Pennsylvania: Adult Conviction Expungement and Record-Sealing Eligibility

Requirements one by one

Relief name and legal effect

Pennsylvania uses two different remedies. Expungement under 18 Pa.C.S.
§ 9122 is limited to narrow conviction categories, including a summary offense
after the five-year record condition, the age-70 route, and the specified § 6308
liquor offense. Most misdemeanor and lower-level felony relief is an order for
limited access under § 9122.1 or § 9122.2.

Limited access restricts public and ordinary private use but keeps the record in
the criminal-history system. Section 9122.5(c) expressly preserves court access
for sentencing.

Automatic or clean-slate relief

Section 9122.2 makes three conviction categories subject to Clean Slate limited
access:

• a second- or third-degree misdemeanor, or ungraded misdemeanor punishable by
  no more than two years, after seven qualifying conviction-free years;
• a qualifying controlled-substance offense after ten qualifying conviction-free
  years; and
• a summary offense five years after judgment.

Restitution and the authorized program fee must be paid. AOPC and the State
Police validate eligible records, and courts of common pleas issue monthly
limited-access orders for records that survive validation.
The automatic-relief statutes (§§ 9122.2 and 9122.3) supply the categories and
their exclusions.

Convictions eligible by petition

The seven-year petition route covers a qualifying misdemeanor or ungraded
offense carrying no more than a five-year maximum. The ten-year felony route is
a closed list and excludes first- and second-degree felonies. It includes
criminal mischief, criminal trespass, theft-related and forgery/fraud offenses,
the named Human Services Code offense, and a qualifying controlled-substance
offense as § 9102 defines it.

The court applies the offense exclusions and record-history bars in § 9122.1(b).
Two or more counts consolidated under one docket and offense-tracking number
count as one conviction for this section.

Waiting period and when it starts

The petition and automatic clocks ask whether the person has been free from a
conviction for an offense punishable by at least one year. The ordinary
misdemeanor clock is seven years and the specified felony or qualifying-drug
clock is ten years. A summary offense reaches automatic limited access after
five years from judgment; true summary expungement separately requires five
years free of arrest or prosecution after the conviction.

Sentence, restitution, and new-record conditions

Petition and Clean Slate limited access require payment of all court-ordered
restitution and the previously authorized program fee. A later misdemeanor or
felony conviction permits the prosecutor to move for an order vacating earlier
automatic limited access under § 9122.4(b).

Petition process and decision standard

A § 9122.1 petition goes to the court of common pleas in the jurisdiction of
conviction. The court must notify the district attorney within ten days. The
district attorney then has 30 days after receiving notice to object. If no timely
objection is filed, the court may grant relief without a hearing once the
statutory requirements are met.

Who can still see or use the record

Section 9122.5 ordinarily lets a person respond as if the offense did not occur
and bars noncriminal-justice use for employment, housing, or school
matriculation, subject to federal-law and statutory exceptions. Criminal-justice
agencies and noncriminal agencies authorized under § 9121(b.1) and (b.2) retain
access.

Limited-access records also remain available for sentencing and must be self-
disclosed when relevant to the Pennsylvania Constitution's public-office rule.

What trips people up

Limited access is not expungement. The common misdemeanor and specified
felony routes do not destroy the record. They restrict dissemination and use.

A five-year summary record has two possible remedies with different tests.
Clean Slate limited access uses five years after judgment plus restitution and
the fee. True expungement requires a petition and five years free of arrest or
prosecution following the conviction.

Even an expungement order does not erase every public court record. Section
9122(e) preserves public records listed in § 9104(a), including court documents,
records, and indices within that section's scope.

Common questions

Can a first-degree misdemeanor receive limited access? It may fit the
petition route if it is otherwise qualifying and carries no more than a five-year
maximum, but it is not within § 9122.2(a)(1)'s ordinary automatic M2/M3 category.

Can a felony ever receive Clean Slate relief? A qualifying controlled-
substance offense can fall within the ten-year automatic rule when it satisfies
§ 9102's sentence limit. Section 9122.1(a.1) separately provides the specified
ten-year felony petition list.

Does paying restitution start the waiting clock? The statutes state a
conviction-free period and separately require paid restitution and the program
fee. Payment is a condition of relief, not the event identified as starting the
seven- or ten-year clock.

Statutes and sources

• 18 Pa.C.S. §§ 9102, 9122, 9122.1, 9122.2–9122.4, and § 9122.5 —
  definitions, true expungement, petitioned limited access, automatic Clean
  Slate, exclusions, later vacatur, disclosure, use, sentencing, and
  public-office access.
  https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/18/00.091..HTM
  (accessed 2026-07-19)