Adult Conviction Expungement and Record-Sealing Eligibility in North Dakota

At a glance

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)