Adult Conviction Expungement and Record-Sealing Eligibility in Ohio

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Relief name and legal effect

Ohio offers both sealing and expungement under R.C. 2953.32. Sealing closes official records from ordinary public access while preserving the uses listed in R.C. 2953.34. Expungement requires most record holders to destroy, delete, and erase the record so it becomes permanently irretrievable.

Expungement still has exceptions. BCI keeps a narrow record for deciding qualification or disqualification for law-enforcement employment. DNA records and filed fingerprints remain unless a final order establishes that the conviction was overturned, and law-enforcement investigatory work product is closed to outsiders rather than necessarily destroyed.

Automatic or clean-slate relief

Ohio has no general automatic conviction-sealing or expungement system. The ordinary route requires an application and hearing under R.C. 2953.32.

There is a separate prosecutor-initiated route for a low-level controlled- substance conviction under R.C. 2953.39. It uses the corresponding § 2953.32 clock and still requires a court hearing and findings; it is not automatic.

Convictions eligible by petition

Subject to the exclusions, a person may apply for relief for minor misdemeanors, other misdemeanors, fourth- and fifth-degree felonies, and one or two third-degree felonies within the conviction-history limits. Soliciting improper compensation and a sexually oriented offense after registration ends can use the special clocks in § 2953.32(B).

Third- or fourth-degree misdemeanor domestic violence and violation-of-a- protection-order convictions may be sealed, but the statute bars expungement of those records. Connected convictions can sometimes count as one for the third-degree-felony cap.

Excluded offenses and statuses

The general route excludes convictions under the listed commercial-driver, driver-license, license-suspension, traffic, and motor-vehicle chapters; nonsexual felony offenses of violence; sexually oriented offenses while the person remains subject to registration; most offenses involving a victim under 13; theft in office; first- and second-degree felonies; and first- or second-degree misdemeanor domestic violence.

A third-degree felony is excluded when the person's record exceeds the detailed felony and misdemeanor caps in § 2953.32(A)(1)(h). Pending criminal proceedings also prevent the court from making the findings required to grant relief.

Waiting period and when it starts

Sealing is available six months after final discharge for a minor misdemeanor; one year after final discharge for other misdemeanors and fourth- or fifth- degree felonies; three years after final discharge for one or two qualifying third-degree felonies; and seven years after final discharge for soliciting improper compensation. A formerly registrable offense uses five years after the registration requirements end.

Expungement uses six months after final discharge for a minor misdemeanor and one year for another misdemeanor. For a felony, add ten years to the date when the applicable sealing application first becomes available. That ordinarily means 11 years after final discharge for an eligible fourth- or fifth-degree felony and 13 years for an eligible third-degree felony.

Sentence, restitution, and new-record conditions

The statutory clock begins at final discharge. The court must also find that no criminal proceeding is pending and that the person has been rehabilitated to the court's satisfaction.

R.C. 2953.32 does not list a separate, generally applicable requirement that restitution, fines, or fees be paid before filing. Because final-discharge status can depend on the sentence and case record, a person should verify the court's discharge entry rather than infer eligibility from elapsed time alone.

Petition process and decision standard

Apply to the sentencing court. One application may request relief for more than one case. The statute sets a $50 application fee and permits a local fee up to $50, regardless of the number of records, unless a poverty affidavit establishes indigency.

The hearing must occur 45 to 90 days after filing. The court gives the prosecutor at least 60 days' notice; the prosecutor may object no later than 30 days before the hearing. Requested victim notice and victim participation are preserved. The court checks eligibility and timing, pending cases, rehabilitation, the government's need to retain the record, and victim statements. If the statutory findings favor relief, the court orders sealing or expungement.

Who can still see or use the record

R.C. 2953.34 lists access for courts, law enforcement, prosecutors, probation and parole, corrections, BCI, specified fingerprint-based background checks, registration decisions, and other named purposes. An otherwise admissible prior conviction can still be proved in a later criminal proceeding even after a sealing or expungement order.

Expungement is stronger than sealing but not absolute. BCI's narrow law- enforcement-employment record, DNA and fingerprint exceptions, specified school and public-office records, and closed investigatory work product can remain.

Boundaries and alternative relief

Ohio has separate statutes for human-trafficking victims, obsolete firearm- transport convictions, low-level controlled-substance prosecutor applications, nonconviction records, pardons, DNA-based innocence, and juvenile records. Federal and out-of-state convictions are outside this survey even though § 2953.32 contains a filing provision for them.

What trips people up

Ohio expungement is not just another word for sealing. Most record holders must permanently destroy an expunged record, but the statute preserves narrow BCI, biometric, later-case, and investigatory exceptions.

The felony expungement clock is much longer than the sealing clock. The ten-year period is added after the applicable felony sealing date; it does not replace the initial one-, three-, seven-, or registration-based wait.

Some domestic-violence records are sealing-only. A third- or fourth-degree misdemeanor domestic-violence conviction and a protection-order conviction can fit sealing, but not expungement, if the other requirements are met.

Common questions

Can Ohio seal more than one case in one application? Yes. Section 2953.32(D)(3) permits one application to request sealing or expungement of more than one case and uses one state application fee, plus any permitted local fee.

Does a pending charge matter even after the waiting period ends? Yes. The court must determine that no criminal proceeding is pending before granting relief.

Does expungement erase fingerprints and DNA? Not ordinarily. R.C. 2953.34(F) preserves filed fingerprints and DNA-database records unless a final court order establishes that the conviction was overturned.

Statutes and sources

• Ohio Rev. Code §§ 2953.31(B), 2953.32(B), and 2953.32(D) — definitions, eligible and excluded convictions, sealing and expungement clocks, hearing, findings, fees, and record destruction. https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-2953.32 (accessed 2026-08-08)
• Ohio Rev. Code § 2953.34(A)–(B), (F), and (I) — retained access, later-case use, biometric and investigatory-work-product exceptions. https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-2953.34 (accessed 2026-08-08)
• Ohio Rev. Code § 2953.39(B), (F)–(G) — prosecutor application for low-level controlled-substance convictions. https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-2953.39 (accessed 2026-08-08)