Adult Conviction Expungement and Record-Sealing Eligibility in Hawaii

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Relief name and legal effect

Hawaii does not offer one broad conviction-clearing statute. The official Chapter 706 index identifies only three probation-based conviction-expungement sections: Haw. Rev. Stat. §§ 706-622.5, 706-622.8, and 706-622.9. Each directs a court order expunging the record of a particular qualifying conviction.

Haw. Rev. Stat. § 712-1209.6 uses a different remedy for specified prostitution-related convictions: vacatur. The section orders the conviction vacated but does not itself direct record expungement or sealing.

Automatic or clean-slate relief

None of the conviction routes is automatic. The treatment-based statutes use a written application from the person or a probation officer. The small- marijuana route requires the convicted person's motion. The prostitution route also requires a motion and hearing.

Convictions eligible by petition

Under Haw. Rev. Stat. § 706-622.5(1), specified first- or second-time possession or use offenses may receive treatment probation when the court finds the person nonviolent and a certified counselor assesses a treatment need. Subsection (4) limits conviction expungement to a person sentenced under the section who has not previously been sentenced under it and who successfully completes treatment and the other probation terms.

Section 706-622.5(5) separately covers a marijuana-possession conviction under § 712-1249 involving three grams or less, when the facts produced no other criminal charge.

Haw. Rev. Stat. § 706-622.9(1) covers a first-time class C felony property offense under Chapter 708 when the person meets its nonviolence, substance- abuse-treatment, offense-connection, motivation, and treatment-plan findings. Under § 706-622.9(3), the present expungement route requires no previous felony conviction in Hawaii or another jurisdiction.

Section 712-1209.6 covers prostitution, specified loitering or designated-area commercial-sex offenses, and a lesser conviction entered after an original charge under one of the listed sections.

Excluded offenses and statuses

The drug-treatment route excludes distribution and manufacture and the listed methamphetamine offenses. A person must also satisfy the court's nonviolent finding and treatment assessment. Although a first or second qualifying drug offense can receive treatment probation, conviction expungement under § 706-622.5(4) is one time and requires that the person was not previously sentenced under that section.

The property route is confined to a first class C felony property offense and requires no prior sentence under the repeat-offender, drug-treatment, or property-treatment statutes. A prior felony in any jurisdiction prevents the ordinary subsection (3) expungement.

Waiting period and when it starts

The treatment-based drug and property sections do not impose a separate number of years after sentence. The application follows successful treatment and compliance with the other probation terms. Haw. Rev. Stat. § 706-622.8 supplies the parallel application route for a qualifying first-time drug offender sentenced before July 1, 2004.

The three-gram marijuana subsection states no waiting period. By contrast, § 712-1209.6 measures exactly three years from the original prostitution- related conviction and requires no later Hawaii Penal Code conviction during that period.

Section 706-622.9(4), added retroactively in 2024, allows a person sentenced before June 22, 2006 for a qualifying class C felony property offense to apply under its separate historical findings.

Sentence, restitution, and new-record conditions

The drug and property routes require successful completion of the substance- abuse treatment program and compliance with other probation or sentence terms. The ordinary property route also requires no prior felony in Hawaii or another jurisdiction. The historical property route requires no felony before or after the target conviction and a current nonviolent finding.

The prostitution-vacatur route focuses on the later record: no conviction for any Hawaii Penal Code offense during the three years after the original conviction. The three-gram marijuana route instead focuses on the original incident and fails if those facts resulted in another criminal charge.

Petition process and decision standard

These are sentencing-court remedies. Sections 706-622.5 and 706-622.9 say the court shall issue the expungement order after the applicant satisfies the specified treatment and probation conditions. The small-marijuana subsection says the court shall grant the motion when its charge and quantity facts are met.

Under § 712-1209.6(2), the court holds a hearing, reviews the three-year record, and shall vacate the prostitution-related conviction if no Hawaii Penal Code conviction occurred. The cited conviction sections do not establish a general prosecutor or victim notice period, filing fee, or objection procedure.

Who can still see or use the record

The conviction-expungement sections direct a court order expunging the record of conviction, but they do not define a general confidentiality system, list retained agency access, prescribe later-case use, or authorize a person to deny the conviction. The prostitution provision states vacatur only and likewise does not supply a sealing or disclosure rule.

Hawaii's more detailed confidential-file and no-arrest-response rules appear in § 831-3.2(a), but that section governs qualifying arrest-record orders. Applying those arrest provisions to the targeted conviction orders without an express cross-reference would conflate different remedies.

What trips people up

The ordinary Attorney General form is not a conviction petition. Section 831-3.2 concerns arrest records for a person not convicted of a crime. Effective June 25, 2026, Act 152 also covers a crime charge ending in a violation, which Hawaii law treats as a noncrime. It does not create broad conviction relief.

Treatment probation and conviction expungement have different limits. A first or second qualifying drug offense may fit § 706-622.5's probation route, but subsection (4) limits expungement to a person not previously sentenced under that section.

Vacatur is not the same order as expungement. Section 712-1209.6 removes the specified prostitution-related conviction after the clean three-year period; its text does not direct the record-handling steps found in the drug and property expungement statutes.

Common questions

Can Hawaii expunge an ordinary misdemeanor after a waiting period? No broad statute does that. The conviction must fit one of the targeted drug, property, marijuana, or prostitution-related routes.

Is three-gram marijuana relief automatic? No. The person must file a motion, although the court shall grant it when the conviction, quantity, and no-other-charge conditions are met.

Does every prostitution conviction require proof of trafficking? No. The current statute uses the listed offense and three-year Hawaii Penal Code conviction-free test; it does not require a separate trafficking finding.

Does a conviction-expungement order erase every database? The cited Hawaii conviction statutes do not make that promise or provide a complete retained- access list.

Statutes and sources

• Haw. Rev. Stat. ch. 706, pt. II — official index identifying the targeted drug and property conviction-expungement sections. https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol14_Ch0701-0853/HRS0706/HRS_0706-.htm (accessed 2026-07-20)
• Haw. Rev. Stat. § 706-622.5 — drug-treatment and small-marijuana conviction- expungement eligibility and conditions. https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol14_Ch0701-0853/HRS0706/HRS_0706-0622_0005.htm (accessed 2026-07-20)
• Haw. Rev. Stat. § 706-622.8 — historical pre-July 2004 drug route. https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol14_Ch0701-0853/HRS0706/HRS_0706-0622_0008.htm (accessed 2026-07-20)
• Haw. Rev. Stat. § 706-622.9 — first-time class C felony property route, including the historical pre-June 22, 2006 application provision. https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol14_Ch0701-0853/HRS0706/HRS_0706-0622_0009.htm (accessed 2026-07-20)
• Haw. Rev. Stat. § 712-1209.6 — three-year prostitution-related conviction vacatur. https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/hrscurrent/Vol14_Ch0701-0853/HRS0712/HRS_0712-1209_0006.htm (accessed 2026-07-20)
• 2026 Haw. Sess. Laws Act 152 (HB 2279) — current arrest-record boundary for a crime charge ending in a noncrime violation, effective June 25, 2026. https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/sessions/session2026/bills/HB2279_CD1_.pdf (accessed 2026-07-20)