Adult Conviction Expungement and Record-Sealing Eligibility in Arkansas

At a glance

Requirements one by one

The Comprehensive Criminal Record Sealing Act begins at § 16-90-1401. Its uniform petition and order form is created under § 16-90-1418, and the current § 16-90-1419 bars the clerk from charging a filing fee.

Relief name and legal effect

Arkansas calls the remedy sealing. Section 16-90-1404 says sealing means expunging, removing, sequestering, and treating the record as confidential, but it expressly does not mean physical destruction.

The legal effect is broad for ordinary life. Section 16-90-1417 says the underlying conduct is deemed never to have occurred and permits the person to say that the conduct did not occur and that the sealed record does not exist. That rule has statutory exceptions, including later criminal proceedings, habitual-offender treatment, impeachment, healthcare licensing, criminal discovery, and law-enforcement certification. Sealing also does not restore a felony firearm right.

Automatic or clean-slate relief

The general conviction-sealing act is not automatic. Section 16-90-1403 says a court may hear a proceeding only when the petitioner first files the uniform petition. A person should not assume that sentence completion alone caused the record to be sealed.

Convictions eligible by petition

Section 16-90-1405 covers misdemeanors and violations. Most become eligible immediately after completion of the sentence and the listed financial and driver-license obligations.

Section 16-90-1406 covers selected felonies. The immediate branch includes a nonviolent Class C or D felony, an eligible unclassified felony, a Class A or B felony under the Uniform Controlled Substances Act, attempt or solicitation or conspiracy tied to those categories, and a nonviolent felony committed before age 18. A violent Class C or D felony uses a five-year post-completion route, subject to § 16-90-1408's exclusions.

Section 16-90-1407 adds a specialized petition route for felony possession of a controlled or counterfeit substance when the court-approved residential- treatment and probation conditions were imposed and successfully completed.

Excluded offenses and statuses

Section 16-90-1408 excludes a Class Y, A, or B felony unless § 16-90-1406 expressly supplies the drug-offense exception; manslaughter; an unclassified felony carrying more than ten years; a felony sex offense; a felony involving violence under § 5-4-501(d)(2); and any felony for which the person served part of the sentence in the Division of Correction. It also excludes a felony traffic offense committed by a commercial-license or commercial-permit holder, apart from the statute's parking, weight, and vehicle-defect carve-outs.

The felony route also limits the petitioner to no more than one previous felony conviction. Felonies from the same criminal episode count as one for that calculation, and an already sealed felony still counts.

Waiting period and when it starts

Most misdemeanors, violations, nonviolent Class C or D felonies, and the other immediate felony categories use completion of sentence as the trigger and add no further general waiting period.

Under § 16-90-1405(b), six misdemeanors wait five years after completion: Class A misdemeanor negligent homicide, third-degree battery, indecent exposure, public sexual indecency, fourth-degree sexual assault, and third-degree domestic battering. A violent Class C or D felony also waits five years after completion. A misdemeanor DWI/BWI petition instead waits until the applicable lookback period in § 5-65-111 has elapsed. Ark. Code § 16-90-1406(a)(2) applies that lookback rule to a felony DWI/BWI petition.

Sentence, restitution, and new-record conditions

Completion is an all-parts test under § 16-90-1404. It includes custody, probation or parole, a suspended sentence, fines, court costs and other monetary obligations unless excused, restitution, community service, applicable license- reinstatement duties, and required vocational or technical training.

A pending charge is not written as a universal filing bar. The uniform petition must disclose pending felony charges, and § 16-90-1415 makes pending charges or criminal investigations one factor in the discretionary felony decision.

Petition process and decision standard

The petition goes to the circuit or district court in the county where the offense and conviction occurred. The person uses the uniform petition and serves the prosecutor and any named arresting agency within three days. The prosecutor has 30 days to oppose. Section 16-90-1419 says the clerk may not charge a fee for filing the uniform petition.

For a misdemeanor or violation, the court must seal unless it is presented with and finds clear and convincing evidence that the conviction should not be sealed. For a felony, the court may grant relief if it finds by clear and convincing evidence that sealing would further the interests of justice. The listed factors include reoffense risk, other criminal history, pending matters, victim input, and state-supplied information about a continuing threat.

