How it works in Pennsylvania

The steps

1. Request your record

   Get your own record from the Pennsylvania State Police with Form SP 4-170, Request for Access and Review — the copy the court rules require with your petition, obtained within 60 days before you file. This check can only be requested by mail: send the completed form, a certified check or money order payable to Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and a copy of your government-issued photo ID to the Pennsylvania State Police, Central Repository – RCPU, 1800 Elmerton Avenue, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 17110-9758; add a legal affidavit or letter of representation if someone requests it for you. The result cannot be notarized, covers Pennsylvania records only, not federal ones, and the full arrest record arrives by mail from the Central Repository.

   Record request fee: $20.00 — The access-and-review copy of your own record (Form SP 4-170, by mail only, not notarized); the court rules require one obtained within 60 days before you file your petition.

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 details the petition must set forth under Rule 790 or Rule 791 of the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure: the name and address of the judge who accepted the plea or heard the case; the docket number; the offense tracking number (OTN); the date on the complaint or the date of arrest and, if available, the agency that made it; the name and mailing address of the affiant as shown on the complaint; each charge as it appears on the charging document, with its disposition; whether any fine, costs or restitution has been paid; and your reason for the request. Most of them are on the court's docket transcript, and Montgomery County's clerk asks for a copy of it when the order will be served on the magisterial district judge or the local police. The rules require no certified copy of the disposition and no certified proof of completed obligations with the petition; if you want a certified copy for your own file, the clerk charges a certification fee per copy.

   Certified copy fee: $11.50 — Montgomery County's Clerk of Courts figure; each county clerk sets its own.

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 for the remedy your case fits; the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts publishes a form petition and form order for each rule, and Montgomery County's clerk posts a packet for each. Under 18 Pa.C.S. § 9122, a court expunges a charge that ended in no conviction on your petition, with no waiting period in the statute; a summary offense conviction once you have been free of arrest or prosecution for five years following the conviction; an underage drinking conviction under section 6308 that occurred on or after your 18th birthday, once you are 21 or older and have satisfied all terms and conditions of the sentence; and your record at 70 years of age after ten years free of arrest or prosecution following final release from confinement or supervision. Two expungements need no petition: an acquittal of all charges from the same conduct after a trial and a verdict of not guilty — the court gives notice, the Commonwealth has 60 days to object, and the expungement occurs no later than 12 months from the acquittal — and an unconditional pardon, which the Board of Pardons reports to the courts each quarter. A record with no disposition 18 months after the arrest is expunged once the court certifies that none is available and no action is pending. No court may expunge the arrest record of a person placed on Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition for rape, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, indecent assault, indecent exposure, prostitution or obscene materials where the victim was under 18. For a conviction expungement cannot reach, petition for an order for limited access under 18 Pa.C.S. § 9122.1: a qualifying misdemeanor or an ungraded offense with a maximum penalty of no more than five years, once you have been free from conviction for seven years for an offense punishable by one or more years in prison; or a qualifying felony — criminal mischief, criminal trespass, theft, forgery and fraudulent practices, an offense under section 481 of the Human Services Code, or a drug offense the law names, not a first- or second-degree felony — after ten years; in each case with all court-ordered restitution and the fee the law authorized for limited access paid first. No order for limited access issues for an offense punishable by more than two years that is an offense against the person (a misdemeanor terroristic threat excepted), an offense against the family, a firearms offense, a registrable sex offense or corruption of minors; nor for anyone convicted of murder, a first-degree felony or an offense punishable by 20 or more years; convicted within the last 15 years of a felony or seven-year offense in those classes, of four or more offenses punishable by two or more years, or of indecent exposure, sexual intercourse with an animal, failure to register, weapons for escape, abuse of corpse or paramilitary training; or convicted within the last ten years of two or more offenses punishable by more than two years. Offenses charged in separate counts under one docket number and one offense tracking number count as one conviction. Clean Slate limited access under 18 Pa.C.S. § 9122.2 needs no petition, and under 18 Pa.C.S. § 9122.3 an offense it reaches may still be petitioned under section 9122.1.

