Adult Conviction Expungement and Record-Sealing Eligibility in Connecticut

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Relief name and legal effect

Connecticut calls the remedy erasure. Court and law-enforcement custodians generally may not disclose the existence of an erased record. The person is deemed never to have been arrested for the erased proceeding and may say so under oath under § 54-142a(g)-(l).

Erasure is not always immediate destruction. A person may request physical destruction after three years from final disposition, but the automated system does not have to destroy paper records.

Automatic or clean-slate relief

For an eligible offense committed on or after January 1, 2000, § 54-142a(e) provides erasure by operation of law. DESPP runs the automation with the Judicial Branch, the Criminal Justice Information System Governing Board, and other record-holding agencies.

If an eligible record was not marked erased, the person may submit a criminal- history search to DESPP in the required form and manner. DESPP then makes an eligibility determination after a contested hearing, and that determination is a final agency decision.

Convictions eligible by petition

Offenses committed before January 1, 2000 use a petition instead of automatic processing. The categories are the same: misdemeanors and motor-vehicle violations carrying no more than one year; class D and E felonies; unclassified felonies carrying no more than five years; and motor-vehicle violations carrying more than one but no more than five years.

The offense classification and maximum possible sentence come from the law in effect when the offense was committed, not the sentence the person actually received.

Excluded offenses and statuses

Class A, B, and C felonies and unclassified felonies carrying more than five years are outside the clean-slate categories. The statute also excludes post- 2000 family-violence convictions, nonviolent sexual and sexually violent offenses, its closed list of specified offenses, and a § 14-227a impaired- driving conviction followed by another § 14-227a conviction within ten years.

A multi-count record generally cannot be erased until every count is eligible. The statute has a limited exception for separable qualified electronic records.

Waiting period and when it starts

The misdemeanor clock is seven years. The felony clock is ten years, as is the clock for § 14-227a and a motor-vehicle violation carrying more than one but no more than five years.

Each clock runs from the date the court entered the person's most recent judgment of conviction. A later judgment therefore moves the reference date; the clock does not run separately from each sentence-completion date.

Sentence, restitution, and new-record conditions

Reaching seven or ten years is not enough. The person must have completed all incarceration, parole, special parole, medical parole, compassionate parole, transitional supervision, and probation associated with the covered offense and every other Connecticut conviction on or after January 1, 2000. The person also cannot have a pending Connecticut criminal charge.

Erasure does not cancel an unpaid fine, a standing criminal protective order, or a statutory registration duty. Records needed to enforce registration and protective-order obligations remain available to law enforcement, courts, and prosecutors.

Petition process and decision standard

For a pre-2000 conviction, use form JD-CR-202 and file it at the court where the sentence was imposed. A separate form is required for each docket number. The court may order erasure without a hearing or schedule a hearing. Section 54-142a charges no court fee for a petition under that section.

This is an eligibility determination rather than a discretionary rehabilitation test: § 54-142a says qualifying records shall be erased once the statutory clock and conditions are met.

Who can still see or use the record

Employers cannot require an employee or applicant to disclose erased criminal- history information and cannot deny or end employment solely because of it. State licensing agencies cannot grant, deny, or revoke a license based on erased information, except that DMV may consider it when federal commercial- driving rules require. Commercial bulk-record and background-screening providers must permanently delete an erased record within thirty days after receiving erasure information.

Access is not eliminated for every purpose. The subject may obtain the record; specified records remain available to enforce registration and protective- order duties; immigration counsel may petition for retained records; and the statute preserves defined false-arrest, perjury, false-statement, habeas, and collateral-action access. Protective-order registries, published Superior Court decisions, appellate records, and DMV driving records also have separate exceptions.

What trips people up

The date 2000 decides the route, not eligibility. Eligible post-2000 convictions erase automatically; eligible pre-2000 convictions require the official petition.

The clock starts at the most recent judgment. It does not start at release, probation completion, or payment. Sentence completion is a separate gate.

Erasure does not end continuing obligations. Fines, registration duties, and standing criminal protective orders survive.

Common questions

Do I need a petition for a 2005 conviction? Ordinarily no if the conviction qualifies; the statute uses operation-of-law erasure for eligible offenses on or after January 1, 2000. DESPP review is available if automation missed it.

Is there a filing fee for a pre-2000 petition? No. Section 54-142a says no court fee is charged for a petition under the section.

Can an employer require disclosure after erasure? No. § 31-51i(c)-(f) bars the employer from requiring disclosure of erased criminal-history information.

Statutes and sources

• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 54-142a — conviction categories, exclusions, seven- and ten-year clocks, completion conditions, legal effect, access, and no-fee rule. https://web.archive.org/web/20260314203831/https://www.cga.ct.gov/CURRENT/PUB/chap_961a.htm#sec_54-142a (accessed 2026-07-19)
• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 54-142t — automated erasure, interagency implementation, paper-record rule, and DESPP review for missed records. https://web.archive.org/web/20260314203831/https://www.cga.ct.gov/CURRENT/PUB/chap_961a.htm#sec_54-142t (accessed 2026-07-19)
• Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 54-142c and 54-142e — nondisclosure and deletion by bulk record and background-screening providers. https://web.archive.org/web/20260314203831/https://www.cga.ct.gov/CURRENT/PUB/chap_961a.htm#sec_54-142c (accessed 2026-07-19)
• Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-51i — employment disclosure and discrimination rules. https://web.archive.org/web/20260314203831/https://www.cga.ct.gov/CURRENT/PUB/chap_557.htm#sec_31-51i (accessed 2026-07-19)
• Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 46a-80d and 46a-80g — employment and state-licensing use of erased criminal-history information. https://web.archive.org/web/20260314203831/https://www.cga.ct.gov/CURRENT/PUB/chap_814c.htm#sec_46a-80d (accessed 2026-07-19)
• Connecticut Clean Slate — official pre-2000 petition instructions and court review. https://portal.ct.gov/cleanslate/petition-for-clean-slate-erasure (accessed 2026-07-19)