Frequently Asked Questions
An expungement clears a conviction or a charge from a person’s record.
The short answer is yes.
Effective June 29, 2023 the legislature amended the statute so that you can expunge “multiple” qualifying felony offenses. KRS 431.073
It depends on what you are trying to expunge.
There are no fees or costs to expunge a case that ended without a conviction.
To expunge a misdemeanor conviction the filing fee is $100
To expunge a felony conviction the filing fee is $50, and there is an additional $250 fee due if the expungement is granted. However, payment of the $250 can be spread over 18 months, but the conviction will not actually be expunged until the fee is paid.
In addition to expunge a conviction (but not a case that ended without a conviction) you will need a certification from the Kentucky State Police. It costs $40. If you have more than one conviction, you may copy the certification and use it in several cases. A KSP certificate is ostensively valid for 30 days, but this limit is not absolutely controlling on a court. Click here to order a KSP certification.
See the FAQ below “Is there someway to reduce these costs?” if you can’t afford these costs.
If you use an attorney that will be an additional fee. Some attorneys doing expungements list their fees online.
There is no way to avoid the $40 Kentucky State Police certification fee. However, certain charitable organizations have programs that help with that fee. For example, in Louisville both Goodwill and the Urban League have expungement clinics.
The Court can waive the filing fee and let you proceed without paying. The outcome depends on your income and the judge. To seek this relief you should file a Motion to Proceed In Forma Pauperis (“IFP”) with your petition. To see an IFP click Here. The “Create a Petition” App will automatically prepare an IFP if you wish.
Whether the judge grants you complete or partial relief from the fees is largely a matter of discretion. To see the Federal poverty guidelines click Here. As a benchmark, Legal Aid may accept clients if their income is under 200% of these guidelines. If the court does not waive you costs, you will be given an opportunity to pay the fees and proceed.
To find a Legal Aid Office that covers your county click here.
The best way to get your record is to order the Kentucky State Police Certification. It costs $40.
In addition to specifying your record, it will provide the non-binding opinion of the Kentucky State Police whether each charge or conviction can be expunged.
You will need a certification to expunge a conviction, and it is good for 30 days. You can copy it and use in more than one case. So starting with this certification is not money wasted.
To order a copy click Here and then click the question “Steps to obtain an Expungement Certification.” It could take 60-90 days for the certificate to arrive.
If you’d like to see a sample Kentucky State Police Certification click Here.
You should be able to get a copy of your record by going to the courthouse for the county in which you got your conviction or charge.
In addition you can get a copy of your record from the administrative office of the courts. Click here to order. The cost is $25 and it can be obtained quickly. However, it cannot be used in place of the KSP certification.
To order a copy of your Kentucky State Police Certification click Here and then select the question “Steps to obtain an Expungement Certification.” It could take 60-90 days for the certificate to arrive.
To see a replica of a KSP certification click here.
It is composed of three parts. The first is the sheet prepared by AOC and KSP that lists your charges and convictions and expresses an opinion whether that charge or conviction can be expunged.
The second part is your “Rap” sheet as maintained by the KSP. Only charges that involved a person being fingerprinted are listed on this sheet.
The third part is a list of court cases maintained by AOC. This list may contain cases not shown on the rap sheet.
See the question below, “What is a UOR and how do I determine what class crime my conviction is?”
Oddly, neither the KSP report portion of the certification nor the AOC summary specifies whether a crime is a felony, misdemeanor, or violation or even what statute was violated. If the certification contains a rap sheet it specifies whether a particular crime is a felony, misdemeanor or violation and gives the statute violated. But not all charges have a related rap sheet entry, and even the rap sheet doesn’t specify what class of felony or misdemeanor.
Each crime in Kentucky has a unique UOR (Uniform Offense Report) code. You can determine the severity of your charge and the applicable statute by using the code for your crime.
The AOC portion of the KSP certification will provide the UOR code for each charge. It appears as an unlabeled 7-digit number to the left of the description of the charge. To see an example from the Replica KSP certification click Here. The UOR codes are circled in red.
