Michigan Expungement

Michigan Expungement
After an expungement in Michigan has been granted the records can no longer be accessed for civil use or for general law enforcement purposes. A set-aside record can be considered in employment applications for law enforcement licensing and positions. Despite the definition that expunged records are erased, they can still be accessed and used as priors in future criminal case convictions. A set-aside offense does not relieve an individual of the duty to register as a sex offender. In the case of juvenile offenders, once the individual is of the age of seventeen the records in accordance with the diverted crimes will be destroyed within twenty-eight days.

Set-aside Records
Only certain first-time offenses can be set-aside. Any individual who is found guilty by a judge or jury, is guilty by mental illness, or pleads no contest may have a charge set aside if the criminal offense is not a sexual offense under Michigan Law 750.520c through 750.520g. If the individual has been convicted of a felony or an attempted felony they would otherwise be punishable by life in prison or a traffic offense, he or she cannot have the offense set aside. No other prior convictions or other set-aside convictions can be present for setting aside eligibility. Juveniles with diverted sentence records are eligible also if over the age of seventeen according to Michigan law 22.828.

Application for Setting Aside
Those that are eligible for setting aside must submit applications five years after the sentence in question or five years following the completion of the imprisonment term for the conviction in question. The application must include the individual's full name and current address, a certified record of the conviction to be set aside, a statement claiming that the applicant has not been convicted of an offense other than the one for the application, a statement of whether or not a previous application for setting aside has been filed or for any other conviction, a statement as to whether or not the individual has any current criminal charges pending through a United States court or a court of another country, and the consent to use the non-public record under section 3 to the proper extent that is authorized in section 3.

The individual is also required to submit a copy of the application with a fifty-dollar fee and two complete sets of fingerprints to the state police department. The fingerprints will be compared to those on file and forwarded to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for comparison. The state police department will then inform the court where the case was originally handled of the application and will verify the information contained. This can include no pending charges, no previous applications, and proper consent. The court, though already having the application in hand, will wait for the report back from the state police department before proceeding. The attorney general and the office of the prosecuting attorney who prosecuted the crime will also need to be served copies of the application. These offices can contest the application if necessary.