Arkansas: Adult Conviction Expungement and Record-Sealing Eligibility

Requirements one by one

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.

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

• 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 2026-07-19)
• 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 2026-07-19)
• 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 2026-07-19)
• 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 2026-07-19)
• 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 2026-07-19)
• 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 2026-07-19; post-release amendments folded above)