Southern Illinois Expungement & Record Sealing Lawyers

An arrest where no charges were filed, a case dismissed by the prosecutor (a “nolle prosequi”), an acquittal at trial, or a finding of no probable cause are all eligible for expungement under 20 ILCS 2630/5.2(b) with no waiting period.

The exception is a case “stricken with leave to reinstate” (often called an “SOL” or non-suit). For those dispositions, you must wait 120 days after dismissal if you demanded a trial, or 160 days if you did not, before filing for expungement.

A successfully completed sentence of court supervision is not a conviction under Illinois law and is generally eligible for expungement after a two-year waiting period. The waiting period is measured from the date of satisfactory termination of supervision.

There are exceptions. Court supervision for domestic battery, criminal sexual abuse, or certain Illinois Vehicle Code offenses requires a five-year waiting period. Court supervision for DUI under 625 ILCS 5/11-501 and reckless driving for those over 25 cannot be expunged at all.

Several types of “first offender” or qualified probation are not considered convictions if successfully completed. These include 710-1410 probation under the Cannabis Control Act and Illinois Controlled Substances Act, TASC probation under the Substance Use Disorder Act, 20 ILCS 301/40-10, Second Chance Probation, and the Offender Initiative Program.

These dispositions become eligible for expungement five years after successful completion of probation. Petitions involving qualified probation typically require submission of a recent clean drug test along with the petition.

If your conviction was reversed on appeal, vacated on collateral review, or set aside by the trial court, you are eligible for immediate expungement under 20 ILCS 2630/5.2(b). No waiting period applies.

If a court determines by clear and convincing evidence that you were factually innocent of the charge, the court that made the finding will enter the expungement order directly under 730 ILCS 5/5-5-4.

The automatic cannabis expungement process runs through the Criminal Identification Act, 20 ILCS 2630/5.2. Minor Cannabis Offenses involving 30 grams or less are reviewed by the Illinois State Police and forwarded to the Prisoner Review Board for the Governor’s pardon and expungement process.

Convictions involving more than 30 grams but less than 500 grams are not automatic. They require a motion to vacate and expunge filed with the circuit court. Larger-amount manufacturing and trafficking convictions may not be eligible for cannabis-specific relief but may be eligible for sealing under the general statute.

If someone used your identity to commit a crime and an arrest or conviction was entered in your name, the Identity Theft Expungement Act, 5 ILCS 179/20, allows you to petition the chief judge of the circuit where the arrest occurred to enter an order nunc pro tunc removing your name from the record. There is no waiting period.

Honorably discharged veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces may be eligible to petition for expungement of certain non-violent Class 3 and Class 4 felony convictions. Eligibility depends on the nature of the offense, discharge status, and time elapsed since completion of sentence. We can review your DD-214 alongside your criminal history to determine whether the veterans expungement provision applies to your record.

Most misdemeanor convictions in Illinois can be sealed two years after the end of your sentence, reduced from three years by the Clean Slate Act effective June 1, 2026. Common eligible misdemeanors include retail theft, simple battery, criminal damage to property, criminal trespass, possession of drug paraphernalia, and many other Class A and Class B misdemeanors.

Domestic battery convictions, sex offenses, and DUI cannot be sealed even when charged as misdemeanors.

Most Class 3 and Class 4 felony convictions can be sealed three years after completion of the most recent sentence. The Clean Slate Act did not change the three-year wait for felony sealing. Sealable felonies include many drug possession convictions, theft and forgery offenses, and certain weapons offenses.

Some Class 2 felonies are also eligible for sealing, but Class X felonies, homicide, robbery, residential burglary, vehicular hijacking, trafficking, involuntary servitude, and most violent felonies are not. We review every entry on your record to identify which felonies are sealable and which are not.

Felony drug convictions under the Cannabis Control Act and Illinois Controlled Substances Act historically required submission of a recent clean drug test with the sealing petition. The Clean Slate Act removed that requirement effective June 1, 2026.

A negative drug test is no longer required to seal a felony drug conviction, and a court can no longer deny a sealing petition because a cannabis test came back positive.

Automatic sealing covers the same records that are eligible for petition-based sealing: most non-conviction records, misdemeanor convictions, and Class 3 and Class 4 felony convictions. Two groups are treated differently.

Some offenses can never be sealed, by petition or automatically. These include DUI and reckless driving, domestic battery, sex offenses and anything requiring sex offender registration, violations of orders of protection and no contact orders, and offenses under the Humane Care for Animals Act.

A second group is excluded from automatic sealing but can still be sealed by petition: Class X felonies, homicide offenses, robbery, residential burglary, burglary, vehicular hijacking, human trafficking, organized retail crime, and offenses classified as crimes of violence such as armed robbery, arson, kidnapping, home invasion, aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, and stalking. For those records, a petition remains the only route.

