Indiana: Adult Conviction Expungement and Record-Sealing Eligibility

Requirements one by one

Relief name and legal effect

Indiana uses one chapter called expungement, but it produces two materially
different record results. A successful petition under §§ 35-38-9-2 or -3 seals
misdemeanor and eligible Level 6 or former Class D felony records from public
access under § 35-38-9-6. A successful petition under §§ 35-38-9-4 or -5 does
not seal the public file: § 35-38-9-7 says the record remains public and must be
clearly marked as expunged.

Both results receive the broader legal protections in § 35-38-9-10, including
the general rule that the person is treated as though the conviction never
occurred. The same section preserves later sentencing, habitual-offender, and
evidentiary use after a new unrelated offense.

Automatic or clean-slate relief

There is no general automatic route for a completed adult conviction. Section
35-38-9-8 requires a verified petition for each conviction route in §§ 2
through 5. Section 35-38-9-1's automatic court orders concern dismissed,
acquitted, not-true, or later-vacated matters and are outside this conviction
survey.

Convictions eligible by petition

Section 35-38-9-2 covers misdemeanors and a Level 6 or former Class D felony
that was reduced to a misdemeanor. The route in § 35-38-9-3 covers an unreduced Level
6 or former Class D felony that survives its exclusion list.

Section 35-38-9-4 is the discretionary route for another felony that cannot use
§ 3 and is not excluded by § 4(b). The route in § 35-38-9-5 reaches specified serious
felonies, including a felony causing serious bodily injury and some official-
misconduct cases, but written prosecutor consent is an additional eligibility
condition.

Excluded offenses and statuses

The exclusion list depends on the route. Sex- or violent-offender status is a
recurring bar. The felony provisions also exclude specified homicide and
attempted-murder offenses, human and sexual trafficking, sex offenses, felonies
causing death, multiple weapon felonies from separate episodes, and unlawful
firearm possession by a serious violent felon. Public-official and judicial-
officer cases receive separate treatment, especially official misconduct.

The offense label alone is not enough. Bodily injury moves a Level 6 or former
Class D felony out of § 3, serious bodily injury moves a case out of § 4 and
potentially into § 5, and death remains excluded from both higher-felony routes.

Waiting period and when it starts

The four clocks are different:

• Section 35-38-9-2: five years after conviction.
• Section 35-38-9-3: eight years after conviction.
• Section 35-38-9-4: the later of eight years after conviction or three years
  after sentence completion.
• Section 35-38-9-5: the later of ten years after conviction or five years
  after sentence completion.

The prosecuting attorney may consent in writing to an earlier filing under
each route. For §§ 4 and 5, counting only from conviction can still be too early
because the sentence-completion branch may end later.

Sentence, restitution, and new-record conditions

Every route requires no pending charges and payment of all fines, fees, and
court costs, plus satisfaction of restitution imposed as part of the sentence.
The person also must remain free of the convictions specified for the entire
applicable lookback: five years for § 2, eight years for §§ 3 and 4, and ten
years for § 5, unless the prosecutor agreed to a shorter period.

Petition process and decision standard

The verified petition is filed in a circuit or superior court in the county of
conviction. Section 35-38-9's petition rule in § 35-38-9-8 requires detailed
identity, case, conviction,
appeal, history, and prior-petition information. A civil filing fee applies,
although the court may reduce or waive it for indigency.

The petitioner serves the prosecuting attorney, who has 30 days to respond. A
missed response waives the objection. If the prosecutor does not object, the
court may grant relief without a hearing. If the prosecutor objects, the court
sets a hearing no sooner than 60 days after service; a victim may speak, and
the petitioner proves the verified facts by a preponderance of the evidence.

Relief is mandatory after the required findings under §§ 2 and 3. Sections 4
and 5 say the court may grant relief, and § 5 additionally requires written
prosecutor consent.

Indiana generally permits only one coordinated lifetime filing. All desired
convictions from the same county go in one petition, separate counties require
separate petitions, and those county filings count together when made within
one 365-day period. Sections 35-38-9-9(j) and (k) provide limited refiling and
supplemental-petition exceptions.

Who can still see or use the record

For §§ 2 and 3, the court permanently seals the court record and restricts
agency release under § 35-38-9-6. The statute preserves defined access for
official criminal-justice duties, specified court-authorized prosecutors and
defense lawyers, presentence work, required FBI and Homeland Security sharing,
bar admission, mortgage licensing, specified school decisions, state-police
record administration, and federal commercial-driving reporting.

For §§ 4 and 5, the file remains public but is marked expunged under
§ 35-38-9-7. Section 35-38-9-10 generally bars discrimination based on an
expunged record and requires questions to exclude expunged arrests and
convictions, but law-enforcement, probation, later-case, and other statutory
exceptions remain.

Boundaries and alternative relief

The boundary rule in § 35-38-9-0.6 leaves untouched nonpublic law-enforcement and public-
defender internal records, diversion or deferral records, and licensing,
certification, or public-entity disciplinary records. It also preserves the
federal commercial-driving restriction described there.

Expungement does not end sex-offender registration and public registry access.
It also does not restore firearm possession after expungement of a domestic-
violence crime; § 35-38-9-6(f) points to a separate restoration process.

What trips people up

Higher felonies are not sealed. Sections 4 and 5 use the word
"expungement," but § 35-38-9-7 expressly keeps those records public and marks
them expunged. That is different from the permanent sealing under §§ 2 and 3.

The filing plan is usually one-time. Missing a conviction or failing to
coordinate filings across counties can matter because § 35-38-9-9 generally
allows one lifetime petition window, subject only to its refiling and
supplemental exceptions.

The clocks do not all start from the same event. The first two routes count
from conviction. Sections 4 and 5 compare a conviction date with a sentence-
completion date and use whichever statutory date is later.

Common questions

Is a hearing always required?

No. If the prosecutor does not object or misses the 30-day response deadline,
§ 35-38-9-9 permits the court to grant the petition without a hearing.

Can a person file before the ordinary waiting period ends?

Only with the prosecuting attorney's written consent to the shorter period.
That consent changes the timing requirement; it does not eliminate the other
eligibility, payment, pending-charge, or new-conviction conditions.

Does expungement prevent use of the conviction in a later case?

No. Section 35-38-9-10 permits later sentencing, habitual-offender, offense-
enhancement, and evidentiary use after a new unrelated arrest or conviction.

Statutes and sources

• Ind. Code ch. 35-38-9 (2026) — current official chapter covering conviction eligibility, exclusions, clocks, petition procedure, sealing, public marking, retained access, discrimination rules, and collateral effects (accessed July 19, 2026).