You can obtain both the class of the crime and the statute violated by looking up the appropriate UOR code. To download a searchable listing of all UOR codes click Here.
To get the information about your crime, you can either use the search box (click on button, enter full 7-digit UOR code and hit search) or scroll to its code number. To see the UOR code for the Criminal Mischief 1st degree in the above example click Here (bottom of page marked in red).
If a UOR code or a charge has “OBS” next to it, the code is obsolete because the statute has changed in some significant way and that code will be replaced with a different code for future use. However, the original (now OBS) code still applies to your case.
Sometimes the description of a charge or conviction will be incomplete or garbled. To see an example, click Here. The KSP certification should show the item as eligible to be expunged, “yes,” and you can use the Non-conviction form entering whatever information is available.
Yes. However, you should represent yourself only if your case is straightforward. A good way to tell if your case is straightforward is whether the KSP certification indicates that you are entitled to all the relief you desire. If you have questions, hire a lawyer or find and attend a clinic. Don’t forget it is not an all or nothing proposition. For example, if you have questions about a felony or felonies, you can still file your own petition to expunge misdemeanors or cases that ended without a conviction. If you have a question about one misdemeanor, you can expunge another misdemeanor.
You will have to file the petition with the Circuit Court Clerk in the County where the case arose. Do not let the name “Circuit” clerk mislead you. The Circuit Clerk manages both Circuit Court and the District Court. There is no separate District Court Clerk in Kentucky. Each case will require its own petition. Click here for a list of all clerks.
You can file the petition without going to court in person. However the judge may require you to appear later.
For information from the Administrative Office of the Courts on representing yourself, click here. To see a page from the Legal Aid Society of the Bluegrass on representing yourself click here. To see “Your Day in Court” by the Kentucky Access to Justice Commission, click here.
KRS 431.076 (click here for copy) became effective July 15, 2020 and made significant changes to cases that ended without a conviction.
For Felony and misdemeanor cases (but not lower level traffic offenses) that ended with an acquittal, the court should expunge the 30 days after it is over. The same should happen to cases in which all charges were dismissed with prejudice, and this was not in return for a plea in another case. Click here for more details.
Other felonies and misdemeanors ending with an acquittal or a dismissal with prejudice require a petition and the waiting period is 60 days.
In addition, the waiting periods were shortened for other expungements.
For felonies that ended with a dismissal without prejudice, the period was reduced from 5 years to 1 year.
For misdemeanors that ended with a dismissal without prejudice, the period was reduced from 5 years to 1 year.
For cases sent to the grand jury without further action, the period was reduced from 12 months to 6 months.
If you otherwise qualify (age, citizenship, etc.) and don’t have a felony conviction you can vote. So it follows that if you expunge a felony conviction(s) so that you no longer have a felony conviction, you can vote.
However, a felony conviction does not automatically prevent you from voting.
The Restoration of Civil Rights is a procedure separate and apart from an expungement. You can vote if your civil rights have been restored even though you may still have a felony conviction. In 2019 there were major changes regarding the requirements to have your voting rights restored. So check out this procedure even if you still have a felony or have been denied the right to vote in the past.
For more information on the restoration of civil rights, click Here or Here (Do not overlook the tabs across the top, particularly the “Check Your Status” or “Can You Vote?” buttons).
An excellent source of information can be found at Kyjustice.org, which is maintained through a partnership of Kentucky’s four legal aid programs and the Kentucky Access to Justice Commission. The site has helpful information on several topics. Materials related specifically to expungements, including a Do It Yourself program, appear in several places on the site. One way to find these materials is to click Here and choose “Criminal Record Expungement.”
The Department of Public Advocacy has an excellent expungement page called “Clean Slate Kentucky” (click Here) that is up to date and contains links to a Quick-Reference Guidebook (click Here) and a more extensive Guide for the Practitioners that is also useful to a layperson (click Here)
Additional general information can be found at: the FAQ page from the Administrative Office of the Courts, click Here.
Goodwill Industries of Kentucky has a good section devoted to expungements and sponsors clinics.
