Kentucky Expungement: How to Clear Your Criminal Record in 2026

If you are a Kentucky resident wondering whether you can clear a criminal charge or conviction off your record, you almost certainly have more options today than you think. The Kentucky General Assembly transformed felony expungement after 2014, the Court of Appeals has continued to clarify the law in each subsequent term, and many people who assumed they would never be eligible turn out to qualify after all.

This page is written for you, the person trying to figure out what is possible. It covers what types of charges can be cleared in Kentucky, how long you have to wait, what the process actually looks like, the most common reasons petitions get denied, and a real case from our office where a charge that looked ineligible on its face was cleared anyway. At the end there is information on how to get a candid eligibility review from this office.

Can I Get My Record Cleared in Kentucky?

Probably yes, if the conviction is eligible and the waiting period has run. Kentucky law allows you to clear, seal, or void a criminal record through several different procedures, each governed by its own statute:

• Eligible misdemeanors can be expunged under KRS 431.078 after the statutory waiting period from completion of the sentence.
• Most Class D felonies can be expunged under KRS 431.073, either because the offense is on the enumerated list in subsection (1)(a) or because it falls within one of the other pathways in subsection (1)(b)-(d).
• Acquittals and charges dismissed with prejudice can be expunged under KRS 431.076, and the Department of Public Advocacy confirms there is no filing fee for this track.
• Substance-offense convictions followed by satisfactory completion of treatment or probation may be voided under KRS 218A.275(8), a separate mechanism from the general expungement statutes.
• Charges that have not yet reached final disposition may not be cleared until the underlying case is closed.

The next question is usually how — and that is where the procedural detail matters. The sections below walk through the framework that has held up since 2014, the felony expungement statute that transformed the landscape after 2014, the difference between voiding and sealing, and a contested case I handled in Harrison Circuit that illustrates one of the most useful provisions in the felony expungement statute.

What Kinds of Charges Can Be Cleared in Kentucky?

Different statutes cover different kinds of records. Each has its own eligibility rules and its own filing track. Here is the big picture, from the simplest path to the most complex.

Charges Dismissed With Prejudice or Cases Where You Were Acquitted

If you went to trial and were acquitted, or your case was dismissed with prejudice, the expungement track is KRS 431.076. The Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy notes there is no filing fee for this kind of expungement. There is also no waiting period of years. This is the cleanest path and one of the strongest indications you should at least ask whether you qualify.

Misdemeanor Convictions

Most Kentucky misdemeanors can be expunged under KRS 431.078 after a waiting period of five years from the time you finished the sentence, according to the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy. Certain offenses are excluded, including sex offenses and offenses against children, but the misdemeanor expungement statute reaches a wide range of common charges.

Class D Felony Convictions

Felony expungement in Kentucky exists and reaches most Class D felonies under KRS 431.073. There are four pathways into eligibility under the statute. The most useful one for borderline cases is the “single incident” pathway, which can sweep in charges that are not specifically listed when they arose from the same incident as a listed charge. The case study below is an example of how this works in practice. If your record includes a Class D felony, see our separate Class D felony page for sentencing and probation background.

Substance Offenses Where You Completed Treatment

If you completed court-ordered treatment, probation, or other sentence on a controlled-substance conviction, KRS 218A.275(8) gives the court authority to set aside and void the conviction altogether. This is a separate procedure from the expungement statutes and has its own advantages, particularly for cases where the waiting period for expungement under KRS 431.073 has not yet run.

Class A, B, and C Felonies, Sex Offenses, and Offenses Against a Child

These are categorically excluded from expungement in Kentucky. If your record consists only of charges in these categories, an honest attorney will tell you the expungement statutes do not help. There may be other remedies, such as a pardon application or a sex offender registration challenge in narrow circumstances, but those are different procedures.

