Minnesota Expungement Laws: Clean Slate Act and Petition Guide

Minnesota provides two distinct pathways to seal criminal records: automatic expungement through the Clean Slate Act (Minn. Stat. § 609A.015) and petition-based expungement under Minn. Stat. § 609A.02, each governed by different eligibility rules, waiting periods, and procedural requirements. Minn. Stat. ch. 609A

Information last verified on May 29, 2026. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed attorney.

Jurisdiction scope: This article covers Minnesota state expungement law only. For a comparison across all 50 states, see Expungement Laws by State.

Minnesota's Two Expungement Pathways

Minnesota law establishes two separate mechanisms for sealing criminal records, and understanding which applies to a specific case determines the process, timeline, and burden of proof involved. The first pathway is automatic expungement, created by the Clean Slate Act (Laws 2023, ch. 52, codified at Minn. Stat. § 609A.015). Under this pathway the BCA identifies eligible records without any action by the individual and seals them after a statutory 60-day review period. The second pathway is petition-based expungement under Minn. Stat. § 609A.02 and § 609A.03, which requires filing a formal petition with the district court, serving all affected agencies, attending a hearing, and obtaining a judicial order. The petition pathway covers offenses not reached by the automatic process and allows individuals to seek relief from a broader but still defined list of qualifying offenses. Both pathways produce a sealed record, not a destroyed one; Minnesota Statute § 609A.01 expressly limits the available remedy to sealing and prohibits destruction of records.

The Clean Slate Act: Automatic Expungement Under § 609A.015

The Clean Slate Act took effect January 1, 2025, and covers the largest volume of Minnesota criminal records ever addressed by a single expungement law. The BCA finished programming its Criminal History System in September 2024, completed testing with the Minnesota Judicial Branch in March 2025, began sending eligible records to courts on April 21, 2025, and commenced automatic sealing on June 20, 2025. By April 14, 2026, the BCA had expunged approximately 1.57 million of 2.03 million eligible records, with about 304,000 still under judicial review, for an overall 94.1 percent completion rate. Under § 609A.015, subd. 1, records are automatically eligible when all charges were dismissed after filing, the case was dismissed under the drug diversion statute (§ 152.18), or all actions were resolved in the person's favor. Subdivision 3 covers convictions: petty misdemeanors and misdemeanors require a 2-year waiting period after sentence discharge with no new convictions; gross misdemeanors require 3 years; drug felonies under § 152.025 require 4 years; and most other qualifying felonies require 5 years. No application, petition, or motion is required. The BCA acts on its own identification of eligible records and notifies courts, which must seal their records within 60 days of receiving notice unless a court order prohibits expungement.

Petition-Based Expungement Under § 609A.02 and § 609A.03

For records not automatically reached by the Clean Slate Act, or for individuals who wish to accelerate relief, petition-based expungement remains available under Minn. Stat. § 609A.02. Subdivision 3 of that section lists eight categories of eligible petitioners, including those who were fully acquitted, completed diversion or a stay of adjudication with no new charges for one year, or were convicted of petty misdemeanors, misdemeanors, gross misdemeanors, or specific listed felonies after meeting the same waiting periods used by the Clean Slate Act. The 53 eligible felony offenses listed in § 609A.02, subd. 3(b) include drug possession under §§ 152.023 through 152.025, fraud and forgery offenses under §§ 609.63 and 609.625, theft and receiving stolen goods under §§ 609.521 and 609.53, and financial crimes under §§ 609.821 and 609.822, among others. One absolute exclusion applies to all petition cases: convictions requiring registration as a predatory offender under § 243.166 cannot be expunged. The petition is filed in the district court where the conviction occurred, signed under oath, and must include the petitioner's full name, aliases, date of birth, addresses since the offense, the criminal history, and a statement of rehabilitation steps taken. The petitioner pays the filing fee under § 357.021, subd. 2, though fee waivers are available for indigent filers and are mandatory for cases eligible under § 609A.02, subd. 3. After filing, the petitioner must serve the petition on the prosecutor and all affected agencies; a hearing may not occur sooner than 60 days after service. The court must grant the petition unless an agency proves by clear and convincing evidence that public safety interests outweigh the petitioner's interests, a burden that shifts to the government rather than the petitioner for offenses listed in § 609A.02, subd. 3.

Cannabis Expungement: Automatic Relief and Board Review Under § 609A.055 and § 609A.06

The 2023 Adult-Use Cannabis Act created a separate automatic expungement track for cannabis-related records that operates alongside the Clean Slate Act. Under Minn. Stat. § 609A.055, the BCA automatically seals records involving cannabis offenses under § 152.027, subds. 3 or 4, covering possession of small amounts of cannabis that became legal after August 1, 2023, without any petition or application. The BCA completed this initial round of cannabis expungements on May 13, 2024, sealing 57,780 records in the Criminal History System. The BCA conducted a follow-up review in 2025 for records that were still in court processing during the 2024 run. Felony-level cannabis convictions that do not qualify for automatic relief are addressed through a separate process under § 609A.06, which established the Cannabis Expungement Board, a five-member panel including a designee of the chief justice, the attorney general's designee, a public defender appointed by the governor, the corrections commissioner's designee, and one public member with relevant experience. The board holds monthly public meetings, reviews individual cases, and presumes expungement is in the public interest unless clear and convincing evidence shows a public safety risk. Once the board identifies an eligible case, the district court issues an expungement or resentencing order. Board Executive Director James Rowader has noted the full review could take several years given the volume of individual determinations required.

What Minnesota Expungement Does and Does Not Do

Understanding the limits of expungement is as important as understanding how to obtain it. Minnesota Statute § 609A.01 restricts the remedy to sealing records and explicitly prohibits destroying them or returning them to the subject. A sealed record is no longer visible to the public in the BCA's Minnesota Criminal History System or in court records, and employers and landlords conducting standard background checks will not see it. Under § 609A.04, any government entity that knowingly opens or exchanges an expunged record outside of authorized purposes is subject to a civil action under Minn. Stat. § 13.08. However, § 609A.03, subd. 6 preserves access for criminal justice agencies conducting investigations, prosecutions, or sentencing; for background studies under § 245C.08 in licensed human-services settings; and for teacher background checks under § 122A.18, subd. 8. DNA samples held by the BCA cannot be sealed or destroyed regardless of expungement. Records of violent crime convictions remain subject to lifetime firearm restrictions under federal law unless the individual obtains federal relief under 18 U.S.C. § 925. Expungement under Minnesota law does not affect records held by other states or by federal agencies; individuals with out-of-state or federal records must pursue relief in the applicable jurisdiction or contact the FBI directly.

Legal information notice: This article provides general legal information about Minnesota expungement law, verified against official sources as of May 29, 2026. It does not constitute legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Expungement eligibility is fact-specific. Consult a licensed Minnesota attorney for advice about your individual situation.

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Sources

The statutes and government agency pages cited throughout this article are the primary sources for the information presented here; all citations link directly to official Minnesota government domains.

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Last updated: May 29, 2026. Statutes cited reflect their in-force version as of May 29, 2026.