6. Finalize your petition

   Take the completed 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. Under Rule 790 and Rule 791, the State Police report must have been obtained within 60 days before you file, so file within that window or request a fresh copy.

7. File your expungement or limited access petition

   File the petition with the clerk of courts of the judicial district where the charges were disposed of — under 18 Pa.C.S. § 9122 and 18 Pa.C.S. § 9122.1, the court of common pleas in the county where the conviction occurred — and serve a copy on the district attorney at the same time, as Rule 790 and Rule 791 require; a summary case that stayed at the magisterial district court is filed the same way under Rule 490, and a judge of the court of common pleas decides it. Under 42 Pa.C.S. § 1725.7, a petition for expungement or for an order for limited access carries the law's own fee, paid to the clerk at filing in addition to any other fee authorized by law, so the county clerk's own charges come on top. Montgomery County's clerk asks for the original and three copies, a copy served on court administration and the district attorney, and a self-addressed stamped envelope for each agency you want a confirmation from.

   Filing fee: Varies by court — each county Clerk of Courts sets its own. The statute itself sets a $132 fee for a petition under 18 Pa.C.S. section 9122 or 9122.1, paid to the clerk of courts at filing in addition to any other fee authorized by law (42 Pa.C.S. section 1725.7). Montgomery County's filing fee is $176.50, which includes serving one agency, plus $13.50 for each additional agency listed on the expungement order (five agencies: $230.50). Bucks County's filing fee for an expungement or limited access petition is $253.50 (its 2026 fee bill: $121.50 plus an additional $132.00 mandated by Act 5 of 2016), plus an additional $5 automation fee if the case does not exist at the Common Pleas level; with several cases on one petition, additional certification fees may apply. Check your county Clerk of Courts' fee schedule before you file.

8. Work with the court

   After you file, the district attorney has a set time to consent, object or take no action: 60 days after service for a court case under Rule 790, 30 days for a petition for limited access under Rule 791 or a summary case under Rule 490. Under 18 Pa.C.S. § 9122.1, the court may grant a limited access petition without further hearing if no objection is filed within 30 days of the district attorney's notice. When the response arrives, or within 14 days after the period ends, the judge grants or denies the petition or schedules a hearing; at a hearing both sides are heard, and the judge then enters the order promptly. The judge will not rule until your State Police report is on file unless the district attorney waives it. Respond promptly to anything the court asks for, and prepare for a hearing if one is scheduled.

9. Receive the court's order

   If the judge grants the petition, the order directs expungement, or directs that the record be released only to a criminal justice agency or a government agency the law allows, and it names every agency the clerk of courts will serve with a certified copy. Unless the district attorney consented, the order is stayed for 30 days in case of an appeal; Montgomery County's clerk serves the listed agencies after those 30 days, and only the agencies you listed. An order for limited access, and the petition behind it, are themselves subject to limited access. If the petition is denied, the order states the reasons. Read the order carefully — it spells out which charges it covers — and keep a certified copy for your own files.

10. Verify the record is cleared

    Under 18 Pa.C.S. § 9122 and 18 Pa.C.S. § 9122.1, notice of the order goes to the State Police central repository, which tells every criminal justice agency that received the record that it is expunged or that access to it is limited, and the clerk of courts serves a certified copy of the order on each agency the order names. An expunged record is removed so that no trace of it remains, though the district attorney and the repository keep a list of expunged names for program eligibility, investigations and the grading of later offenses. A record under limited access is not removed: under 18 Pa.C.S. § 9122.5 it stays in your record for the courts, including at sentencing, but may not be used for a job, housing or school, and you may answer as if the offense did not occur unless a criminal justice agency asks, federal law requires it, or you run for public office. Under 18 Pa.C.S. § 9124, a licensing board may not consider an expunged conviction or one under limited access. The State Police say the record is expunged once they receive the signed court order from the clerk of courts, and that the change reaches Pennsylvania records only, not federal ones. Confirm with the clerk and each agency the order named; if a background-check company later reports the record, your certified copy of the order is your proof.

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.