Missouri Felony Expungement Lawyers

Quick Reference for Missouri Felony Expungement

Item	Details
Governing statute	General Expungement of Criminal Records RSMo 610.140
What it does	Closes records of arrest, plea, trial, or conviction
Felony waiting period	3 years after completing your authorized disposition
Misdemeanor waiting period	1 year after completing your authorized disposition
Arrest-only record	18 months from arrest if never charged and no later guilt
Lifetime felony limit	2 felony expungements per person, ever
Court deadline	Order of expungement or dismissal within 6 months of filing
Refile bar	A dismissed petition cannot be refiled for 1 year
Where filed	Any court where you were charged or found guilty
Current version	Effective January 1, 2025

What Missouri Expungement Actually Means

Expungement closes the records of your arrest, plea, trial, or conviction so that, for most purposes, the event is treated as if it never occurred. This is the core promise of Missouri’s general expungement statute.

“Notwithstanding any other provision of law and subject to the provisions of this section, any person may apply to any court in which such person was charged or found guilty of any crimes for an order to expunge records of such arrest, plea, trial, or conviction.” RSMo 610.140

In plain terms, you file a petition in the court that handled your case and ask a judge to seal it. If you meet the criteria, the law creates a presumption in your favor, and the prosecutor carries the burden of showing why the records should stay open.

This is not the same as a pardon, and it is not the same as having your conviction reversed. The conviction happened. What changes is who can see it and what you have to say about it. After expungement, you may lawfully answer “no” when most employers, landlords, or lenders ask whether you have been arrested or convicted.

That word “most” matters, and we return to it below. The statute carves out a narrow set of applications where you must still disclose. Understanding that carve-out before you rely on your expungement is the difference between a clean record and a false-statement problem.

Who Qualifies for Felony Expungement

To succeed on a felony petition, you have to satisfy four eligibility conditions. Each one is a separate gate, and missing any single one ends the petition. This is where the case is won or lost, long before you reach a courtroom.

Your offense is not on the exclusion list. The statute names entire categories of felonies that can never be expunged. This is the first thing to check and the most common reason a petition fails. The list is broad, and we break it down in the next section.

The waiting period has run. For a felony, at least three years must have passed since you completed your authorized disposition. That clock does not start on your conviction date. It starts when you finished everything the sentence required, including probation, parole, and any ordered payments. Confirming the true completion date is one of the first things we verify.

You are under the lifetime cap. Missouri allows only two felony expungements in your entire life. If you have already used both, no further felony petition is possible. If you have one remaining, the choice of which conviction to expunge becomes a strategic decision.

Your pleading satisfies the statutory criteria. When your petition properly establishes the required conditions, the law creates a rebuttable presumption that expungement should be granted, shifting the burden to the prosecutor. A sloppy or incomplete pleading forfeits that advantage. RSMo 610.140

The Exclusion List Is Where Most Petitions Die

The single most important question on a felony expungement page is not “how do I file?” It is “am I eligible at all?” The statute permanently bars several categories of felony from expungement, and no waiting period or clean record changes that.

The excluded categories include the most serious felony levels, any offense classified as a dangerous felony, and any offense that requires sex-offender registration. Also excluded are felonies where death is an element of the offense.

Beyond those, the statute bars felony assault and kidnapping, along with both misdemeanor and felony domestic assault. It excludes offenses connected to protective-order violations and certain weapons offenses, and it excludes tampering and witness-related offenses. A separate protective-order process exists outside this statute, and it does not open the door here.

Two more exclusions catch people by surprise. Intoxication-related traffic and boating offenses, including DWI, are handled under a separate expungement track and cannot be expunged through the general statute. Motor-vehicle violations committed by commercial driver’s license holders are also excluded. RSMo 610.140

Here is the practical takeaway. Most nonviolent, nonsexual felonies fall outside these exclusions. Many drug possession convictions, property offenses, and financial offenses at the lower felony levels are eligible after the three-year wait. But the exclusion list is written broadly, and eligibility has to be confirmed offense by offense against your actual charge of conviction, not the general category you think it belongs to.

Waiting Periods and How the Clock Really Works

The three-year felony waiting period sounds simple. In practice, the start date trips people up more than any other part of the statute.

Record type	Waiting period	When the clock starts
Felony conviction	3 years	Completion of your authorized disposition
Misdemeanor, municipal violation, infraction	1 year	Completion of your authorized disposition
Arrest with no charge and no later guilt	18 months	Date of arrest

The trigger is completion of the authorized disposition, not the date you were sentenced. If you were convicted four years ago but only finished five years of probation last month, your three-year clock has not started. It begins when the last requirement, whether supervision or restitution or fines, is fully satisfied. RSMo 610.140

We pull the case file and confirm the actual completion date before filing. Filing too early wastes the petition and can leave you sitting out the one-year refile bar for nothing.

What Expungement Restores and What It Does Not

Expungement carries no penalty because it is not an offense. It is a benefit. But it comes with limits that matter enormously if you plan your future around it, so it is worth being precise about what you actually get.

When the court grants expungement, your civil rights are fully restored. You may vote, hold public office, and serve as a juror. For federal firearms purposes, the expunged record is treated as a complete removal.

For most questions from employers, landlords, and lenders, you may answer “no” as to the expunged arrest or conviction. That is the practical heart of the remedy. It lets you apply for jobs and housing without the conviction surfacing.

