Virginia Clean Slate Summary

Legislation passed date: HB 2113 (2021). Chapter 23.2. Sealing of Criminal History Record Information and Court Records, § 19.2-392.5 – § 19.2-392.17.

Effective date: July 1, 2025

Implementation Date: July 1, 2025

Appropriation:

Records are Sealed or Expunged.

Eligibility Criteria:

HB 2113 from the 2021 Special Session, provided Virginia with a record relief system with a mix of petition-based sealing and automatic record sealing and expungement.

• Automatic Sealing for misdemeanor non-convictions, nine types of misdemeanor convictions;
• “In-the-Moment” (at disposition) Sealing of felony acquittals and dismissals at disposition, which require the approval of the prosecuting attorney;
• Petition-Based Sealing for other misdemeanor convictions (sealing nearly all misdemeanor convictions (except driving under the influence and domestic assault) after 7-years, lower-level felony convictions after 10-years, and deferred dismissals;
• Expungement of Non-Conviction Records which can only be viewed by court order.

Agencies Involved:

• Virginia State Police*
• Office of the Executive Secretary (OES) of the Virigina Court System
• Virginia Court Clerks Association

Status: Planning and development.

Approach:

The workflow is that VSP is responsible for identifying eligible cases, which it sends to the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Virginia Courts. The OES distributes the listings of eligible records to the relevant courts, compiles reports back from the courts, and sends back to VSP for sealing, where appropriate. OES has 60-days to object to any sealing, should other pending charges or other disqualifying adjudications be present in the record.

Challenges:

• Virginia code sections changed, so tracking and translating those changes in criminal code references pose a challenge in identifying eligible records.
• Courts records retention schedule is relatively short, which may pose challenges in addressing older records.
• The state legislation made reference to sealing records outside of Virginia, which the state cannot control.
• Trouble filling staff positions.
• Funding issues at local levels, to assist local agencies in clearing records.
• Additional challenges remain and are detailed in the 2023 Virginia State Crime Commission Annual Report: Update – Expungement and Sealing of Criminal Records, pp. 107-109.

Notifications

• Requiring private background checking companies to routinely delete sealed records and creating a private right of action for individuals against companies that refuse to delete sealed records. VSP is working on this internally to develop this capability.
• The Virginia State Crime Commission is working on a public awareness campaign.

Outcomes to date: Actively planning and developing.