How it works in Massachusetts

The steps

1. Request your record

   Request a personal CORI — your Massachusetts record of court appearances and dispositions — through the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services (DCJIS) iCORI portal; the result is a certified copy, and requests take up to ten business days. You create a MyMassGov account and follow the identity verification steps; if you cannot complete the request online, DCJIS also accepts a paper request by mail. The Probation Service recommends, but does not require, a copy of your record with a petition to seal. For a juvenile record, send the Personal Massachusetts Juvenile Court Activity Record Information Request Form to the Massachusetts Probation Service instead.

   Record request fee: $25.00 — Personal CORI request $25 per request; open access CORI request $50 per request; indigent subject fee waiver $0 per request (the page's fee table). Requests may take up to 10 business days.

2. Review your record

   Confirm there is no disqualifying information in your history. If there is something incorrect, follow the process to challenge the issue. If everything is accurate, make a copy for your file and keep the original somewhere safe.

3. Request certified documents

   Get a certified copy of the court docket for each case from the clerk's office of the court where the case started — the Probation Service recommends it with a petition to seal, though it is not required — and gather any papers that support your reason for sealing. Keep what shows when your sentence, custody or probation ended: the sealing wait under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100A runs from the court appearance and disposition including any period of incarceration or custody, and the expungement wait under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100I from the offense including any period of incarceration, custody or probation.

   Certified copy fee: None — for the CORI: a personal CORI request is a certified copy (the $25 record request fee). A certified copy of the court docket from the clerk's office of the court where the case started — recommended, not required, by the Mass.gov sealing page — carries the clerk's own fee, which is not on either page.

4. Verify the final documents

   Check each item against your record and the court's file: the names, the addresses, the dates, and every charge and request listed. Make copies of every original.

5. Prepare your request

   Complete the state's form for your path. To seal under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100A, the request goes on the Commissioner of Probation's form, signed under the penalties of perjury — the Petition to Seal Form for conviction records. A case that ended in a nolle prosequi or a dismissal is sealed by the court under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100C on the Petition to Seal Criminal Records for Nolle Prosequi or Dismissal. The waits under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100A: a misdemeanor record can be sealed when the court appearance and disposition, including any period of incarceration or custody, occurred not less than three years before the request; a felony record, not less than seven years before it. In those three or seven years you must not have been found guilty of any offense in Massachusetts (a motor vehicle offense with a fine of $50 or less does not count), convicted in another state, a United States possession or a federal court, or imprisoned in any state or county. A later case that ended not guilty, dismissed for want of prosecution or at the complainant's request, nol prossed or no-billed does not restart the clock. An offense that is no longer a crime can be sealed at once, unless its elements remain a crime under another name. A sex offense waits fifteen years after its disposition and the end of supervision, probation or incarceration, or as long as you must register as a sex offender, whichever is longer; a person ever classified a level 2 or level 3 sex offender cannot seal a sex offense. Convictions under sections 121 to 131H of chapter 140 (the firearms sections), or under chapter 268 or 268A other than resisting arrest, cannot be sealed under this section. To expunge under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100F, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100G or Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100H, the petition goes on the commissioner's form too — the state's Petition to Expunge Form (time-based). Under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100I, the commissioner certifies you eligible only if every offense happened before your twenty-first birthday; the offenses, including any period of incarceration, custody or probation, occurred not less than seven years before the filing date if any is a felony, or three years if all are misdemeanors; you have no more than two records and no other court appearances or dispositions on file in Massachusetts, another state, a United States possession or a federal court (a motor vehicle fine of $50 or less excepted; offenses from one incident count as one); none is an offense Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100J lists; and you certify that, to your knowledge, you are not under an active criminal investigation. A violation of a chapter 209A or 258E order counts as a felony for the wait. The court's own petitions have no waiting period: the non-time-based petition under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100K (the Petition for Expungement Form) and the marijuana petition under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100K 1/4 (the Petition for Expungement of Marijuana Offenses Form).

6. Finalize your request

   Take the completed request or petition from Step 5, the documents collected in Step 3, and the background check from Step 1, and put them together in a complete package. Double-check every file in the package is the original and ensure you have a copy of the complete package for your personal file.

