New York Expungement: What Exists and How to Seal a Record

Record clearing is one of the procedures covered in New York Vital Records, IDs, and Name Changes. This article covers the part people search for as expungement: what New York actually erases, what it only seals, who qualifies under each route, and what the CPL 160.59 application involves from the certificate of disposition through the district attorney’s response.

What New York expungement actually covers

New York uses two different words for two different outcomes. Expungement destroys the record. Sealing keeps the record in existence but closes it to most people who run a background check.

Only one category of New York conviction is expunged. Under N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law § 160.50(5), convictions for the repealed marijuana offenses in former Penal Law §§ 221.05, 221.10, 221.15, 221.20, 221.35 and 221.40, along with several related cannabis offenses, are vacated, dismissed and expunged by operation of law. Nobody files anything. The Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act directed the courts and the state’s criminal justice agencies to process those convictions on their own, and the New York Attorney General’s record-clearing guidance describes the same automatic treatment.

Everything else runs through sealing. A search for “New York expungement application” leads to a sealing application, because no general expungement petition exists in New York law. The practical question is which sealing route reaches a given conviction.

Automatic sealing under the Clean Slate Act

The Clean Slate Act took effect November 16, 2024 and seals eligible convictions without any petition. According to the New York Courts summary of the Clean Slate Act, a misdemeanor becomes eligible three years after sentencing or three years after release from incarceration, whichever is later, and a felony becomes eligible eight years after sentencing or eight years after release, whichever is later.

Two conditions ride on top of the waiting period. The person cannot be on probation, post-release supervision or parole, and cannot have a pending criminal case. Sex offenses and most Class A felony convictions, including murder, are excluded, with an exception for certain drug offenses.

Clean Slate sealing is civil-side only. Law enforcement, courts, and employers running background checks required by law for certain positions still see the conviction.

Who qualifies to apply under CPL 160.59

CPL 160.59 is the route that involves an actual application. It predates Clean Slate and reaches convictions that automatic sealing does not, including older felonies once ten years have run.

Three limits define eligibility. Under N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law § 160.59(4), a defendant may seal no more than two eligible offenses, and no more than one of the two can be a felony. Subdivision 5 of the same section requires that at least ten years have passed since the sentence was imposed on the latest conviction; the New York Courts page on sealing after ten years measures the clock from the date of conviction or release from custody, whichever is later, and the applicant has to have stayed crime-free during that period.

The third limit is the offense itself. Sex offenses, violent felonies as defined in Penal Law § 70.02, and Class A felonies are not eligible offenses under N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law § 160.59(1), so a record containing one of them cannot be sealed through this route no matter how much time has passed.

A pending charge stops the application. So does an open warrant. Convictions from other states are outside the statute entirely, because a New York court cannot seal another jurisdiction’s record.

How to file the sealing application

The application is a motion, not a form filed at a counter. The papers go to the court that entered the most serious conviction; where both convictions are the same class, they go to the court that entered the most recent one.

1. Pull your own criminal history record

   The application has to describe every conviction accurately, which means working from an official record rather than memory. The Office of Court Administration runs a New York statewide criminal history record search that costs $95.00 as of 2026, ordered through its online Direct Access program or by mailing in the application form. The search matches strictly on an exact name and date of birth, so a case filed under a former name will not surface under the current one.

2. Get a certificate of disposition for each conviction

   The clerk of the court that handled the case issues the certificate of disposition, which states the charge, the disposition and the sentence. Clerks charge a fee for each certificate and the amount varies by court. One certificate is required for each conviction named in the application.

3. Complete the notice of motion and sworn affidavit

   The affidavit identifies the convictions to be sealed, states the date of the latest sentence, and describes what has happened since. Applicants commonly attach evidence of rehabilitation: employment records, education or training certificates, treatment completion, letters from people who know the applicant. The CPL § 160.59(7) factors tell the court what to weigh, including the time elapsed, the circumstances and seriousness of the offense, the applicant’s character, any victim statement, and the impact of sealing on rehabilitation, reentry and public safety.

4. File the papers and serve the district attorney

   There is no fee to file the sealing papers with the court. A copy of the application, the certificates of disposition and the supporting documents is served on the district attorney of the county where the conviction was obtained. Convictions from two counties mean service on both district attorneys.

5. Wait for the district attorney's response

   Under N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law § 160.59(2), the district attorney has forty-five days from service to notify the court of an objection. If no objection arrives, the court may decide the motion on the papers. If one does, the court holds a hearing, and the applicant and the prosecutor each get to be heard before the judge rules.

What sealing does and does not hide

A sealed conviction stays in the court file and in the state criminal history database. What changes is who sees it. Sealed records are not disclosed to most private employers, landlords, or licensing applications, and the person can answer questions about criminal history without reporting the sealed case in those settings.

Several categories of access survive sealing. Courts and prosecutors see sealed records in later criminal cases. Law enforcement agencies see them when the applicant seeks employment as a police or peace officer or applies for a firearm license. Background checks mandated by statute for certain jobs, including some positions working with children and vulnerable adults, reach sealed records too.

Sealing also reaches only criminal history records. Driving records held by the Department of Motor Vehicles follow their own retention rules and are untouched by a sealing order, as are ordinary DMV transactions like transferring a car title in New York. Identifying information is likewise unaffected: changing a legal name runs through a separate court proceeding described in the New York name change petition process, and it does not seal or erase anything.

Federal immigration authorities are outside state sealing entirely. A sealed New York conviction remains a conviction for immigration purposes, and noncitizens with a criminal record generally consult an immigration attorney before relying on a sealing order.

Other sealing routes worth knowing

Not every record requires an application. Cases that ended in the applicant’s favor, meaning a dismissal, an acquittal, or a dismissal in the interest of justice, are sealed automatically under N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law § 160.50. Convictions for violations and traffic infractions, other than driving while impaired, are sealed automatically under CPL 160.55. When either of these fails to happen, the fix is usually a letter or motion to the court clerk asking that the statutory sealing be applied, not a CPL 160.59 application.

A separate track exists for drug cases resolved through treatment. N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law § 160.58 lets a court conditionally seal the records of a defendant who completed a judicially sanctioned drug treatment program and finished the sentence, along with up to three prior eligible misdemeanors defined in Penal Law article 220 or 221. Conditional sealing is reversible: a later arrest or formal charge for any misdemeanor or felony unseals those records immediately, and they are resealed only if the new case ends in an acquittal or a non-criminal conviction.