Once automatic sealing is live, eligibility turns on the disposition and how much time has passed since the sentence ended. Dismissals and acquittals are sealed shortly after the case concludes. Orders of supervision, qualified probation, and misdemeanor and ordinance convictions are sealed two years after the sentence is completed. Felony convictions are sealed three years after the last felony sentence is completed.

No record is sealed while you are still serving a sentence, supervision, or probation, or while a case is pending. Felony records are also handled as a group: none seal automatically until every felony record has met the three-year mark.

The Act creates the Illinois Clean Slate Task Force to oversee the rollout. The Task Force meets quarterly, reports annually to the General Assembly, and receives administrative support from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. Its role is to review how other states have implemented automated sealing and to help build the data-matching and notification systems the law depends on. The Task Force is set to dissolve six years after the Act’s effective date.

The first step is obtaining your statewide Criminal History Transcript from the Illinois State Police and pulling case dispositions from each circuit clerk where you were charged. Many records contain errors, missing dispositions, or miscategorized offenses, and the quality of the petition depends on the quality of the underlying record review.

We routinely identify older cases that clients did not even remember, and just as often, cases on a record that should have been cleared years ago.

The petition is filed in the circuit court of the county where the arrest occurred or the charges were brought. If you have records in multiple counties, a separate petition must be filed in each county.

The Illinois Supreme Court has approved statewide expungement and sealing forms, but each county has its own filing fees, e-filing rules, and local practices. Filing fees range from approximately $60 to $235 depending on the county. Juvenile expungement petitions have no filing fee. Fee waivers are available for low-income petitioners under 725 ILCS 5/124A-20.

Once the petition is filed and served, the State’s Attorney, the Illinois State Police, the arresting agency, and the chief legal officer of the unit of local government that made the arrest each have 60 days from service to file a written objection.

In our experience, most petitions for clear-cut non-conviction expungements pass this stage without objection. Petitions involving qualified probation, sealing, or older records with incomplete dispositions are more likely to draw objections that have to be addressed in writing or at a hearing.

If no agency objects within 60 days, the court typically enters the order without a hearing. If an objection is filed, the court will set the petition for hearing.

At a contested hearing, the court considers your criminal history, the time elapsed since the offense, evidence of rehabilitation, and the public interest in granting or denying relief. We prepare clients for these hearings and present the case in the strongest light possible, but no attorney can guarantee an outcome.

Once the judge signs the order, the circuit clerk transmits copies to the Illinois State Police, the arresting agency, the State’s Attorney, and any other agency the court directs. Each agency has 60 days from the date of service to expunge or seal the records on its end.

We always recommend obtaining certified copies of the expungement or sealing order. If a private background check vendor reports the offense after the fact, the certified order is your written proof that the record was cleared.

In Illinois, expungement physically destroys or returns your criminal record so that no public agency or private background check can see it. Sealing hides the record from public view but keeps it accessible to law enforcement and certain licensing bodies. Expungement is the cleaner remedy, but it is available in fewer situations than sealing.

When the court orders an expungement, the arresting agency, the Illinois State Police, and the circuit court clerk are required to destroy or return the records, and your name is removed from the official court index. When a record is sealed, the file remains in existence but is impounded and shielded from public access. Most working-age adults find that sealing is sufficient to remove a record as a barrier to employment and housing.

Most Illinois expungement and sealing petitions take four to six months from filing to final order. The State’s Attorney, Illinois State Police, and arresting agency each have 60 days from service to file an objection. If no one objects, the judge typically signs the order shortly after that window closes.

The timeline depends on the county, the court’s docket, and whether an agency objects. Cases with objections require a hearing, which can add several months. After the order is entered, agencies have 60 days to physically expunge or seal the records on their end.

Illinois expungement filing fees vary by county and typically range from about $60 to $235, including the Illinois State Police processing fee. There is no filing fee for juvenile expungements. Fee waivers are available for petitioners who meet income guidelines. Attorney fees are separate and depend on the complexity of your record.

At Olson & Reeves, we charge fixed-flat fees for expungement and sealing work so you know the total cost before we begin, and we offer interest-free payment plans. Court fees are paid directly to the circuit clerk. If you cannot afford the filing fee, you can ask the court to waive it by filing an Application for Waiver of Court Fees.

In Illinois, DUI convictions, reckless driving (if you were 25 or older), domestic battery convictions, sex offenses requiring registration, violations of orders of protection, and most violent felonies cannot be expunged or sealed under 20 ILCS 2630/5.2. Minor traffic offenses also cannot be expunged.

Some of these offenses, DUI for example, remain ineligible for relief even when the disposition was court supervision rather than a conviction. The Clean Slate Act, effective June 1, 2026, keeps these exclusions for automatic relief, though some excluded offenses remain available for petition-based sealing in narrow circumstances.

Most felony convictions cannot be expunged in Illinois. Expungement of a felony is only available in limited situations: when the conviction was reversed or vacated, when the Governor pardons you with authorization to expunge, or for certain minor cannabis felonies. Many felony convictions can, however, be sealed.

