Adult Conviction Expungement and Record-Sealing Eligibility in Wisconsin

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Relief name and legal effect

Wisconsin calls the remedy expungement of the record. Section 973.015 does not say the conviction is vacated. It also expressly excludes conviction information that the Department of Transportation must keep under § 343.23.

Automatic or clean-slate relief

This is a two-stage process, not statewide automatic identification. First, the judge must order at sentencing that the record will be expunged if the sentence is successfully completed. Second, the detaining or probationary authority must send the discharge certificate to the court; the statute says that certificate has the effect of expunging the record.

There is no later general petition to replace a sentencing-time order that was not made.

Convictions eligible by petition

The general route does not use a post-sentence petition. At the time of the offense, the person must have been under 25, and the law violated must carry a maximum imprisonment period of six years or less. The court may grant the sentencing-time order if it determines that the person will benefit and society will not be harmed.

Section 973.015(1m)(a)2. separately requires a sentencing-time order for the listed § 942.08 offenses when the person was under 18 at commission.

Excluded offenses and statuses

An offense carrying more than six years is outside the general route. A Class H felony is also excluded if the person has any prior lifetime felony, or if the Class H offense is a violent offense under the cross-reference, stalking, one of the listed child-abuse provisions, or sexual exploitation by a therapist.

Waiting period and when it starts

Wisconsin sets no additional number of months or years after the sentence. The important timing rule is earlier: the judge's decision must occur at sentencing. If the order exists, expungement follows successful completion of the sentence through the discharge certificate.

Sentence, restitution, and new-record conditions

Successful completion means no subsequent conviction. For a person on probation, probation also must not have been revoked and every condition of probation must be satisfied. Section 973.015 does not create a separate restitution test; restitution matters when it is among the probation conditions that must be completed.

Petition process and decision standard

The request belongs in the sentencing proceeding. For the general route, the judge decides whether the person will benefit and society will not be harmed. The statute gives no later filing window, prosecutor-objection period, or post-sentence reconsideration procedure.

Once the sentence is successfully completed, the detaining or probationary authority—not the person—must issue and forward the discharge certificate.

Who can still see or use the record

The statute's operative command concerns expunging the court record. It expressly leaves required Department of Transportation conviction information outside the order. It does not direct every agency or private database to destroy its records and does not supply a general rule for answering questions about the conviction.

What trips people up

The decision comes at sentencing, not years later. Completing the sentence does not create a new chance to ask for the initial order.

Six years refers to the offense's maximum penalty. It is not the length of the sentence the judge actually imposed.

A clean probation discharge requires every condition. No later conviction, no revocation, and satisfaction of all probation conditions are separate parts of successful completion.

Common questions

Is there a fixed waiting period after probation ends? No. If the court made the sentencing-time order, the discharge certificate produces expungement on successful completion.

Can someone apply after sentencing if the judge never ordered eligibility? Section 973.015's general route provides no later petition procedure; its order must be made at sentencing.

Does the rule cover an offense with a ten-year maximum if the actual sentence was probation? No. The eligibility ceiling uses the maximum imprisonment authorized for the offense, not the sentence imposed.

Statutes and sources

• Wis. Stat. § 973.015 — age and penalty limits, exclusions, sentencing-time order, successful completion, discharge certificate, and trafficking-victim special route. https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/document/statutes/973.015 (accessed 2026-08-13)
• Wis. Stat. § 343.23(2)(a) — Department of Transportation conviction-file requirement preserved outside the expungement order. https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/document/statutes/343.23 (accessed 2026-08-13)
• Wis. Stat. § 942.08(2)(b)–(d), (3) — offenses receiving mandatory sentencing-time expungement eligibility when committed before age 18. https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/document/statutes/942.08 (accessed 2026-08-13)