How it works in Missouri

The steps

1. Get fingerprinted

   Schedule a fingerprint appointment with IDEMIA, the state's fingerprint vendor, through the MACHS Fingerprint Search Portal or at (844) 543-9712. IDEMIA scans your prints and sends them to the Highway Patrol; the results come to you by mail in about seven to ten business days. If you live outside Missouri, a law enforcement agency in your state can take your prints on an FD-258 card, which you mail to the Highway Patrol with the fee.

   Cost: $12.00 — IDEMIA's service fee at its Missouri sites; the state's own search fee is separate (the fingerprint-fee row)

2. Request your record

   Request your Missouri criminal history record from the Highway Patrol's Criminal Justice Information Services Division. A fingerprint-based search returns your complete record, closed records included, and is the one to bring to a petition. A name-based search — form SHP-158 by mail, or online through MACHS — returns only open records and a 'possible match'. The results are mailed to you; the Highway Patrol can notarize them for a small extra fee.

   Fingerprint fee: $20.00 — The state fee for a fingerprint-based criminal history check from the Missouri State Highway Patrol, paid on top of IDEMIA's $12.00 fingerprinting fee at its Missouri sites; the results are a 'positive match' and include closed records. A name-based search is $16.00.

3. 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.

4. Request certified documents

   Collect certified copies of relevant documents. These include a copy of the disposition of the case from the clerk of court that handled the original case and the arrest record from the arresting agency. If you had probation or parole, had to take classes, had to pay fees, or had any other obligations, you also need certified proof that you completed those requirements.

   Certified copy fee: $1.50 — The certification fee per document at the St. Louis County circuit clerk, plus $0.30 a page for the copy (an authenticated copy is $3.50); a local schedule — each circuit clerk collects the amounts the Supreme Court sets by rule.

5. Verify the final documents

   Review each document for accuracy. Confirm each one is certified and clearly shows you completed your obligations. Make copies of every original.

6. Prepare your petition

   Complete the petition for the type of charge and outcome you are seeking; the court publishes a form for people filing on their own. Under Mo. Rev. Stat. § 610.140, the court looks at the date you file: at least one year must have passed since you completed your sentence, probation or other disposition for a misdemeanor, a municipal violation or an infraction, and at least three years for a felony, with no new misdemeanor or felony in that time (traffic violations aside), everything on the case paid, and no charge pending. An arrest that was never charged can be expunged in the county of the arrest eighteen months after it, if you have not been charged or found guilty of any misdemeanor or felony since. The petition must name as defendants every law enforcement agency, court, prosecutor and records repository that may hold the record — the order does not reach anyone it does not name.

7. Finalize your petition

   Take the completed petition from Step 6, the documents collected in Step 4, and the background check from Step 2, 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.

8. File your expungement petition

   File the petition with the court where you were charged or found guilty, and pay the clerk's filing fee. The old expungement surcharge was repealed in 2023; the fee now is the court's own, set by Supreme Court rule. If you cannot afford it, ask the court to let you file as a poor person — it may excuse the fees and costs it finds you cannot pay.

   Filing fee: Set by court rule — The $250 surcharge on expungement petitions (former Mo. Rev. Stat. § 488.650) was repealed effective August 28, 2023; the clerk now collects the court's own filing fee under the Supreme Court's fee schedule (Mo. Rev. Stat. § 488.012). A court may let a person it finds unable to pay file as a poor person, without the fees and costs it determines the person cannot pay (Mo. Rev. Stat. § 514.040).

9. Work with the court

   The clerk notifies the prosecutor who handled your case. The prosecutor has thirty days from service to object in writing; if one does, the court holds a hearing within sixty days of the objection (unless you both agree otherwise), and a victim of the crime may be heard at it. If no one objects within thirty days, the court may still set a hearing and will notify you and every agency you named. Either way the court must grant or dismiss the petition within six months of your filing. Answer anything the court asks for promptly, and prepare for the hearing if one is set.

10. Receive the court's order

    Once the judge rules, the court issues a written order of expungement or an order dismissing the petition. Read the order's terms — they say which records it covers and which agencies it reaches — and keep a certified copy for your files. If the petition is dismissed for not meeting the criteria, you may file again one year after the date you filed it.

11. Verify the record is cleared

    Under Mo. Rev. Stat. § 610.140, every agency, court and prosecutor named in your petition must close its record of the crime once it receives the order — the record is kept out of public view, not destroyed — and the Highway Patrol asks the FBI to expunge its copy. An arrest record expunged under the arrest-record rule of Mo. Rev. Stat. § 610.122 is destroyed instead, under Mo. Rev. Stat. § 610.124. If a background-check company later shows the old record, your certified copy of the order is your proof. Confirm with the clerk and with each agency you named that their records reflect the order.

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.