed records when such case is finally terminated.” This closes rather than expunges — the record still exists and is removed from public access, and the judgment and the prosecutor’s final action remain available.
Arrest record expungement — § 610.122
Genuine expungement of an arrest record where the arrest was based on false information and there is no probable cause to believe you committed the offense, or where the arrest was for certain chapter 303 misdemeanors or moving violations that were dismissed or ended in acquittal. Not available to CDL holders or where a related civil action is pending.
Arrest with no charge — § 610.140.7
Eighteen months from the arrest, provided no charge was filed in the interim.
What the petition must contain
§ 610.140.5: your full name, sex, race, driver’s licence number and current address; each offense; the approximate date of charge; the county or municipality; and the case number and court.
Who gets named
§ 610.140.4 requires naming as defendants every law enforcement agency, court, prosecuting or circuit attorney, and central state repository that may hold the records. Missing one is the most common procedural defect.
The fee
§ 488.650 imposes a $250 surcharge on a § 610.140 petition, waivable on a finding of indigency.
What you must prove. Under § 610.140.6: the waiting period has run; you have not been found guilty of any other misdemeanor or felony during the period; all obligations of the disposition are satisfied, including fines and restitution; no charges are pending; your habits and conduct show you are not a threat to public safety; and expungement is consistent with the public welfare and the interests of justice. The last two are discretionary, and they are where a well-prepared petition earns its keep.
If it is denied — because the criteria were not met or false information was given — § 610.140.12 bars refiling for one year from the date of the previous filing. That is a strong reason not to file a thin petition to see what happens.
Meet Derek Haake
Traffic, misdemeanors and felonies — for almost fifteen years.
Derek has handled criminal matters across all three tiers of Missouri’s system — traffic and municipal cases, misdemeanors, and felonies — for almost fifteen years. That range matters more than it sounds like it should. The lawyer who only takes felonies does not know what a municipal court will actually do with a speeding ticket that carries points; the lawyer who only takes tickets does not know what a persistent offender finding does to a sentencing range.
What distinguishes the work here is the constitutional side of it. Derek also maintains a civil rights and § 1983 practice built on exactly the questions that decide criminal cases: when a stop is lawful, when a search is not, what makes a seizure unreasonable, and what happens to the evidence when the answer is the wrong one.
That is not a separate discipline from criminal defense. It is the same Fourth Amendment argued from the other chair. A suppression motion and a § 1983 claim ask the same question about the same conduct — one asks a court to exclude what the officer found, the other asks a jury to compensate for what the officer did.
He also writes about this. See what actually happens when you are charged with a crime in Missouri, expungement — the process and who is eligible, and who controls the St. Louis police.
Common questions
Missouri expungement, answered.
Am I eligible?
Work through it in this order. First, is the offense on the § 610.140.3 exclusion list — class A felony, dangerous felony, sex offender registration, felony where death is an element, felony assault, kidnapping, any domestic assault, intoxication-related traffic offense, CDL motor vehicle offense? If yes, the general statute is closed to you.
Second, has the waiting period run — three years for a felony, one for a misdemeanor, measured from completion of the sentence rather than the plea? Third, are you within the lifetime caps of two felonies and three jailable misdemeanors? Fourth, are all fines, costs and restitution actually paid, with nothing pending?
Then the discretionary part: your conduct since, and whether the court is satisfied you are not a threat to public safety and that expungement serves the public welfare. That is where a petition is either persuasive or perfunctory. We have written a fuller walkthrough at expungement — the process and who is eligible.
Does an expungement really erase everything?
No, and this is the most important paragraph on the page. Records are closed and sealed, not destroyed. § 610.140.8 directs every entity holding a record to close it; the records remain “confidential and only available to the parties or by order of the court for good cause shown.”
