Tennessee: Adult Conviction Expungement and Record-Sealing Eligibility

Requirements one by one

Relief name and legal effect

Tennessee calls the remedy expunction. Section 40-32-110 says an order
destroys the public records of the conviction and, as a matter of state law,
treats the conviction as though it never occurred. The person may generally
answer without acknowledging the expunged matter.

That public-record result is not literal destruction of every retained record.
Section 40-32-108(f) requires the clerk to keep a confidential record. It may be
used to enhance a sentence after a later conviction and is accessible to the
district attorney general, the person, the person's attorney, and the judge.

Automatic or clean-slate relief

There is no general automatic route for an adult conviction. Every current
conviction path in § 40-32-107 directs the person to petition under
§ 40-32-108 in the court of conviction. The 2025-2026 proposals for general or
county-level automatic conviction processing did not become law before the
114th General Assembly adjourned.

Convictions eligible by petition

Section 40-32-107(a)(1) uses closed lists for Class C, D, and E felonies. The
lists also cover attempt, conspiracy, facilitation, or solicitation of a listed
felony. Misdemeanors use the opposite structure: most post-1989 misdemeanors
are eligible unless the offense appears in the statute's exclusion list.

The statute also supplies a criteria-based route for certain pre-November 1989
convictions and treats eligible convictions from one contemporaneous,
same-location, continuous episode with one intent as one offense. A separate
§ 40-32-107(b) route reaches two misdemeanors, or one eligible felony plus one
misdemeanor, when both offenses and the person's history meet its conditions.

Two special routes now matter. Section 40-32-107's current pardon route in
§ 40-32-107(d), as amended in 2026, allows
a person with the required Board of Parole vote and gubernatorial pardon to
seek expunction unless the conviction falls within the listed homicide,
kidnapping, aggravated-child-abuse, especially-aggravated-robbery, terrorism,
or sex/minor-offense exclusions. The vote and pardon conditions appear in
§ 40-32-107(d)(1)(B)–(C). Effective July 1, 2026, § 40-32-107(e) also
creates the Recovery Court Renewal Act route for a later eligible offense after
one prior DUI when the listed recovery-court and history conditions are met.

Excluded offenses and statuses

Eligibility turns on the exact offense and classification. The misdemeanor
exclusion list includes domestic assault, stalking, specified sex and
minor-victim offenses, specified firearm-disability offenses, DUI, and other
named crimes. The felony route is a positive list rather than a general
"nonviolent felony" rule.

For the ordinary one-offense route, the offense sought to be cleared must have
occurred before any later conviction that would be ineligible in Tennessee,
including a comparable federal or out-of-state conviction. A person ordinarily
cannot have already received a conviction expunction under the principal
routes. Section 40-32-107(a)(2) separately excludes specified controlled-
substance offenses committed in a motor vehicle while the person held a
commercial driver license, or in a commercial motor vehicle while holding any
driver license.

Waiting period and when it starts

The ordinary clock runs from completion of the sentence, not conviction.
It is five years for a misdemeanor or Class E felony and ten years for a Class
C or D felony under § 40-32-107(a)(3). The two-offense route applies the same
five- or ten-year period to each offense based on its class.

The special routes work differently. The pardon route does not add a numbered
post-sentence wait. The recovery-court route asks whether the later eligible
offense occurred at least ten years after the person's one DUI conviction; it
also requires completion of the later offense's sentence. That is not a rule
allowing the DUI itself to be expunged.

Sentence, restitution, and new-record conditions

The ordinary and two-offense routes require payment of fines, restitution,
court costs, and other assessments, completion of imprisonment and probation,
and satisfaction of supervised or unsupervised release. If the sentence
required sobriety, the statute also requires at least one year free from the
specified dependency or abuse.

The recovery-court route repeats the payment and completion requirements,
requires successful completion of a certified recovery court program, permits
only one prior DUI conviction, and bars a prior conviction expunction under the
listed routes.

Petition process and decision standard

The petition goes to the court of conviction. Section 40-32-108's opening rule
in § 40-32-108(a) directs the
clerk to serve the district attorney general, who has up to 60 days to submit a
recommendation. The court may not enter its order before day 61. Both sides may
submit evidence, and the prosecutor may place evidence under seal.

Before an order enters, § 40-32-102(c) requires a Tennessee Bureau of
Investigation certificate addressing whether the submitted offense is eligible.
The certificate does not decide whether the person meets every condition; the
court remains responsible for that decision. The district attorney general's
office prepares the petition and proposed order for the person to file, and the
statute requires the applicable clerk's fee.

Under § 40-32-108(d)(2), the court weighs the petitioner's interest against
justice and public safety.
An ordinary petitioner who fits § 40-32-107(a)(1)(A)-(E) and the remaining
requirements receives a rebuttable presumption in favor of relief. For the
pardon route, the court must also consider whether the offense was violent and
any other relevant factors presented by either side. After a denial, another
petition generally must wait at least two years.

Who can still see or use the record

The public records are destroyed, and § 40-32-110 supplies the state-law
no-disclosure effect. But § 40-32-108(f)'s confidential retained record remains
available to the prosecutor, person, counsel, and judge and may enhance a later
sentence. The statute does not promise deletion from federal or private
databases.

Section 40-32-110(d) also says an expunged person who is otherwise eligible
under state and federal law may purchase a firearm and seek a Tennessee handgun
carry permit. Expunction does not override an independent federal or state
firearm disqualification.

Boundaries and alternative relief

This page covers completed adult convictions. Sections 40-32-105, -106, and
-109 separately address trafficking-victim relief, non-conviction and diversion
records, and an arrest-only situation where the court has no history of the
arrest. Those paths do not make conviction expunction automatic.

What trips people up

The statute was renumbered in 2025. Current conviction eligibility and
procedure are in §§ 40-32-107 and 40-32-108, not the former § 40-32-101(g) and
(k) structure. Forms or instructions using only the former subsections may be
out of date.

The TBI certificate answers only the offense question. It does not certify
the person's waiting period, sentence completion, history, prior relief, or
other individual conditions.

The Recovery Court Renewal Act does not expunge the DUI. It allows a later
otherwise-eligible offense to be considered despite the one earlier DUI, and
the offense being cleared cannot itself involve a motor vehicle and alcohol or
a controlled substance.

Common questions

Can Tennessee expunge two convictions?

Sometimes. Section 40-32-107(b) covers two misdemeanors or one eligible felony
and one misdemeanor when both offenses satisfy the eligibility, timing,
sentence, history, and prior-relief requirements. Eligible same-episode
convictions may instead count as one offense under subsection (a)(1)(F).

Is the judge required to grant an eligible petition?

Not automatically. The ordinary route carries a rebuttable presumption after
the statutory requirements are met, but the court still reviews the TBI
certificate, evidence, and justice and public-safety interests.

Does expunction automatically restore firearm eligibility?

No. Section 40-32-110(d) makes the person eligible to purchase and apply for a
permit only if the person is otherwise eligible under both state and federal
law.

Statutes and sources

• 2025 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch. 268 — current §§ 40-32-101 and 40-32-102(c), and the reorganization into §§ 40-32-106 through -110 covering eligibility, procedure, retained access, and legal effect (accessed July 19, 2026).
• 2026 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch. 719 — current pardon-route exclusions and decision factors, effective April 14, 2026 (accessed July 19, 2026).
• 2026 Tenn. Pub. Acts ch. 1061 — Recovery Court Renewal Act route in § 40-32-107(e), effective July 1, 2026 (accessed July 19, 2026).