Expungement / Record Sealing Petition and Eligibility Memo — Missouri

Missouri § 610.140 Expungement Eligibility Memo and CR360 Workpaper

Quick Reference

PART A — ELIGIBILITY MEMO

1. Record Inventory

2. Eligible Court and Records — § 610.140.2

A person may apply in a Missouri municipal, associate circuit, or circuit court where the person was charged or found guilty. Every requested crime must have occurred in Missouri and been prosecuted under a Missouri court's jurisdiction.

The petition may seek closure of records of arrest, plea, trial, or conviction. It must list every requested crime and name every law-enforcement agency, court, prosecuting office, central repository, or other person or entity reasonably believed to possess affected records. The order does not affect an unnamed holder.

3. Same Course of Criminal Conduct

When crimes were committed as part of the same course of criminal conduct, all related crimes may be included in one petition regardless of the lifetime limits. They count only as the highest-level crime for present and future eligibility.

Do not group unrelated offenses based only on joint disposition, proximity in time, or convenience.

4. Exclusion Screen — § 610.140.3

The live exclusion list must be checked by exact citation. It includes:

• Class A felonies;
• dangerous felonies as currently defined in § 556.061;
• offenses requiring sex-offender registration;
• felonies with death as an element;
• felony assault, misdemeanor or felony domestic assault, and felony kidnapping;
• chapter 566 offenses and the extensive citation-specific and successor-offense list in § 610.140.3(6);
• offenses eligible under § 610.130;
• intoxication-related traffic, boating, and aircraft offenses identified in subsection 3(8);
• substantially equivalent ordinance violations;
• specified commercial-driver motor-vehicle violations; and
• specified § 571.030 offenses.

The current list includes citations added after the older templates were written. Do not copy an abbreviated historical list into a filing.

5. Petition Contents — § 610.140.5

CR360 must include:

☐ Full name.

☐ Sex.

☐ Race and ethnicity.

☐ Driver license information, if applicable.

☐ Current address.

☐ Each requested crime.

☐ Approximate date charged for each crime.

☐ County and municipality, if any, for each charge.

☐ Case number and court name for each crime.

6. Criteria and Burden — § 610.140.6

For every crime:

1. Three years have passed after completion of the authorized disposition for a felony, or one year for a misdemeanor, municipal violation, or infraction.
2. Petitioner was not found guilty of another misdemeanor or felony during the wait, excluding only the traffic-regulation violations identified in the statute.
3. All disposition obligations are satisfied, including fines and restitution.
4. No charges are pending.
5. Habits and conduct show petitioner is not a threat to Missouri public safety.
6. Expungement is consistent with public welfare and the interests of justice.

When the petition pleads criteria 5 and 6 and criteria 1 through 4 are satisfied, a rebuttable presumption supports expungement and the burden shifts to the prosecuting or circuit attorney. A victim may be heard, and continuing victim impact may rebut the presumption.

7. Arrest-Only Route — § 610.140.7

An eligible arrest-record petition may be filed in the county of arrest no earlier than 18 months after arrest if, during that period, the person was not charged and was not found guilty of a misdemeanor or felony.

☐ Arrest date: [DATE]

☐ Eighteen-month date: [DATE]

☐ No charge during period.

☐ No misdemeanor/felony finding during period.

8. Current Lifetime Limits — § 610.140.13

Effective January 1, 2025, a person may receive § 610.140 orders covering no more than:

• three misdemeanor offenses or ordinance violations carrying an authorized term of imprisonment;
• two felony offenses; and
• any number of infractions.

The same-course rule can alter how related crimes count. These current limits replace the former one-felony/two-misdemeanor limits still repeated on parts of the Missouri Courts explanatory page.

9. Procedure — § 610.140.6 and .8

1. File current CR360 and any locally required filing-information sheet in the proper court.
2. Follow the clerk's current process for issuance and service on every named defendant.
3. The clerk gives filing notice to the prosecuting office.
4. The prosecutor has 30 days after service to object in writing.
5. After an objection, the court holds a hearing within 60 days unless the parties agree otherwise.
6. Without an objection, the court may set a hearing and gives reasonable notice to every named entity.
7. At a hearing, the court may receive evidence and testimony on every statutory criterion, including victim input.
8. The court issues an order or dismissal within six months after filing.

The prior templates incorrectly promised a hearing within 30 days in a no-objection case. Current subsection 6 contains no such deadline.

10. Order and Effect — § 610.140.8–.11

If every criterion is met, the court must enter an expungement order. Each named holder receiving the order closes its covered record under § 610.120. Court and administrative files become confidential as provided by subsection 8, and the central repository requests FBI expungement.

The order generally restores civil rights and permits the person to treat the covered arrest, plea, trial, or conviction as if it did not occur, but the exceptions are substantial:

• disclose the expunged crime to a court when asked or when charged with a later crime;
• a later court may use it as a prior offense for sentencing;
• disclose it for the applications listed in subsection 10, including specified professional licenses, chapter 313 and 571 licenses or permits, gaming/lottery/emergency-services employment, covered financial or insurance employment, and other employment governed by a legal exclusion requirement; and
• apply subsection 11's employer-inquiry rule precisely.

11. Denial and Refiling — § 610.140.12

The court dismisses a petition if criteria are not met for any listed crime or the petitioner knowingly supplies false information. A petitioner dismissed for failure to meet subsection 6 criteria may not refile until one year after the filing date of the prior petition.

12. Filing Cost

Do not use the former $250 surcharge line. The Revisor's version table shows § 488.650's final operative period ended August 28, 2023. Obtain the current filing cost and indigency-waiver requirements from the filing court.

PART B — CR360 PREPARATION WORKPAPER

Use this section to collect facts, then transfer them to current CR360. The statewide
form uses a penalty-of-perjury declaration and does not include the prior template's
notarization, custom certificate of service, or custom proposed order.

1. Caption and Defendants

2. Petitioner Information

3. Crimes Requested

4. Sworn Criteria

☐ Correct one-year or three-year period elapsed.

☐ No disqualifying new guilty finding during the wait.

☐ All disposition obligations, fines, and restitution satisfied.

☐ No pending charge.

☐ Habits and conduct show no public-safety threat.

☐ Prior expungements fully listed and current lifetime limits satisfied.

☐ Relief is consistent with public welfare and the interests of justice.

5. Filing Checklist

☐ Exact current disposition citation checked against § 610.140.3 and § 556.061.

☐ Same-course grouping supported by facts, if used.

☐ Every reasonable record holder named as a defendant.

☐ Current filing-information sheet and clerk requirements confirmed.

☐ Current filing costs or waiver confirmed; former $250 surcharge not assumed.

☐ Summons/service completed under current clerk instructions.

☐ Thirty-day prosecutor objection date calendared.

☐ Evidence of disposition completion, fines, restitution, rehabilitation, and public-welfare factors assembled.

☐ Six-month decision deadline calendared.

☐ Certified order retained and each named holder's closure confirmed.

OFFICIAL SOURCES

• Current RSMo § 610.140: https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=610.140
• RSMo § 610.120: https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=610.120
• Current RSMo § 556.061: https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=556.061
• Former § 488.650 version history: https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=488.650
• Missouri Courts expungement forms: https://www.courts.mo.gov/page.jsp?id=191585
• Current CR360: https://www.courts.mo.gov/file.jsp?id=56341