Kentucky DUI Convictions

Kentucky DUI convictions under KRS 189A.010 have historically not been eligible for expungement under either the misdemeanor or felony expungement statutes. If a DUI is the charge on your record, the available paths are narrower than they are for other misdemeanors. The right move is a candid review with an attorney who handles both DUI defense and expungement work to identify whether any voiding mechanism, conviction-modification, or recent statutory development might apply to your specific case. Our office handles both Kentucky DUI defense and expungement work; the two practice areas overlap in important ways and should be evaluated together.

Felony Expungement in Kentucky: KRS 431.073 in Plain Language

The Kentucky General Assembly created the state’s first general felony expungement statute — now codified at KRS 431.073 — through legislation enacted in the latter half of the 2010s. The original enumerated list in subsection (1)(a) was relatively narrow. A subsequent amendment significantly expanded the list to cover a wide range of Class D felonies, including possession of controlled substances first degree (KRS 218A.1415) and many property, fraud, and lower-level drug offenses. The amendments also reduced the statutory filing fee, which the original version had set at a much higher figure that effectively put felony expungement out of reach for many petitioners. Practitioners and petitioners should consult the current statute and the Administrative Office of the Courts fee schedule for the specific bill numbers, current enumerated list, and current fee amounts, all of which can change session by session.

The current eligibility framework, in plain language

Under KRS 431.073, a petitioner with an eligible Class D felony conviction may seek expungement after the statutory waiting period from completion of the sentence, including completion of any probation, parole, or post-release supervision. There are four pathways set out in subsection (1):

• (1)(a) — conviction of one of the enumerated Class D felonies. This is the most common path. The list is long but not exhaustive.
• (1)(b) — conviction of a series of Class D felony violations of one or more enumerated statutes arising from a single incident. This is the single-incident doctrine. We will return to it below.
• (1)(c) — conviction under a statute later reclassified to a non-felony or repealed.
• (1)(d) — conviction of other Class D felonies not enumerated above, with limitations. The big exclusions sit here: no expungement for sex offenses, for offenses requiring sex offender registration, and no expungement for offenses committed against a child.

Several offenses remain categorically off-limits: Class A, B, and C felonies; capital offenses; sex offenses generally; offenses against a child; and offenses that require sex offender registration. A second or subsequent felony conviction does not necessarily disqualify a petitioner; the statute permits successive petitions in some circumstances after the statutory waiting period has run.

The practical cost of a felony petition

The filing fee for a felony expungement under KRS 431.073 was set at a high figure when the statute was enacted and was later reduced. The current statutory amount should be verified against the AOC fee schedule before filing. A practitioner should also budget for the eligibility certification fee under KRS 431.079, any costs associated with collecting documentation from out-of-county records, and attorney’s fees if the case is contested. The Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy has noted that there is no filing fee for the expungement of dismissals and acquittals under KRS 431.076, which is a meaningful difference between the conviction-expungement and dismissal-expungement tracks.

Voiding vs. Sealing a Kentucky Conviction: What’s the Difference?

Petitioners sometimes use “void and seal” as a single phrase, but Kentucky law treats voiding and sealing as separate procedures arriving through different statutes.

Voiding a substance offense conviction under KRS 218A.275(8)

KRS 218A.275(8) authorizes a court to set aside and void a controlled-substance conviction upon a defendant’s satisfactory completion of court-ordered treatment, probation, or other sentence. The court then issues a certificate to that effect. The history of this provision is itself a useful illustration of how legislative drafting can change a statute’s reach almost imperceptibly. The 2011 version of the statute, briefly, limited voiding to misdemeanor possession convictions. The 2012 amendment removed the limiting language and reopened a narrow window for felony substance offense voiding. The 2014 article I wrote for KJA flagged the resulting ambiguity. Childress v. Commonwealth, 2012-CA-001675, recognized the change and validated the broader reading.

In practice today, KRS 218A.275(8) voiding is most useful where the petitioner completed drug court or a comparable supervised treatment program, satisfied probation, and has stayed out of the criminal system since. The voiding procedure is distinct from the petition under KRS 431.073 and does not require the five-year waiting period; in many cases it can be sought at or near the time of probation completion. Where both KRS 218A.275(8) voiding and KRS 431.073 expungement are theoretically available, a defense attorney should evaluate which mechanism best serves the petitioner’s timing and downstream record needs.