For a list of all legal aid societies in Kentucky and a map of the counties each covers, click Here.
If you wold like general information about expungements outside Kentucky the Collateral Consequences Resources Center is a good site (Click Here)
There are numerous organizations that offer clinics in Kentucky.
Kentucky’s legal aid organizations offer clinics. For a list of all legal aid societies in Kentucky with their contact information and a map of the counties each covers, click Here.
Goodwill Industries offers clinics. To find a Goodwill clinic click Here.
Background: The punishment for some crimes is increased if the defendant is a repeat offender. In many cases, after a certain length of time an offense no longer has the effect of enhancing the penalty for a subsequence offense.
To take a common example: The penalty for Driving Under the Influence, KRS 189A.010(5) , has four different penalties depending on whether it is the defendant’s first or fourth conviction in a ten year period. The effect of this is that a DUI conviction cannot be expunged until ten years after the conviction. Other examples are: Assault Fourth Degree Domestic Violence (KRS 508.032 – 5 years); Trafficking in Marijuana under Eight Ounces (KRS 218A.1421(2) – no limit). To view the Kentucky Revised Statures click Here.
Often the name of an offense will give an indication whether its penalty can be enhanced. A crime described as “XXXXXX 1st Off” alerts you to the fact that it may be an offense where a repeat offense (2nd Off) carries an enhanced penalty. Unfortunately there is no publicly available listing of those offenses that are subject to enhancement.
Of course, the Kentucky State Police Certification will highlight such offenses.
Yes. You can attach an extra page to the petition. Simply label it “ATTACHMENT TO [case name, case number].”
It can make things easier.
In the upper right hand corner of the computer screen and at the bottom of a cellphone screen you will see a link labeled “Continue later.”
If you click this button you will receive a link to the app you are using. You can either copy the link or email it to yourself or someone else. You can then close the app if you want. Later, when you click on that link it allows you to resume the session where you left off with your progress saved.
Void and Seal is a parallel, but separate, process similar to expungement. However, the process is limited to certain drug cases.
There are two void and seal statutes. One, KRS 218A.275, concerns convictions for the possession of drugs under three specified statutes (KRS 218A.1415, 218A.1416, or 218A.1417). This procedure may not be used more than once.
The other statutes, KRS 218.276, concerns convictions for possession of marijuana pursuant to KRS 218A.1422, synthetic drugs pursuant to KRS 218A.1430, or salvia pursuant to KRS 218A.1451.
The convicted person obtains relief by filing a motion and order in the appropriate court.
Why would someone void and seal a conviction rather than expunge it? There are no filing fees or court costs, and no KSP certification is required. There is no 5-year waiting period after the sentence is completed. If you void and seal a felony it does not prevent the expungement of a separate felony, either simultaneously or later. And vice versa. In short, under the proper circumstances you can expunge one felony and void and seal a different one when you could not expunge two or void and seal both. If you void and seal a misdemeanor or felony you can later expunge it.
A Domestic violence proceeding is not a criminal action and should not appear on your criminal record. Of course, depending on the underlying facts an incident giving rise to a Domestic Violence Petition can also encompass a criminal charge. If you have a domestic violence petition taken against you or you have sought such a petition and it ends with a Domestic Violence Order or non-temporary Interpersonal Order, you cannot currently have the case expunged. However, if the proceeding ends without such an order, you can have it expunged.
The requirements are 1) The petition did not result in the issuance of a domestic violence/non-temporary interpersonal order, 2) Six (6) months have elapsed since the case was dismissed, and 3) During the six (6) months preceding the motion to expunge, you have not been the subject of an order of protection for the protection of any person.
The forms needed are AOC-275.18 (motion) and AOC-275.19 (order). Completed copies of these forms should be filed with the appropriate Circuit Clerk. You may have to appear at a hearing. If an order expunging the case is entered copies of that order should be sent to the Administrative Office of the Courts, the Kentucky State Police and any other agency having contact with the case.
Yes. But, and this is important, speak to an immigration attorney before filing for an expungement. The expungement of a criminal case could be harmful to any present or future immigration action.
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