The Key Differences Between Expungement and Record Sealing
People call us asking to get a record "sealed," and the first thing we have to explain is that term does not exactly exist in Missouri legislature. What other states call sealing, Missouri calls a closed record, and it happens automatically when a case is dismissed. Expungement is a separate thing: a petition, a hearing, and a court order that treats the offense as though it never happened.
Which one you need depends on how your case ended. Some people already have a closed record and don't know it. Others have a conviction that no amount of waiting will close.
At Briegel Whiteley Moon, we file expungement petitions in Franklin County and the surrounding circuits, and our Franklin County criminal defense lawyer can pull your record and tell you, in one conversation, which path is open to you.
Key Takeaways
A closed record under RSMo 610.105 happens on its own when a charge is dismissed, dropped, or acquitted, or when SIS probation ends. The public cannot see it; police, courts, and some licensing agencies can.
Expungement under RSMo 610.140 takes a petition, a $250 surcharge, and a wait of three years after a felony sentence or one year after a misdemeanor, capped at one felony and two misdemeanors per lifetime.
Only expungement lets you lawfully answer "no" about the offense, and the statute still lists applications where you must disclose it.
Missouri Has Closed Records, Not Sealed Ones
The Missouri State Highway Patrol keeps every criminal history record in the state in one of two categories. The Patrol's own explanation is simple: open records go to anyone who runs a name search, closed records go only to agencies the statute names. Convictions, pending charges, and arrests under 30 days old are open. A suspended imposition of sentence is open during probation and closes the day probation ends.
That closing is what people mean when they say sealing. There is no petition and no judge. Under RSMo 610.105, once a charge is nolle prossed, dismissed, or ends in a not-guilty verdict, the official records become closed when the case is finally terminated.
Expungement is the stronger remedy and the harder one. It applies to convictions, which never close on their own, and it requires a court order after a hearing.
Who Can Still See a Closed Record?
More people than you'd think. RSMo 610.120 opens closed records to law enforcement, prosecutors, courts, and the Department of Corrections, and to agencies running fingerprint-based checks for sensitive work: child care, elder care, schools, and certain state licenses. The Patrol will not release a closed record on a name search, but it will on a fingerprint search to an entity the statute authorizes.
So a closed record protects you from the landlord, the private employer using a commercial background service, and the neighbor searching Case.net. It does not protect you from a nursing license board. And the court's final judgment in the case can still be accessed after the rest of the file closes.
What a closed record does give you, under RSMo 610.110, is the right not to mention it. Leaving it off an application is excused, with exceptions similar to the ones the expungement statute carries.
How Expungement Works
You file a petition under RSMo 610.140 in the court where you were charged, pay a $250 surcharge unless the judge waives it, and name as defendants every agency holding the record: the arresting department, the prosecutor, the court, and the Patrol's central repository. Each has 30 days to object. The hearing comes within 60 days of an objection, or 30 days after service if nobody objects.
The clock starts when the sentence is done. Legal Services of Missouri lays out the timeline: fines paid, probation or parole completed, then three years clean for a felony or one year for a misdemeanor, municipal violation, or infraction, with no new findings of guilt in that window other than minor traffic matters.
The limits are real. One felony and two misdemeanors per lifetime, though offenses from the same course of conduct count as one. Class A felonies, dangerous felonies, anything requiring sex offender registration, felony charges involving death, felony assault, and domestic assault at any level are off the table entirely. A plea with an SIS is not a conviction, so it generally does not use up one of those slots, which is one reason we weigh the long-term record so carefully before a client decides whether to accept a plea deal.
Closed Record vs Expungement: Side by Side
Closed record | Expungement | |
|---|---|---|
Statute | RSMo 610.105 | RSMo 610.140 |
Applies to | Dismissals, acquittals, nolle pros, completed SIS | Convictions and pleas |
How it happens | Automatically when the case ends | Petition, service, hearing, court order |
Waiting period | None | 3 years after a felony sentence, 1 year after a misdemeanor |
Cost | None | $250 surcharge plus attorney fees |
Lifetime limit | None | 1 felony, 2 misdemeanors |
Who still sees it | Law enforcement, courts, authorized licensing agencies | Fewer agencies, listed in 610.140.9 |
Right to deny it | Generally yes, with exceptions | Yes, with the same kinds of exceptions |
What You Can Say Afterward
An expungement order restores you to the status you held before the arrest. On a job application, a lease, or a loan form, you can answer that you have not been convicted of the offense.
The exceptions are specific. RSMo 610.140.9 requires disclosure on applications for work or licenses in law enforcement, emergency services, banking, insurance, and the care of children, the elderly, or the disabled, among others, and for anything that runs a fingerprint-based federal check. Lie on one of those forms about an expunged offense and you have a new problem the old one never caused.
A closed record works differently. Nothing is undone. The disposition still exists, and if an authorized agency pulls it, you will be asked about it.
Two Types of Cases Where Other Laws Apply
DWI does not go through 610.140. A first misdemeanor DWI is expunged under RSMo 577.054 instead, after ten years with no other alcohol-related contacts, and you get one in a lifetime. How long a DWI stays on your record is a different question from how long a shoplifting conviction does. The answer is longer.
Arrests that never became a case have their own statute too. RSMo 610.122 allows expungement of an arrest record when the arrest was based on false information, there was no probable cause at the time, and no charges followed. The same section covers arrests for moving violations that were dismissed, as long as you were not driving on a commercial license and have no misdemeanor or felony convictions. Those petitions wipe the arrest itself, not just close it.
Find Out Which One You Need
Start with a fingerprint-based search of your own record, which shows both open and closed entries. Most people are surprised by what's there.
William P. Moon spent years in the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney's Office before founding the firm, so he has seen which petitions that office objects to and which it lets through. Our attorneys handle expungements alongside the defense work we take to trial, and we charge flat fees.
Contact us at 4 S Church St in Union for a free consultation, and bring whatever paperwork you have from the old case. The disposition date is the number that matters most.
