What to Gather Before Determining Your Pathway
Michigan's expungement law is specific. Whether a particular conviction is eligible — and which process applies — depends on precise details about the conviction itself, not just a general sense of what happened.
Most people start by asking "am I eligible?" What they actually need to ask is: "am I eligible for this specific conviction?" The answer depends on four things. Here's what they are, where to find them, and why each one matters.
1. The Exact Conviction Name and Statute
This is the most important piece of information — and the one most people don't have ready.
Two convictions that sound similar can have completely different eligibility outcomes based on the specific Michigan statute involved. "Drug possession" is not specific enough. "Assault" is not specific enough. The eligibility determination turns on the exact criminal statute — the MCL number — that the conviction was entered under.
For example, Michigan Compiled Laws section 333.7403 and section 333.7404 are both drug offenses, but they carry different classifications and have different expungement eligibility rules. A general description of the offense won't tell you which one applies to you.
Where to find it: Your judgment of sentence or sentencing order from the court where you were convicted. This document lists the exact conviction name and the statute number. If you no longer have it, the court clerk's office can provide a copy — usually for a small fee. Your attorney, if you had one, may also have it on file.
The conviction will also appear on your Michigan criminal history record. You can access your official record through ICHAT at apps.michigan.gov/ichat for a small fee. ICHAT shows conviction names and in many cases the statute information.
Why the statute matters
Michigan's expungement statute lists specific offenses that are excluded — and it lists them by statute number, not by common name. If you don't know your statute number, you can't verify whether your conviction is on that list.
2. When Your Sentence Was Fully Completed
The waiting period before expungement eligibility doesn't start from your conviction date or your sentencing date. It starts from the date your sentence was fully completed — and that date is often later than people expect.
Sentence completion means the end of the last obligation. If any of the following applied to your case, the waiting period started from whichever of these ended last:
- The last day of any incarceration (including jail or prison)
- The discharge date from parole supervision
- The end date of probation — including any extensions or violations that extended the term
- The date when all fines, costs, and court fees were fully paid
People frequently count from their conviction date or from when they were released from custody, and arrive at a waiting period start date that's too early. If your probation ran for three years after your conviction, your waiting period started at the end of probation — not at conviction.
Where to find it: Your sentencing order shows probation length and any fines assessed. For the probation end date specifically, your probation officer or the court's probation department can confirm when supervision was formally discharged. For fines, court payment records will show the date of final payment.
If there were probation violations, those often extended the probation term — meaning a later completion date than the original order shows.
3. How Many Convictions You Have — and What Type Each Is
Michigan's expungement law sets limits on how many convictions can be set aside, and those limits interact in specific ways.
The current rules under the Clean Slate Act generally allow expungement of up to three felonies (with some exceptions for serious offenses) and an unlimited number of misdemeanors, subject to certain restrictions. But the specific numbers matter, and so does what type each conviction is.
A few things to know:
- Convictions arising from the same criminal transaction on the same day may be counted differently than separate incidents
- Some convictions that cannot themselves be expunged still count against your total for purposes of applying limits
- Having one or more non-expungeable convictions doesn't necessarily prevent expunging other convictions — but it requires understanding what does and doesn't count
Where to find it: Your ICHAT record is the best starting point — it shows your full Michigan criminal history as currently maintained by the Michigan State Police. If you've had convictions in other states or at the federal level, those are separate records that won't appear on ICHAT.
4. The County Where the Conviction Occurred
This matters for two reasons.
First, for petition-based expungement, you file in the court that entered the conviction — not a central state office. If you have convictions in multiple counties, you may need to file in multiple courts separately.
Second, processing timelines, court fees, and local procedures vary by county. Some courts have more experience with expungement petitions and process them faster. Knowing where to file is a prerequisite for petition-based expungement.
For automatic set-aside, the county is less critical — the Michigan State Police processes those centrally. But if you're troubleshooting why an automatic set-aside hasn't happened, the county and court of conviction is relevant information for any follow-up.
Where to find it: Your court documents show the county and court. Your ICHAT record also indicates where convictions were entered.
Once You Have These Four Things
With the exact statute, sentence completion date, full conviction history, and county, you have what you need to make a meaningful determination about your situation.
If you have this information and aren't sure how to interpret it, Michigan Legal Help (michiganlegalhelp.org) has an expungement eligibility tool that walks through the statutory criteria. A Michigan attorney or legal aid organization can also help you apply the law to your specific facts.
The quiz on this site is designed to work with approximate information — you don't need everything perfectly precise to get a useful sense of your situation. But if you want to move past "probably eligible" to "definitely eligible," these four things are what you need.
EraseMyCrime provides general educational information about Michigan expungement. This is not legal advice. Eligibility determinations depend on the exact details of your conviction and sentence, which a general explainer cannot fully account for. If you need guidance specific to your record, a Michigan attorney or legal aid organization can help.