The statute keeps two things in place, and you need to know both:

• Mandatory-disclosure applications. For certain regulated fields, including professional licenses, banking, insurance, gaming and lottery, and employers required by law to exclude certain applicants, you must still disclose the expunged offense. Answering “no” on those applications is not protected.
• Use as a prior offense. If you are ever charged again, the expunged conviction can still be counted as a prior offense at sentencing. Expungement closes the record to the public; it does not erase it from the criminal-justice system.

For clients in licensed professions, we set expectations on the disclosure carve-out at the start, because relying on a “no” answer in the wrong context creates a problem worse than the original record. RSMo 610.140

The Rebuttable Presumption and How Victim Impact Cuts Against It

Here is the strategic concept that shapes every felony petition. When you file a pleading that properly establishes the statutory criteria, the law does not leave the outcome to the judge’s discretion in a vacuum. It creates a rebuttable presumption that expungement is warranted and shifts the burden onto the prosecutor to show why it should be denied.

That is a meaningful advantage, and it is earned entirely by the quality of the pleading. A petition that checks every statutory box puts the State on defense from the start. A petition with a gap invites the prosecutor to fill it.

The most common way the presumption gets rebutted is through victim impact. Where a victim exists, the prosecutor can present evidence of continuing harm, and that evidence can overcome the presumption. This is where a petition that looked routine on paper becomes contested.

We prepare for that possibility before filing rather than after. That means documenting rehabilitation, employment, community ties, and the time that has passed, so the record already answers the continuing-harm argument if the prosecutor raises it. The presumption gets you in the door. The evidence keeps you there.

The court then has a firm deadline. It must issue an order of expungement or dismiss the petition within six months of filing. If the petition is dismissed, you cannot refile for one year, which is exactly why the pre-filing work matters so much. RSMo 610.140

How We Build a Felony Expungement Petition

Expungement is a petitioner’s proceeding, not a defense, but the work still comes down to strategy and preparation. A strong petition is built before it is ever filed. These are the moves that decide the outcome.

We run an eligibility audit first. Before anything is filed, we screen each conviction against the exclusion list and confirm you are under the two-felony lifetime cap. This single step prevents the most costly mistake in the process, a filing that was never going to succeed and that burns a year under the refile bar.

We sequence the two-felony limit deliberately. Because you get only two felony expungements in a lifetime, the order matters when you have more than one eligible conviction. We prioritize the conviction doing the most damage to your employment or housing, so your first petition delivers the most value. Consider someone with an old possession felony and a later theft felony. If only one is likely to clear a background check that keeps costing job offers, we start there.

We verify the disposition completion date. The three-year clock runs from when you finished the sentence, not when it was imposed. We confirm probation, parole, restitution, and fines are all complete, and we document the date, so the waiting-period element is airtight.

We file to trigger the presumption. A fully compliant pleading is what shifts the burden to the prosecutor. We draft the petition to establish each statutory criterion on its face rather than leaving anything to be inferred.

We prepare for victim-impact rebuttal. In any case with a victim, we assume the prosecutor may present continuing-harm evidence and build the rehabilitation record in advance. Waiting to respond after the objection is filed is too late.

We consolidate same-course-of-conduct offenses. Multiple charges arising from a single course of conduct count once, at the highest level, against your lifetime cap. Structuring the petition to take advantage of this preserves your capacity for a future expungement.

We set disclosure expectations honestly. If you hold or seek a license in banking, insurance, gaming, or another regulated field, we explain the mandatory-disclosure carve-out up front, so your clean record stays clean.

Common Questions About Felony Expungement in Missouri

Can any felony be expunged in Missouri? No. The statute permanently excludes several categories, including the most serious felony levels, dangerous felonies, sex offenses requiring registration, felonies with death as an element, felony assault and kidnapping, and domestic assault. Most nonviolent, nonsexual felonies outside those categories are eligible after the three-year wait, but eligibility has to be checked against your specific charge. RSMo 610.140

How long do I have to wait? At least three years for a felony, measured from the date you completed your authorized disposition, not your conviction date. Misdemeanors and municipal violations require one year. RSMo 610.140

How many felonies can I expunge? Two in your lifetime. That cap is why sequencing matters when you have more than one eligible conviction. RSMo 610.140

Will the conviction ever come back? For most purposes, no. But an expunged conviction can still be used as a prior offense if you are charged again, and you must still disclose it on certain regulated applications like professional licenses and banking. RSMo 610.140

What happens if my petition is denied? A dismissed petition cannot be refiled for one year. That is why the eligibility audit and pre-filing preparation are so important, an avoidable dismissal costs you a full year. RSMo 610.140

Where do I file? In the court where you were charged or found guilty. For convictions arising in the St. Louis area, that generally means the circuit court that handled the original case. We confirm the correct venue and current filing practices before submitting your petition. RSMo 610.140

Talk to a Missouri Expungement Lawyer Before You File

A felony expungement is one of the few chances the law gives you to close the book on an old conviction, and you only get two in a lifetime. That makes the eligibility screen and the timing of your petition worth getting right the first time. We have handled these petitions throughout the St. Louis region, and we know how quickly a well-built pleading can move once the presumption is on your side.

If you are ready to find out whether your conviction qualifies, we will run the eligibility audit and map out the strongest sequence for your situation.

Start your felony expungement review today.

References

1. General Expungement of Criminal Records RSMo 610.140 [“Notwithstanding any other provision of law and subject to the provisions of this section, any person may apply to any court in which such person was charged or found guilty of any crimes for an order to expunge records of such arrest, plea, trial, or conviction.”]. Waiting periods, lifetime limits, exclusion categories, rebuttable presumption, six-month court deadline, one-year refile bar, restoration of civil rights, mandatory-disclosure carve-out, and use as a prior offense are all governed by this section. Current version effective January 1, 2025.