North Dakota: Adult Conviction Expungement and Record-Sealing Eligibility

Requirements one by one

Relief name and legal effect

North Dakota's remedy for a conviction is sealing under Chapter 12-60.1.
Section 12-60.1-01(7) defines "seal" as prohibiting "the disclosure of the
existence or contents of court or prosecution records unless authorized by court
order." The records are not deleted or destroyed, and the conviction itself
continues to exist.

Sealing also carries a built-in limit written into the order itself. Under
§ 12-60.1-04(8), the sealing order must state that the petitioner "is
sufficiently rehabilitated but is subject to the provisions of section
12.1-33-02.1," and the court "shall release the information when an entity has a
statutory obligation to conduct a criminal history background check." So a sealed
record is nonpublic, not invisible.

Automatic or clean-slate relief

There is no automatic sealing of convictions in North Dakota. Automatic
processing exists only for nonconviction court records: § 12-60.1-05 directs
a court to close the court record 61 days after entering an order of nonconviction
on or after August 1, 2025, and lets a person petition (with no filing fee) to
close an older nonconviction record. A conviction, by contrast, is sealed only
after the petition and hearing described below.

Convictions eligible by petition

Section 12-60.1-02(1) opens three doors. A person may petition to seal a
misdemeanor if they have not been convicted of a new crime for at least three
years before filing, a felony if they have stayed new-crime-free for at least
five years, or any conviction that the governor has cleared by unconditional
pardon.

Excluded offenses and statuses

Under § 12-60.1-02(2), the chapter "does not apply to" two categories of
conviction: a felony involving violence or intimidation during the period the
person is ineligible to possess a firearm under § 62.1-02-01(1)(a), and an
offense for which the person has been ordered to register under § 12.1-32-15
(North Dakota's offender-registration statute). The violence-or-intimidation bar
is time-limited—it lasts only while the firearm disability runs—rather than
permanent.

Waiting period and when it starts

The clock is unusual: it runs backward from the filing date. The person must
show no conviction of a new crime for at least three years (misdemeanor) or five
years (felony) before the petition is filed (§ 12-60.1-02(1)(a)-(b)). The statute
ties the period to staying conviction-free before filing, not to a discharge or
release date. A governor's unconditional pardon supplies eligibility with no
stated waiting period.

Sentence, restitution, and new-record conditions

Even after the waiting period, the court must make findings by clear and
convincing evidence: that the petitioner "has completed all terms of imprisonment
and probation," "has paid all restitution ordered by the court," and "has
demonstrated reformation warranting relief" (§ 12-60.1-04(1)(c)-(e)). Unpaid
restitution and an unfinished sentence are therefore direct obstacles, separate
from the new-crime-free window.

Petition process and decision standard

The petition is filed in the existing criminal case (§ 12-60.1-03(1)), not as
a new action, and must list the petitioner's full name and aliases, every address
since the offense, the reasons for relief, and a full criminal history; a proposed
order is filed with it and the prosecutor is served.

The court "may grant"—it is discretionary—only on the six clear-and-convincing
findings in § 12-60.1-04(1), and in deciding it weighs eight factors in
subsection 2, including the offense's severity, risk to society, time elapsed,
rehabilitation, and the recommendations of law enforcement, prosecutors, and
victims. A hearing cannot occur earlier than 45 days after filing, though a
prosecutor may stipulate to sealing without one. If the district court denies the
petition, it may bar a new petition for up to a year for good cause; a municipal
denial can be appealed to district court for de novo review without a fee.

Who can still see or use the record

Sealing prohibits disclosure of the court and prosecution records. It does not
reach the Bureau of Criminal Investigation's file: § 12-60.1-01(4) defines the
"criminal record" that gets sealed to exclude "criminal history record
information as defined in subsection 5 of section 12-60-16.1"—the BCI's compiled
record of arrests, charges, dispositions, sentencing, and release. That
repository stays intact.

Two further access routes survive. The information "shall" be released when an
entity has a statutory obligation to run a criminal-history background check
(§ 12-60.1-04(8)), and licensing agencies apply § 12.1-33-02.1, which lets a board
still weigh a prior conviction when it bears directly on the occupation or when
the person is not sufficiently rehabilitated.

What trips people up

Sealing is not destruction, and it is not repository-wide. The court and
prosecutor stop disclosing the file, but the BCI criminal-history record is
outside Chapter 12-60.1 and is not sealed by the order.

The waiting period counts backward from filing. North Dakota does not measure
from your discharge date; it asks whether you have gone three years (misdemeanor)
or five (felony) with no new-crime conviction immediately before you file.

A grant is never guaranteed. The court must be persuaded by clear and
convincing evidence on all six findings and then weigh eight discretionary
factors, so completing the wait is a threshold, not an entitlement.

Common questions

Does sealing erase my conviction? No. The record still exists; the court and
prosecutor simply may not disclose it without a court order, and it is still
released for legally required background checks.

Will a licensing board still see it? It can consider the conviction under
§ 12.1-33-02.1 when the offense bears directly on the occupation or when you are
not sufficiently rehabilitated; five conviction-free years after discharge is
treated as prima facie evidence of rehabilitation.

What if the judge says no? A district court may block a refiling for up to a
year. If a municipal court denied you, you can take it to district court for a
fresh de novo review without paying a filing fee.

Can a violent felony ever be sealed? The chapter does not apply to a felony of
violence or intimidation while the firearm disability under § 62.1-02-01(1)(a)
lasts, and never to a registrable offense under § 12.1-32-15.

Statutes and sources

• N.D. Cent. Code § 12-60.1-01 — definitions of "seal," "closed," "criminal
  record" (excluding BCI criminal-history record information), and
  "nonconviction."
  https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t12c60-1.pdf (accessed 2026-07-20)
• N.D. Cent. Code § 12-60.1-02 — grounds to petition (3-year misdemeanor, 5-year
  felony, unconditional pardon) and the violence/registration exclusions.
  https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t12c60-1.pdf (accessed 2026-07-20)
• N.D. Cent. Code § 12-60.1-03 — where and how to file; petition contents;
  proposed order; service on the prosecutor.
  https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t12c60-1.pdf (accessed 2026-07-20)
• N.D. Cent. Code § 12-60.1-04 — clear-and-convincing findings, decision factors,
  45-day hearing floor, refiling bar, appeal, and the background-check release.
  https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t12c60-1.pdf (accessed 2026-07-20)
• N.D. Cent. Code § 12-60.1-05 — automatic 61-day closure of nonconviction court
  records and the older-case petition route.
  https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t12c60-1.pdf (accessed 2026-07-20)
• N.D. Cent. Code § 12-60-16.1 — definition of "criminal history record
  information" held by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
  https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t12c60.pdf (accessed 2026-07-20)
• N.D. Cent. Code § 12.1-33-02.1 — prior conviction not a bar to licensure, with
  the direct-bearing and rehabilitation exceptions.
  https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t12-1c33.pdf (accessed 2026-07-20)