Clear your Michigan record.

The law then treats you, for most purposes, as never convicted. The state police keep a nonpublic record. Courts, police, prosecutors, the corrections department, the attorney general and the governor can still see it, for the uses the law lists. Fines and costs you paid are not refunded.

You file with the court that convicted you. A copy goes to the state police with your fingerprints and a fee. A copy also goes to the attorney general and the prosecutor. The court waits for the state police report. Then it holds a hearing. Either office may object. A victim of an assaultive crime or a serious misdemeanor is told and may speak. The court may say yes if your conduct since then warrants it and the public welfare allows it. A set-aside is a privilege, not a right.

Most misdemeanors wait three years. A serious misdemeanor, one felony or a first offense of operating while intoxicated waits five. More than one felony waits seven. The clock starts at your sentence, the end of probation, your discharge from parole or your release from prison, the last of these. You need no new conviction in that time and no charge pending. You can set aside up to three felonies in all. No more than two assaultive crimes in your life. Some convictions can never be set aside. If the court says no, you wait three years to ask again for that one, unless the order sets an earlier date.

The automatic path needs no application. A misdemeanor with a top sentence of 92 days or less is set aside seven years after sentencing. There is no limit on how many. One with a top sentence of 93 days or more is set aside after seven years, up to four in your life. A felony is set aside ten years after your sentence or your release from prison, the later date. Up to two felonies can go this way. You need no new conviction in that time and no charge pending. Assaultive crimes, serious misdemeanors, crimes of dishonesty and some other offenses are never automatic.