Sealing under KRS 431.076 and KRS 431.073

Sealing is the general expungement framework. KRS 431.076 covers acquittals and dismissals with prejudice. KRS 431.073 covers eligible felony convictions. KRS 431.078 covers misdemeanors and violations. After a sealing order is entered, the proceedings are deemed not to have occurred for most purposes under state law. Background checks should no longer surface the offense. The petitioner may lawfully respond in the negative on most employment and housing applications. There are narrow exceptions in law enforcement employment, certain professional licensure, and where federal law independently requires disclosure.

A Real Case Where a Charge That Looked Ineligible Was Cleared Anyway

Sometimes a charge on your record looks like it cannot possibly be expunged, but it can. Our office represented a petitioner I will refer to as Ms. R. in a contested expungement matter in Harrison Circuit Court. The names and identifying details below are anonymized, but the legal argument is exactly the one we filed.

Ms. R. had been indicted on three Class D felony charges arising from a single drug investigation roughly fifteen years earlier:

1. Manufacturing Methamphetamine (KRS 218A.1432). This charge was dismissed in the original disposition.
2. Possession of a Controlled Substance, First Degree (KRS 218A.1415). This is one of the offenses specifically enumerated in KRS 431.073(1)(a). Ms. R. pled guilty to this count.
3. Controlled Substance Endangerment to a Child in the Fourth Degree (KRS 218A.1444). This is a Class D felony. Ms. R. also pled guilty to this count.

After completing five years of probation, drug court, and a treatment program, and having no new charges in the intervening years beyond minor traffic infractions, Ms. R. petitioned to expunge all three. The first two were straightforward: the manufacturing count was a dismissal eligible under KRS 431.076, and the possession count was specifically enumerated in KRS 431.073(1)(a). The Administrative Office of the Courts’ certification stated that all three charges were eligible.

The trial court, however, had concerns about the third charge. Controlled Substance Endangerment to a Child in the Fourth Degree, KRS 218A.1444, is not specifically listed in the (1)(a) enumeration. And KRS 431.073(1)(d) excludes offenses committed against a child. On the face of the statute, the court’s reading was reasonable: the offense is a Class D felony involving conduct affecting a child, and the (1)(d) safeguard against offenses against children seemed to apply. The court set the case for review and asked for written argument from the petitioner and the Commonwealth.

The Written Argument We Filed

The argument we filed was structural. KRS 431.073(1) is a list of pathways to eligibility, not a cumulative test. A petitioner needs to fit within one of subsections (1)(a), (1)(b), (1)(c), or (1)(d). The (1)(d) limitation on offenses against a child applies to the (1)(d) pathway, which is the residual category for non-enumerated Class D felonies. It does not apply globally to the (1)(b) single-incident pathway, which has its own structural logic.

Under KRS 431.073(1)(b), a petitioner convicted of a series of Class D felony violations “of one (1) or more statutes enumerated in paragraph (a) of this subsection arising from a single incident” is eligible. The endangerment charge against Ms. R. was a Class D felony, and it arose from the very same incident as the possession charge under KRS 218A.1415, which was on the enumerated (1)(a) list. The endangerment charge was not enumerated in (1)(a), but the statute does not require that every charge in a (1)(b) series be enumerated; it requires that the series include at least one enumerated offense and that the others arise from the same incident.

We also presented the equitable factors that the statute permits a court to consider under KRS 431.073(4). Ms. R. and her husband were seeking foster placement of a step-grandchild whose situation made out-of-state placement otherwise necessary. The placement could not be approved without the expungement. The petitioner’s rehabilitation since the original conviction was thorough and documented. The Commonwealth did not file a written objection.