7. File your sealing request

   Once you have confirmed you have everything, file by path. To seal under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100A, file the request with the Massachusetts Probation Service — the Office of the Commissioner of Probation in Boston; the state's page lists filing in person, and there is no fee. If your case ended in a nolle prosequi or a dismissal, the petition to seal under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100C is filed at the clerk's office of the District Court where the case started, or at the Boston Municipal Court division where you live (if you no longer live in its territory, the division where your most recent eligible record is from). To expunge under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100F, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100G or Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100H, the petition also goes to the Commissioner of Probation, not to the court: the commissioner certifies whether you are eligible, notifies the district attorney, and forwards the petition — with any objection — to the court where you were convicted or adjudicated. The state's time-based expungement page says to mail the Petition to Expunge Form to the Office of the Commissioner of Probation, One Ashburton Place, Room 405, Boston, MA 02108. A petition under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100K or Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100K 1/4 is decided by the court; the state's forms page carries the Petition for Expungement Form and the Petition for Expungement of Marijuana Offenses Form. For the non-time-based petition (section 100K), the state's page says to file the petition in the clerk's office in the court where the case was heard, and to provide a copy of the petition and any documents filed with it to the District Attorney's Office that prosecuted the case on or before the day you file, by bringing or mailing a copy.

   Filing fee: $0.00 — No fee: the Mass.gov page's own line is “There is no fee to request to seal your criminal record.” The section 100A request for conviction records is filed with the Massachusetts Probation Service (the page lists filing in person); a petition to seal a nolle prosequi or dismissal (section 100C) is filed at the clerk's office of the District Court where the case started or the Boston Municipal Court division where you live. The time-based expungement petition (sections 100F to 100H), mailed to the Office of the Commissioner of Probation, is free too — the state's page: “The process is free.”; the non-time-based petition's page (section 100K) names no fee.

8. Work with the court

   What happens next depends on the path. On a sealing request under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100A, the statute sets no hearing: the commissioner seals the file once the waits and conditions are met and notifies the clerk and the probation officer of each court, who seal their own copies. On the court path under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100C, the judge reviews the petition; the state's page says a petition that does not meet the requirements can be denied without a hearing, in writing, and otherwise you are told by mail of a hearing (the notice is posted at the court for at least seven days), where you show good cause to seal that outweighs the public's right of access; the judge may rule at once or in writing later, and the clerk's office gives you a copy of the signed order. On a time-based expungement petition under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100F, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100G or Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100H, the commissioner has 60 days (30 under 100H) to deny it in writing or to notify the district attorney, who has 60 days (30) to object in writing; the commissioner then forwards the petition, with any objection, to the court. If the district attorney objected, the court holds a hearing within 21 days; if not, the court may approve the petition without one. Either way the court decides on the best interests of justice and enters written findings, and must deny a petition that does not meet sections 100I and 100J. Under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100K and Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100K 1/4, the court holds a hearing if you or the district attorney asks for one, and under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100P the public is excluded from any expungement hearing. On an expungement under sections 100F, 100G, 100H or 100K, the state's pages warn: if you want copies of the records, any documents you filed or the petition, make them before the court orders expungement — once the record is destroyed, you won't be able to get a copy from the court. Respond promptly to anything the court asks for.

9. Receive the decision

   On a sealing request under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100A, the statute gives the commissioner's decision no set form — ask the Probation Service how it will tell you. On the court path under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100C, the clerk's office gives you a copy of the signed order. On an expungement, the court enters a written order with its findings; under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100K 1/4, the clerk's office gives you a certified copy of the order, the docket sheets and the criminal complaint related to the expunged charge, and the court sends the order to the clerk of the court where the record was created, the Commissioner of Probation and the Commissioner of Criminal Justice Information Services. Review the order carefully — it names the records it covers — and keep the certified copy.

10. Verify the record update

    On an expungement order under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100F, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100G, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100H or Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100K, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100L has the Commissioner of Probation, the clerk of the court where the record was created and the Commissioner of Criminal Justice Information Services expunge the record in their care and order every criminal justice agency to expunge its public police logs; after that, an agency asked about the record answers that no record exists. Under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100T, the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services also asks the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice to seal or expunge their copy, for a sealing as well as an expungement. A sealed record is different: under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100D, criminal justice agencies keep immediate access to it, and under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100A it can still be used at sentencing in a later case and, after a judge's closed review, in certain custody, abuse and safety matters; to anyone else the commissioner reports that no record exists, and you may answer "no record" on a job, housing or license application. Confirm with the DCJIS that your CORI reflects the sealing or expungement; if a background-check report is later wrong, your certified copy of the order is your authoritative reference, and under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100Q no one may make a sealed or expunged record available for inspection. Under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100M, not acknowledging a record expunged under sections 100F, 100G, 100H or 100K is not perjury or a false statement, in answer to any inquiry for any purpose; under Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 276 § 100N, no county, municipal or state agency may require you to disclose it, and an employer's application must carry the statute's "no record" notice.

If you have to mail anything, remember to keep a copy of whatever you send and to use a method with a tracking number like the USPS Flat Rate Envelope.