Who can still see or use the record

Ark. Code § 16-90-1416 bars ordinary disclosure but lists retained access. It includes the person or authorized attorney, specified criminal-justice agency employment and background checks, a court after a later adjudication or for another interests-of-justice reason, a prosecutor acting for a criminal-justice purpose, healthcare-professional licensing boards, the Arkansas Crime Information Center, and the Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Training.

Ark. Code § 16-90-1417 separately preserves specified uses of the conviction in criminal proceedings, habitual-offender determinations, impeachment, healthcare licensing, criminal discovery, and law-enforcement certification.

What trips people up

Immediate eligibility does not mean automatic sealing. For most covered offenses, "immediately" describes when the uniform petition may be filed after completion. The person still must file and obtain the uniform order.

A prison sentence can defeat otherwise matching felony eligibility. Even when the offense class appears in § 16-90-1406, § 16-90-1408 excludes a felony if the person served any portion of the sentence as an inmate in the Division of Correction.

DWI/BWI uses a moving statutory lookback, not a flat five-year rule. The 2021 and 2023 amendments direct both misdemeanor and felony petitions to the applicable § 5-65-111 lookback period.

Common questions

Is the record destroyed? No. Section 16-90-1404 expressly says sealing does not mean physical destruction.

Can I say the sealed conduct did not happen? Generally yes. Section 16-90-1417 deems the conduct never to have occurred and permits that statement, subject to the statute's retained uses and other laws.

Does sealing restore firearm rights? No. Section 16-90-1417 says the act does not reconfer a felony firearm right.

Must every felony petition have a hearing? The current procedure gives the prosecutor 30 days to oppose and ties the hearing procedure to an opposition. The court still must apply § 16-90-1415's clear-and-convincing interests-of- justice standard before granting felony relief.

Statutes and sources

• 2013 Ark. Acts 1460, § 9 — created Title 16, Chapter 90, Subchapter 14 as the Comprehensive Criminal Record Sealing Act of 2013, including the uniform-form and filing-fee sections. https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument?path=%2FACTS%2F2013%2FPublic%2FACT1460.pdf (accessed 2026-08-13)
• Ark. Code §§ 16-90-1403–1408 — petition requirement, definitions, misdemeanor and felony eligibility, treatment route, and exclusions. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/UniCourt/cic-code-ar/master/transforms/ar/ocar/r78/gov.ar.code.title.16.html (official-code release 78 baseline accessed 2026-08-13)
• 2021 Ark. Acts 341 — current felony eligibility, one-prior-felony rule, and prosecutor-opposition procedure. https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument?path=%2FACTS%2F2021R%2FPublic%2FACT341.pdf (accessed 2026-08-13)
• 2021 Ark. Acts 690 — treated controlled- or counterfeit-substance possession route under § 16-90-1407. https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument?path=%2FACTS%2F2021R%2FPublic%2FACT690.pdf (accessed 2026-08-13)
• 2021 Ark. Acts 1037 — misdemeanor DWI/BWI lookback amendment to § 16-90-1405. https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument?path=%2FACTS%2F2021R%2FPublic%2FACT1037.pdf (accessed 2026-08-13)
• 2023 Ark. Acts 117 — felony DWI/BWI lookback amendment to § 16-90-1406. https://arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument?path=%2FACTS%2F2023R%2FPublic%2FACT117.pdf (accessed 2026-08-13)
• 2019 Ark. Acts 680, § 3 — current no-fee rule in § 16-90-1419. https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/Home/FTPDocument?path=%2FACTS%2F2019R%2FPublic%2FACT680.pdf (accessed 2026-08-13)
• Ark. Code §§ 16-90-1413, 16-90-1415, 16-90-1416, and 16-90-1417 — filing, decision standards, retained access, and effect of sealing. https://raw.githubusercontent.com/UniCourt/cic-code-ar/master/transforms/ar/ocar/r78/gov.ar.code.title.16.html (official-code release 78 baseline accessed 2026-08-13; post-release amendments folded above)