How it works in Nebraska

The steps

1. Request your record

   Request your Nebraska criminal history from the Nebraska State Patrol: online, or with the Criminal History Record Request form and your payment in person at any State Patrol Troop Area office or by mail to the Criminal Identification Division. The fee is the same each way and no request is refunded. The report lists Nebraska arrests where you were fingerprinted and their dispositions — set-asides and pardons included. The public view leaves out what Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-3523 removes from the public record; for the complete view you sign a release of information before a notary.

   Record request fee: $45.00 — The State Patrol's name-based Nebraska criminal history report, the same fee online, in person at a Troop Area office, or by mail to the Criminal Identification Division; non-refundable. The complete view (what the public view leaves out under section 29-3523) needs the subject's release signed before a notary.

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. Gather your case details

   Gather the case information the petition asks for: the case number, the county where the charge was filed, the court (county or district), the date of the offense, the offense charged, the sentence (probation, community service, fine, jail) and whether you completed it, including every fine and court cost. The Judicial Branch says you can get this from your State Patrol record, a one-time court case search of Nebraska court records, or the public access terminal at the courthouse. If you want certified copies of the disposition, or of proof that you finished probation, paid a fine or completed community service, request them from the clerk of the court that heard the case with form CC 3:29.

   Certified copy fee: $1.00 — Form CC 3:29: emailed certified copies $1.00 per request; mailed certified copies $1.00 per seal plus $0.25 per page; emailed non-certified copies free, mailed $0.25 per page. Pre-paid.

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 petition

   Complete the Petition to Set Aside Criminal Conviction (form CC 6:11) and the proposed Order Setting Aside a Criminal Conviction (CC 6:11.2); the Judicial Branch also offers them as interactive forms. One petition covers one conviction — file a separate petition for each. Under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-2264, you can petition once the sentence is complete: after the full probation term or an early discharge from it, every fine paid and all community service done; or, for any other sentence of not more than one year of imprisonment, after you complete the sentence (time in jail waiting for trial, or as a condition of probation, does not count as imprisonment). That second kind of petition is denied if you have a criminal charge pending in any court in the United States or any other country, while you must register under the Sex Offender Registration Act, for a misdemeanor or felony motor vehicle offense under section 28-306 or the Nebraska Rules of the Road, or within two years after a denial of a petition under that subsection. A sentence of more than one year of imprisonment has no set-aside under this section; the Judicial Branch names a pardon from the Board of Pardons as the only route.

6. Finalize your petition

   Take the completed petition and proposed order from Step 5, the case information and any certified copies from Step 3, and your State Patrol record 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 set-aside petition

   File the petition with the court that sentenced you — the court where the case was heard. Without an attorney you may file in person, by mail or by fax; local court rules may apply, so check with the clerk's office. Then get a hearing date: in county court the clerk's office usually schedules the hearing and mails you and the prosecutor the notice (follow up if none comes); in district court you get a date from the bailiff or the clerk, file a Notice of Hearing (DC 1:15) and give the prosecutor a copy.

   Filing fee: Varies by court — no set-aside filing fee is published: the Judicial Branch fee schedule names none and its Set-Aside page says to check the clerk's office for local rules — ask the clerk before filing. Proceedings in forma pauperis are authorized (section 25-2301, the schedule's statutory provisions).

8. Work with the court

   Go to the hearing — you testify under oath about your record, and the judge decides. Be ready to say why the conviction should be set aside; this is not a retrial and not the place to argue the original charge. The judge asks the prosecutor for a position; the prosecutor may object, and you may ask to respond. Arrive early — if you are late, the court may deny the petition by default. Bring your proposed order (CC 6:11.2); the judge may sign it or use the court's own.

9. Receive the court's order

   If the judge grants the petition, the order under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-2264 nullifies the conviction, removes the civil disabilities and disqualifications it imposed, and tells you to consult an attorney about its effect, if any, on your ability to possess a firearm under state or federal law. In most counties the signed order comes to you after the hearing, by mail or by email; ask the clerk how you will get yours, and keep a copy — you can show it to employers and landlords. A set-aside does not seal the record: sealing under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-3523 is a separate motion, open after a pardon or a set-aside as a victim of sex trafficking under section 29-3005, or for a case dismissed before January 1, 2017. If the court denies a petition filed after a jail sentence of a year or less, you must wait two years to petition again; the statute sets no waiting period after a denial for a probation, fine-only or community-service sentence.

10. Verify the record shows the order

    Under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-2264, the set-aside order nullifies the conviction, but the statute keeps the conviction usable for the cases it lists: it does not reinstate an office, employment or position you lost because of it; it does not bar proof of your guilty plea in someone else's case, proof of the conviction to impeach you as a witness (the order may be introduced too), its use at sentencing on a later conviction, to raise the penalty for a later offense, or to decide whether a later conviction can be set aside; it does not bar its use in child care licensing, children's residential facility licensing, teaching certificate (sections 79-806 to 79-815) or sections 81-1401 to 81-1414.19 decisions, or for the registration period under section 29-4005; it does not relieve a duty to register under the Sex Offender Registration Act; it does not bar its use for purposes of section 28-1206; and it does not affect a crime victim's civil action, driver's license points under section 60-4,182, or a commercial driver's license. The Judicial Branch adds that the order does not restore gun rights lost to a felony or a misdemeanor conviction involving domestic violence — only a pardon from the Board of Pardons can. The set-aside appears in the court's JUSTICE record and on your State Patrol criminal history within a few days of the hearing; the State Patrol's report shows a nullified conviction with its set-aside status. Under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-3523, a sealing order makes the records not part of the public record and bars their release to anyone but a criminal justice agency, with the statute's own exceptions; the court itself sends the order to the Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, the Nebraska State Patrol, and the law enforcement agencies, county attorneys and city attorneys in the court record, and orders each to seal its records. After that, no application for employment, bonding, a license, education or another right or privilege, no appearance as a witness and no other public inquiry may question you about the offense, and you may respond as if it never occurred. Sealing does not reach privately run websites or background-check databases; if a provider later produces an outdated report, your copy of the court's order is your authoritative reference.

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.