How it works in South Carolina

The steps

1. Request your record

   Get your own record from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. Its CATCH service, Citizens Access to Criminal Histories, lets you view and print a name-based South Carolina records check online for a nonrefundable fee, plus a card service fee SLED does not keep. A mailed request on the Criminal Records Check Form pays no service fee: send it with a business check, certified check, cashier's check or money order and a self-addressed stamped envelope to the SLED Records Department. Say in the request if you need the result notarized or certified. The search needs a starts-with match on your last name, first name and date of birth, so a record under another name or birth date can be missed; fingerprints are the one sure way to tie a record to you. The courts' FAQ suggests a second copy a month or two after your order, to confirm the expungement worked.

   Record request fee: $25.00 — per name-based South Carolina records check; an online order adds a card service fee SLED does not keep, a mailed request none

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. Ask which papers you need

   Ask the solicitor's office in the circuit where the charge arose which papers its application needs. The courts' FAQ says the circuits differ, and some ask for copies of the court documents in your case. The Fifth Circuit's application, for example, requires a certified disposition of the charges from the magistrate or municipal court that heard them and a copy of a government-issued photo ID. S.C. Code Ann. §§ 17-22-910 to -960 ask no certified copies or proof of completed obligations from you — the solicitor's office completes the order form with you, and SLED verifies the charge. So a certified disposition is the one copy you may need, at the court's certification fee.

   Certified copy fee: $10.00 — the clerk of court's fee for an official certificate under the seal of the court; a magistrate or municipal court sets its own copy fee, so ask its clerk

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 application

   Under S.C. Code Ann. §§ 17-22-910 to -960, you get the blank expungement order form from the solicitor's office in the circuit where the charge originated; that form is mandatory. Eligibility rests on the offense you pled guilty to or were convicted of, not the one charged, and on the section that opens the door. A charge that was discharged, dismissed, not prosecuted or ended in a not guilty verdict has no wait under S.C. Code Ann. § 17-1-40. In a magistrate or municipal court the court itself orders the expungement, no sooner than the appeal deadline and no later than thirty days after it if you were fingerprinted, and on your free application if you were not — unless the dismissal came at a preliminary hearing or you have charges from the same events pending in general sessions court. A charge dismissed after pretrial intervention, the alcohol education program or the traffic education program, or after a conditional discharge for a first drug possession under S.C. Code Ann. § 44-53-450, can be expunged on completion. A conviction waits, with no other conviction in the period; an out-of-state conviction counts, and a minor traffic conviction unrelated to driving under the influence does not. The waits: one year from the conviction for a first-offense fraudulent check under S.C. Code Ann. § 34-11-90, and ten years from the last conviction for several fraudulent-check convictions within three years, with full restitution paid. Three years from the conviction under S.C. Code Ann. § 22-5-910 for a crime whose top penalty is thirty days or a $1,000 fine, or a first offense of unlawful possession of a firearm or weapon with a top penalty of one year or $1,000 — never an offense involving the operation of a motor vehicle; five years from the conviction for domestic violence in the third degree. Three years from the end of the sentence, probation and parole included, under S.C. Code Ann. § 22-5-930 for a first-offense simple possession of a controlled substance or unlawful possession of a prescription drug, and twenty years from the end of the sentence for a first-offense possession with intent to distribute. Three years from the end of the sentence under S.C. Code Ann. § 56-5-750 for a first-offense failure to stop when signaled by a law enforcement vehicle with no great bodily injury or death. Five years from the end of the sentence, probation and parole included, under S.C. Code Ann. § 22-5-920 for a first offense sentenced under the Youthful Offender Act — not a violent crime, an offense under the domestic violence chapter except as section 16-25-30 allows, a sex offender registry offense or a motor vehicle offense. Each of these doors opens once. Pending charges of any kind close the thirty-day and drug doors unless they have been pending more than five years, the clock stopped while you were under a bench warrant for failure to appear. A conditional discharge within five years before a marijuana arrest, or ten years before any other drug arrest, closes the drug door. A graduate of the South Carolina Youth Challenge Academy and Jobs Challenge Program may apply at once under those doors. A juvenile record can be expunged under S.C. Code Ann. § 63-19-2050 once you are eighteen, have completed the sentence, and have no later adjudication, conviction or pending charge. A status offense must be expunged, a nonviolent offense may be, a violent offense never; a not guilty finding is expunged at any age with no fee, and a prior adjudication for an offense carrying five years or more bars the petition. Charges from a single incident can ride one order when expunged as non-convictions or after pretrial intervention, and offenses sentenced together from one incident count as one conviction.

6. Finalize your application

   Put the application together: the solicitor's form, the papers the office asked for in Step 3, your record from Step 1, and each fee as its own certified check or money order. Under S.C. Code Ann. §§ 17-22-910 to -960 the office collects the separate payments and sends each to the agency it is for; the Fifth Circuit's application takes U.S. Post Office money orders only, no cash or personal checks. Keep a copy of everything you hand in: once the process starts, no official may let you take the application back.