Three carve-outs survive. You must disclose the expunged offense to any court when asked or upon being charged with a subsequent crime. It may be counted as a prior offense in sentencing you for any later offense — so an expunged case still enhances. And § 610.140.10 requires disclosure on applications for professional licences and permits, chapter 313 gaming and state lottery licensing, emergency services employment, federally insured banks and credit unions, and insurance entities.
What you do get is substantial: your civil rights restored, and the right under subsection 11 to answer “no” to an ordinary employer’s question about arrests, charges and convictions. For most people that is the thing they actually needed.
How long does the process take?
Typically a few months from filing, though it varies considerably by county. The petition is filed in the circuit court where you were charged, every agency holding records is named and served, and the court sets a hearing. The prosecutor may object, and agencies may respond.
The preparation before filing is often the longer part — obtaining your complete criminal history, confirming case numbers and disposition dates across every court involved, and verifying that all financial obligations really are satisfied. An unpaid $60 court cost from 2014 will defeat an otherwise strong petition.
After the order is entered, allow additional time for records to actually close across the agencies. Background check databases held by private vendors are a separate problem and sometimes need to be addressed directly.
Can I expunge a DWI?
Possibly — through a different statute, and the terms are much harder. § 610.140 expressly excludes intoxication-related traffic offenses. § 610.130 governs, and it requires ten years from the conviction, allows one in a lifetime, reaches only a first offense that was a misdemeanor or municipal ordinance violation, and requires no subsequent intoxication-related offense and no pending related charges.
It does not apply at all to anyone who has been issued or is required to hold a commercial driver’s licence. That exclusion is absolute.
Where it applies, the effect is to restore you “to the status he or she occupied prior to such arrest, plea or conviction.” See DWI and DUI defense. And note again that § 577.054, cited in older articles for this, no longer exists.
I was arrested but never charged. Does that show up?
Yes. An arrest with no charge still appears on background checks and in the state repository, and people are turned down for jobs and housing over arrests that never became anything.
Two routes. § 610.140.7 permits a petition no earlier than eighteen months from the date of arrest, provided no charge was filed in the interim — shortened from three years effective 1 January 2025. Separately, § 610.122 allows expungement where the arrest was based on false information and there is no probable cause at the time of the action to believe you committed the offense, with no charges to be pursued and no related civil action pending.
If your case was instead charged and then dismissed or nolle prossed, § 610.105 already makes those records closed records on final termination — which is not the same as expungement, but is real protection, and worth confirming actually happened.
Why can I never expunge a domestic assault?
Because the legislature said so. § 610.140.3(5) excludes “any felony offense of assault; misdemeanor or felony offense of domestic assault; and any felony offense of kidnapping.” The inclusion of misdemeanor domestic assault is deliberate and absolute.
The practical consequence is severe and almost never explained at the plea. A class A misdemeanor fourth-degree domestic assault under § 565.076 — which can be as little as knowingly causing contact the other person finds offensive — is permanent. It sits on your record for life, and it carries the federal firearm prohibition under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9) with it.
This is why a domestic charge should never be resolved quickly just to end the stress. The plea that makes it go away this month is the one you cannot undo in twenty years. See domestic violence and orders of protection.
My marijuana case was supposed to clear automatically. Did it?
Check rather than assume. The constitutional deadlines were June 2023 for misdemeanors and December 2023 for felonies, and compliance varied considerably across Missouri’s circuits — records remain uncleared in some counties well past those dates.
Eligibility also turned out narrower than expected. In C.S. v. Missouri State Highway Patrol, No. SC100944 (Mo. banc, October 2025), the Missouri Supreme Court limited “marijuana offense” to offenses involving three ounces or less. Many felony possession cases fall outside that.
The way to know is to pull your own record — a Missouri State Highway Patrol criminal history check and a Case.net search on your case numbers. If it did not clear and you qualify, a petition is available. If you fall outside the constitutional route, the general § 610.140 path may still be open depending on the offense.
What does it cost?