The court ultimately granted the expungement. The case is not published, but the structural argument under KRS 431.073(1)(b) is one that I think Kentucky practitioners should keep in mind whenever a petitioner has a series of charges from a single incident where at least one is enumerated. The single-incident doctrine sweeps in more cases than the bare enumeration list suggests, and it is one of the most useful provisions in the entire felony expungement statute.

What Will Stop You From Clearing Your Kentucky Record?

Five issues come up over and over in petitions our office reviews. Some are statutory and absolute. Some are workable with the right legal argument. All of them are worth knowing about before you spend the certification fee.

Filing Too Soon

Both KRS 431.073 and KRS 431.078 require a waiting period that runs from completion of the sentence. “Completion” means the end of any probation, parole, or post-release supervision — not just the end of incarceration. The Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy states that the misdemeanor expungement waiting period is five years from the time the petitioner completes the sentence. The felony waiting period under KRS 431.073 has its own statutory term. Someone placed on a long term of probation does not become eligible until the probation actually ends and the statutory waiting period after that has run, not five years from the sentencing date. Petitions filed early are typically denied without prejudice and the certification fee is wasted.

A Dismissal That Was “Without Prejudice”

This is the trap that catches the most petitioners. Rhodes v. Commonwealth, 2013-CA-000596, is the Kentucky Court of Appeals decision that confirmed it. When a charge was dismissed without prejudice as part of a plea deal, KRS 431.076 does not treat it as final for expungement purposes because the prosecutor technically retained the right to reopen the case. The petitioner in Rhodes pled guilty to one count in exchange for the dismissal of several others. Thirteen years later, when she tried to expunge the dismissed charges, her petition was denied. The dismissals would never realistically be revived. The statute did not care.

If your old plea agreement said “dismissed without prejudice,” you are not out of luck, but you do need an attorney. The workaround is to ask the original court to amend the dismissal language to “with prejudice” through an Agreed Order. Some judges allow this; some do not. It is a conversation worth having.

An Ongoing Civil Proceeding Tied to the Same Facts

In Commonwealth v. Davis, 2012-CA-000933, the Kentucky Court of Appeals held that an ongoing civil proceeding can bar an expungement under KRS 431.076(4) where the underlying criminal charge was properly dismissed with prejudice. The Court reasoned that the statute does not specify criminal proceedings, so the word “proceedings” reaches civil matters too. Davis is still good law. It does not foreclose the expungement permanently; it just means any related civil tort suit, family court proceeding, or administrative matter has to reach finality before the petition can be granted. If you have an ongoing related civil case, the expungement might be the right move after that case ends.

Not Addressing All Related Charges in One Petition

If you have multiple charges across multiple cases or counties, the eligibility certification from the AOC will reflect all of them. Some will be eligible and some may not be. The petition should be drafted to address each eligible disposition specifically and to acknowledge any ineligible matters so the court understands the full picture. Trying to ignore an unflattering item in your history is almost always counterproductive when the court has the certification report sitting on the bench.

Confusing Pardon, Dismissal, and Expungement

An executive pardon is a separate process from expungement and has different consequences. A pardon may be required as a predicate to certain federal benefits but does not automatically seal the underlying record. A dismissal is what happens at the time of disposition and is the precondition to expungement under KRS 431.076. Expungement is the after-the-fact sealing remedy. People sometimes arrive at our office having pursued one when they needed another. An early consultation can save months of misdirected effort.