7. File your expungement application

   Apply to the solicitor's office in the judicial circuit where the charge originated — under S.C. Code Ann. §§ 17-22-910 to -960 the clerk of court directs every expungement inquiry there, and only that office's order form counts. Three fees can apply, each by separate certified check or money order: the solicitor's nonrefundable administrative fee, SLED's verification fee, and the clerk of court's filing fee, which the solicitor forwards to the clerk and refunds to you if the charge is found statutorily ineligible. A general sessions charge that was discharged, dismissed, not prosecuted or ended in acquittal pays none of the three — unless it was dropped as part of a plea deal in which you pled guilty to other charges, when the administrative fee applies. A charge dismissed after pretrial intervention, the alcohol or traffic education program, or a conditional discharge pays no SLED fee. The solicitor may waive the administrative fee only for a person falsely accused through identity theft; each office keeps a fund of private donations that can cover up to half of it, first come, first served. A not guilty, dismissed or not prosecuted charge from a magistrate or municipal court is expunged by that court at no cost, so ask its clerk instead. A lawyer you hire may apply for you and, if the solicitor does not consent, may ask the circuit court to decide your eligibility.

   Filing fee: $35.00 — The clerk of court's fee per order. Two more fees are paid with it, each by separate certified check or money order to the solicitor's office: the solicitor's $250.00 nonrefundable administrative fee and SLED's $25.00 verification fee. A general sessions charge that was discharged, dismissed, not prosecuted or ended in acquittal pays none of the three unless it was dropped in a plea deal (then the administrative fee applies); a charge dismissed after pretrial intervention, an education program or a conditional discharge pays no SLED fee; a magistrate or municipal court expunges its own non-convictions at no cost.

8. Work with the solicitor's office

   Under S.C. Code Ann. §§ 17-22-910 to -960 the solicitor's office runs the process. It helps you complete the form, sends the application to SLED to verify the charge is statutorily appropriate for expungement — the Department of Juvenile Justice first for a juvenile record — gathers the signatures, and files the completed order with the clerk of court. For a pretrial intervention, alcohol or traffic education, conditional discharge, Youth Challenge or thirty-day-offense expungement, the program director or summary court judge attests to the charge's eligibility on the application before the solicitor and then a circuit court judge sign; a family court judge signs for a juvenile. No hearing is part of the solicitor's process. A hearing comes only on a conditional discharge, where the court decides after one, or when a prosecutor or law enforcement agency objects to a magistrate, municipal or juvenile court expungement. The only grounds for an objection are pending charges or an ineligible charge; a general sessions judge hears a magistrate or municipal court objection, and the family court a juvenile one. The courts' FAQ calls expungements a time-consuming process; keep your address current with the office, since the Fifth Circuit's application asks you to report any change.

9. Receive the court's order

   Once the judge signs, under S.C. Code Ann. §§ 17-22-910 to -960 the solicitor's office files the order with the clerk of court and must give you or your lawyer a copy of the completed order; a magistrate or municipal court's copy is certified or marked with the court's raised seal. Each order covers one charge, or the charges from one incident, so read it against your record. If the charge is found statutorily ineligible, the administrative fee is not refunded, but the clerk's filing fee is.

10. Verify the record is cleared

    Under S.C. Code Ann. §§ 17-22-910 to -960 the solicitor's office sends the completed order to every agency that must receive it: the arresting law enforcement agency, the detention facility or jail, the solicitor's office, the magistrate or municipal court where the warrant originated or that handled the charge, the Department of Juvenile Justice and SLED, among others. For a charge that ended with no conviction, S.C. Code Ann. § 17-1-40 requires the arrest and booking record, bench warrants, mug shots and fingerprints to be destroyed. Law enforcement and prosecution agencies keep them under seal for three years and 120 days — indefinitely for an ongoing or future investigation — and keep incident reports under seal, your name redacted from any public copy; no agency may charge a fee for the destruction. For an expunged conviction, SLED keeps a nonpublic record of the offense and the date, released only to officials who need it to stop a once-only door from being used twice; for a failure to stop, the Department of Motor Vehicles keeps one too. After a pretrial intervention, conditional discharge, Youth Challenge or juvenile expungement, the law restores you to the status you held before the arrest, and you may deny the arrest in any inquiry without perjury; the courts' FAQ says the law is not clear for the other kinds. An employer other than a criminal justice agency may not use expunged information against you as its employee, and no claim can be brought against an employer over an expunged offense. The FAQ suggests pulling your SLED record again a month or two after the order to confirm it worked. Keep your copy of the order, and if a background-check company still reports the charge, send it the order — the FAQ notes SLED's challenge process reaches SLED's records only.

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.