There is a statutory $250 surcharge on a § 610.140 petition under § 488.650, waivable on a finding of indigency — ask about the waiver if the fee is a genuine obstacle, because it is granted.
Legal fees are flat and quoted before the work starts. Multiple cases in one petition are usually more efficient than separate filings, though the lifetime caps mean the selection matters as much as the count.
Set against that: expungement is one of the few legal services with a measurable return. It is worth being deliberate about, not because it is expensive, but because the caps mean you generally get one good run at your record.
Should I expunge everything I can as soon as I can?
Not necessarily, and this is where the lifetime caps change the calculus. You get two felonies and three jailable misdemeanors in a lifetime. Spending one on a minor old case you could live with means it is unavailable for something that matters more later.
Think about which records are actually costing you something. A twenty-year-old municipal ordinance violation nobody asks about is different from a felony that is closing doors now. Infractions do not count against the caps at all, so those are free.
Also think about sequence and timing. If you have a case whose waiting period has not yet run, and another that has, filing them together may not be possible — and a denial bars refiling for a year under § 610.140.12. This is a plan worth making once, properly, rather than filing piecemeal.
Will an expungement restore my gun rights?
It restores your Missouri civil rights — § 610.140.9 says the order restores you “to the status such person occupied prior to such arrest, plea or conviction,” expressly naming voting, holding public office and jury service.
Firearms are more complicated, and you should not rely on a general answer. Federal prohibitions under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) operate on their own terms, and the effect of a state expungement on federal firearm disability depends on the nature of the conviction and what the state relief actually did. A domestic violence misdemeanor is a particular problem, because it is both non-expungeable in Missouri and independently disqualifying federally under § 922(g)(9).
Note also that § 610.140.10 specifically requires disclosure of an expunged offense on an application for a permit under chapter 571. If firearms are the reason you are pursuing this, say so at the outset so the analysis is done properly rather than assumed. See firearms offenses.
Do I need a lawyer, or can I file it myself?
You can file it yourself, and some people do successfully. The petition form is available and the statute is public.
What goes wrong is procedural rather than conceptual. Failing to name every agency that holds records under § 610.140.4 — the arresting agency, the court, the prosecutor, the state repository — is the most common defect. So is an unnoticed unpaid cost, a disposition date that turns out to be later than remembered, or an offense that quietly falls inside an exclusion category. And a denial locks you out for a year.
The discretionary findings also reward preparation. “Habits and conduct show he or she is not a threat to public safety” is an invitation to put evidence in front of the court — employment, treatment, service, letters, the years since — and a bare petition does not do that.
What if my case is one that can never be expunged?
There are still options, and they are worth knowing rather than giving up on.
If the case ended in a suspended imposition of sentence, dismissal, nolle prosequi or acquittal, § 610.105 already makes the records closed records — not public — even though it is not an expungement. Confirm that actually happened, because sometimes it did not.
Beyond that: a pardon from the Governor is a separate form of relief with its own process. Private background check vendors frequently carry stale or inaccurate data that can be challenged directly under federal fair credit reporting law. And for some collateral problems — professional licensing in particular — the workable answer is a well-documented explanation rather than a clean record.
Bring the actual case numbers to a consultation. What is possible depends on the specific disposition, and that is frequently different from what people remember it being.
Ready to clear it?
Two felonies and three misdemeanors. Spend them well.
Twenty minutes, no commitment. Bring your case numbers, or just the counties and roughly when — we can pull the rest. You will get a straight answer on eligibility, timing, and whether the cases you want cleared are the ones worth spending the caps on.
Schedule a Free Consultation(314) 732-1547
Email derek@haakelawgroup.com · Offices in Wildwood, MO & St. Louis, MO (by appointment)
This page is general information about Missouri and federal law, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Criminal statutes, offense classifications and penalties change, and the outcome of any case depends entirely on its own facts. Nothing here is a prediction or guarantee of result. Consult a licensed attorney about your situation.