Class 3 and Class 4 felonies are generally eligible for sealing three years after the sentence ends. The Clean Slate Act, effective June 1, 2026, shortened the sealing wait to two years for misdemeanors and ordinance violations, but the three-year wait for felony sealing did not change. Our attorneys review every entry on your record to identify whether expungement, sealing, or a vacatur motion is the appropriate path.

You are not legally required to hire a lawyer to file an Illinois expungement or sealing petition. The Illinois Office of the State Appellate Defender publishes free statewide forms. However, an attorney significantly reduces the risk of a denied or delayed petition, particularly when your record involves multiple cases, qualified probation, or contested categories.

A denied petition is not the end of the road, but it costs time, sometimes a refiling fee, and the chance to clear your record before a job application or housing decision. Most denials we see in pro se cases involve missing dispositions, miscategorized offenses, or waiting periods that had not yet passed. We handle that review on the front end so the petition gets filed correctly the first time.

No. After your record is expunged or sealed in Illinois, it should not appear on private background checks used for employment, housing, or licensing. Under 20 ILCS 2630/12, employers cannot ask about expunged or sealed arrests or convictions, and you can legally answer “no” when asked whether you have been arrested.

Some private database aggregators are slow to update their files. If an old record surfaces after expungement, the certified court order serves as proof and can be sent to the reporting agency to demand correction. Law enforcement, courts, and certain licensed positions (school employees, healthcare workers, law enforcement candidates) can still see sealed records.

The Illinois Clean Slate Act (Public Act 104-0459) took effect June 1, 2026. It creates an automated system in which the Illinois State Police seals eligible records without a petition. Automatic sealing does not begin until January 1, 2029, but the Act has already shortened some sealing waiting periods and removed the drug-test requirement for sealing felony drug convictions.

Until automatic sealing is operational in 2029, filing a petition is still the only way to clear most records. The Act also removed the bar on sealing a felony after a later felony conviction. Excluded offenses, including DUI, sex offenses, domestic battery, and most violent felonies, remain ineligible for automatic sealing, though some can still be sealed by petition.

The Illinois Clean Slate Act took effect June 1, 2026. The changes to the petition-based sealing process, including shorter waiting periods and the removal of the drug-test requirement, apply now. The automated sealing system, in which the State seals records without a petition, does not go live until January 1, 2029 and then rolls out in phases through 2034.

Older records are sealed on a schedule tied to the disposition date, with the most recent cases (2005 through 2028) handled first and the oldest cases (1970 through 1990) handled last. The State Police identify and forward eligible records to the circuit clerks, who then seal them.

For now, you still need to file a petition. Automatic sealing under the Clean Slate Act does not begin until January 1, 2029, and it then proceeds in phases over several years. Until then, petition-based sealing is the only way to clear a record, and even after 2029 a petition lets you control the timing instead of waiting for the State’s schedule.

If a record is affecting your job, housing, or licensing now, waiting for automatic sealing usually costs you years. We can tell you whether your record is eligible to be sealed today and whether it will also qualify for automatic sealing later.

Since June 1, 2026, most records can be sealed two years after your last sentence ends, including orders of supervision, qualified probation, misdemeanors, and ordinance violations. Felony convictions still require a three-year wait. Non-conviction records, such as dismissals and acquittals, can generally be sealed right away.

The waiting period runs from the date your most recent sentence terminated, not the date of arrest or conviction. Convictions that require sex offender, arsonist, or violent offender registration cannot be sealed until the registration requirement ends.

No. Sealing a record under the Clean Slate Act does not restore your firearm rights. A sealed felony conviction still appears during the FOID card process and still bars gun possession under state and federal law. Restoring firearm rights is a separate process through the FOID Card Board, the courts, or the Governor.

If your firearm rights were lost because of a conviction, sealing the record and restoring your rights are two different steps. We handle FOID card and gun rights restoration as a related matter so both can be addressed together.

Yes. Under Illinois law, most minor cannabis convictions involving 30 grams or less are subject to automatic expungement processed by the Illinois State Police. Convictions involving 30 to 500 grams may be cleared through a motion to vacate and expunge, but that requires a court motion rather than automatic relief.

If your prior cannabis conviction is for an amount that is now legal under state law, you may not need to do anything. The State should already have expunged eligible Minor Cannabis Offenses through the gubernatorial pardon process. We routinely review records to confirm whether automatic expungement has already occurred or whether a petition is still needed.

After expungement, the arresting agency, Illinois State Police, and circuit clerk physically destroy or return the records, and your name is removed from the court’s public index. After sealing, the records remain in existence but are hidden from public view and shielded from background checks. In both cases, you can lawfully say you have not been arrested for that offense in most contexts.

An expunged or sealed record cannot be considered by private employers, landlords, or most licensing agencies. Some narrow exceptions exist: positions requiring fingerprint-based background checks (law enforcement, healthcare with disqualifying convictions, school employees) may still see sealed records. If you ever need to prove your record was cleared, request a certified copy of your expungement or sealing order from the circuit clerk.