How to File for Expungement in Kentucky: Step-by-Step Process

1. Eligibility consultation. Pull a copy of your Kentucky criminal history through the Kentucky State Police records-check process or through a defense attorney. Map each charge to the correct expungement statute and waiting period.
2. Eligibility certification. Request a certification of eligibility from the Administrative Office of the Courts under KRS 431.079. The Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy confirms that a certificate of eligibility is required before filing a petition to expunge a conviction. Pay the certification fee. The certification has a limited validity window after issuance and should be filed promptly.
3. Draft the petition. Prepare a verified petition for expungement filed in the court of original jurisdiction. Cite the correct statute (431.073, 431.076, or 431.078). Attach the certification. Identify each charge and each disposition specifically.
4. Serve the parties. Serve the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office for the county of conviction. The statute also requires service on the original prosecuting agency in some instances. Document service carefully.
5. Wait the response period. The Commonwealth has a statutory period to respond. Most cases proceed without objection if the certification states the charge is eligible.
6. Hearing if needed. If the court has concerns or if the Commonwealth objects, the matter will be set for hearing. This is where written argument matters and where the single-incident doctrine and the equitable factors under KRS 431.073(4) come into play.
7. Order of expungement. Once granted, the order should be served on the Kentucky State Police, the AOC, and any local agency holding records of the offense. The petitioner should keep certified copies for future reference.

Does Kentucky Have Automatic Expungement Yet?

Senate Bill 290 of the 2026 Regular Session, sometimes called the Automatic Expungement Act or marketed under the Clean Slate Kentucky banner, would have created an automatic expungement mechanism for certain offenses after a specified waiting period and clean-record interval. The bill drew considerable attention and was the subject of editorial coverage during the session. It did not pass. Kentucky continues to require a petition for expungement under the existing statutes. The proposal is likely to return in future sessions; advocates and the Department of Public Advocacy have continued to work on the framework.

For now, every expungement in Kentucky still requires a certification, a petition, service, and an order. The mechanics described above remain the only path.

Do I Need a Lawyer for a Kentucky Expungement?

Honest answer: it depends on what is on your record. Three signs you probably do not strictly need an attorney to file:

• You have a single misdemeanor on your record.
• The five-year waiting period is clearly satisfied.
• The charge is uncontroversially on the eligible list.

For those cases, the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy and the local circuit clerk’s office can walk you through the certification and the petition.

You probably do want an attorney if any of the following is true:

• One or more of the charges is a felony.
• The charge looks like it might be excluded by KRS 431.073(1)(d) but arose from a single incident with a charge that is on the enumerated list (the single-incident doctrine).
• One of the prior charges was dismissed without prejudice and you need to ask the original court to convert it.
• You have multiple charges across multiple counties or cases.
• There is an ongoing civil case tied to the same facts.
• You have already had one petition denied and want to know if there is a viable second attempt.
• You are not sure whether to pursue an expungement under KRS 431.073 or a voiding under KRS 218A.275(8).

A 15-minute eligibility review at the front end is almost always cheaper than a denied petition and a wasted certification fee.

If you are an attorney whose practice does not usually include expungement work, or whose client’s record presents an unusual eligibility question, our office is glad to consult or to accept referrals. We have handled contested petitions like the one described above and welcome calls from colleagues across Kentucky.

Talk to a Kentucky Expungement Attorney

Kentucky expungement law in 2026 is meaningfully more forgiving than it was when I last wrote about this topic in 2014. Felony expungement now exists and reaches most Class D felonies. Voiding under KRS 218A.275(8) remains available for substance offenses. The acquittal and dismissal-with-prejudice mechanism under KRS 431.076 is unchanged and is the cleanest path of all. The procedural framework is more accessible than it has ever been.

What has not changed is that the small choices buried in the original plea agreement, the precision of the dismissal language, the completeness of the supporting documentation, and the soundness of the legal argument when the case is contested still matter enormously. The statute permits more relief than ever, but it does not relieve a petitioner of the responsibility to use the statute carefully.

If you have a Kentucky conviction or dismissal that you believe may be eligible to be cleared, the next step is a candid eligibility review. Our office handles expungement petitions across Central Kentucky, including contested petitions like the Harrison Circuit case described above. There is no cost for the initial 15-minute eligibility consultation. You can reach the office at 859-813-5614 or through the contact page.

This article is general information about Kentucky law and is not legal advice for any specific situation. Statutes, fees, and procedural rules can change between legislative sessions; readers should confirm current details with the Administrative Office of the Courts or a Kentucky-licensed attorney before taking action.