How it works in Tennessee

The steps

1. Request your record

   Ask the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for a copy of your own Tennessee adult criminal history. The TBI's public check covers Tennessee only, needs no fingerprints, and can be done online or by mail. The results come by email, so you need a valid email address.

   Record request fee: $29.00 — The TBI's Tennessee-only adult record check for the general public: no fingerprints, online or by mail, results by email (a valid email address is required). The FBI's nationwide check is separate, through the TBI's contractor.

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. Request certified documents

   Gather the case information the court will ask for — the docket number and the charge — and a copy of your record from the court clerk if you do not have one. If your record says a charge was dismissed with costs, you owe court costs and must pay them, or have them waived, before the charge can be expunged. If it says the charge was retired, you must ask the court to change it to dismissed first. For a conviction, TN Code § 40-32-107 requires that you have paid all fines, restitution, court costs and other assessments, completed any imprisonment or probation, and met every condition of your release, so collect certified proof of each from the clerk and from any agency that supervised you.

   Certified copy fee: $5.00 — for making certification and seal, a cost the clerks of all Tennessee courts charge under section 8-21-401(i)(1); copies for a document request are $0.50 a page (other than an original filing or a record on appeal)

4. 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.

5. Prepare your petition

   Which petition you need depends on how your case ended. A charge that did not end in a conviction is expunged on your own petition to the court that heard the case under TN Code § 40-32-106: a dismissed charge (unless it was dismissed because you completed pretrial or judicial diversion), a no true bill, an arrest and release with no charge, a nolle prosequi, a not guilty verdict on every charge, an implied consent violation dismissed without costs, a charge abated by death, an arrest or charge the court finds was a case of mistaken identity, an order of protection you successfully defended, or a bond that has expired with no surety left to pay. These have no waiting period and no cost. A charge dismissed after you completed diversion can be expunged too, with the clerk's fee, unless the diverted offense was a sexual offense or a violent sexual offense. You cannot expunge a charge if you were convicted of an offense from the same conduct, including a lesser included offense, or of one count in the same indictment, though you can ask the court to remove the other charges from the electronic databases. A conviction can be expunged under TN Code § 40-32-107 if the offense is one the statute lists: a misdemeanor committed on or after November 1, 1989, unless the statute excludes it, or one of the Class C, D or E felonies it names, including an attempt, conspiracy, facilitation or solicitation to commit one. The offense must have come before any conviction for an offense that cannot be expunged, and you must not have been granted an expunction before. You wait five years after you complete the sentence for a misdemeanor or a Class E felony, and ten years for a Class C or D felony. You must have paid all fines, restitution, court costs and other assessments, completed any imprisonment or probation, and met every condition of your release. You can expunge one offense, or two if they are two misdemeanors or one felony and one misdemeanor; convictions from one continuous episode with a single intent count as one. The statute has three more doors. An offense committed before November 1, 1989, qualifies on the conditions the statute sets. A conviction for illegal registration or voting qualifies fifteen years after you complete the sentence, on the same sentence, prior-conviction and once rules. A conviction for which the board of parole voted for a pardon and the governor granted one qualifies unless it was for first or second degree murder, especially aggravated kidnapping, aggravated child abuse, especially aggravated robbery, an act of terrorism, a sexual offense that requires you to register as a sexual offender or violent sexual offender, or any sexual offense involving a minor, or an attempt, conspiracy, facilitation or solicitation to commit one of those felonies. For a conviction, you do not write the petition: the district attorney general's office prepares the petition and proposed order and gives them to you to file under TN Code § 40-32-108.

6. Finalize your petition

   Put the package together: the petition from Step 5 — for a conviction, the petition and proposed order the district attorney general's office prepared — the documents collected in Step 3, and the background check from Step 1. Double-check that every file in the package is the original, and keep a copy of the complete package for your own file.

7. File your expungement petition

   File the petition in the court that heard the case — for a conviction, the court that convicted you — under TN Code § 40-32-106 and TN Code § 40-32-108. A charge that ended without a conviction is removed and destroyed without cost to you. A conviction petition, a dismissal after diversion and a petition over an arrest record with no court history each carry the clerk's fee under section 8-21-401; ask the clerk for the current figure. If you were found not guilty on every charge, the judge must ask you at the verdict whether you want the records destroyed, and if you say yes the court orders it without a petition. When you file a conviction petition, the clerk serves it on the district attorney general, who has sixty days to send the court recommendations and give you a copy.

   Filing fee: None — For a charge that ended without a conviction (a dismissal, a no true bill, an arrest and release without a charge, a nolle prosequi, a not guilty verdict and the other results section 40-32-106(a) lists), the records are removed and destroyed without cost to you. A conviction petition (section 40-32-108(a)), a dismissal after diversion (section 40-32-106(d)(3)) and a petition over an arrest record with no court history (section 40-32-109(e)) carry the clerk's cost under section 8-21-401: the clerk may charge up to $100 for an expunction, in a criminal court of record or a criminal general sessions court (section 8-21-401(d)(2) and (g)(2)); ask the clerk for the figure.

8. Work with the court

   For a charge that ended without a conviction, the Tennessee courts' self-help page says you do not need to appear in court; bring a self-addressed stamped envelope for each charge so the clerk can mail you the paperwork. For a conviction petition, you and the district attorney general may each file evidence, and the court rules no sooner than sixty-one days after the district attorney general was served. Before it rules, the court reviews the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's certificate on whether the offense is eligible and weighs your interest against the best interests of justice and public safety. If you qualify under TN Code § 40-32-107 as a person convicted of a listed offense and meet its requirements, the law presumes the petition should be granted unless that presumption is rebutted. For a pardoned conviction, the court considers whether the offense was violent and any other relevant factors you and the district attorney general present. If the court denies the petition, you cannot file another for two years.

9. Receive the court's order

   The court enters an order granting or denying the petition. You are entitled to a copy of the order of expunction, and under TN Code § 40-32-110 that copy is sufficient proof that you are no longer under any disability, disqualification or other adverse consequence from the expunged records. Read the order's terms — they say which records it covers — and ask the clerk for a certified copy to keep.

10. Verify the record is cleared

    Under TN Code § 40-32-102, the court sends a copy of the order to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation within thirty days for entry into its expunged offender database. The TBI says it then removes the charges from your record, deletes them from your fingerprint card and sends the order to the FBI, and that the court's order also goes to the arresting agency, the county jail and the Department of Correction, each of which follows its own procedure. The TBI suggests you contact the TBI and the Department of Correction to make sure each received the order. Under TN Code § 40-32-110, the expunction restores you, in contemplation of the law, to the status you held before the arrest, indictment, information, trial and conviction, and you are not guilty of perjury for not reciting them in response to any inquiry. A private background-check company may still show the charge; the TBI says to contact the company directly. 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.