Pennsylvania Clean Slate: what it seals and what it misses

What Clean Slate seals automatically

• Non-conviction records: charges that ended in anything other than a conviction.
• Summary convictions five years after conviction.
• Misdemeanors of the second or third degree, and misdemeanors punishable by no more than two years, once you have gone seven years without a conviction for an offense punishable by a year or more.
• Qualifying drug felonies under the Controlled Substance Act, where the minimum sentence was under 30 months, after 10 years.
• Convictions with a conditional pardon.

What Clean Slate leaves out

• Convictions for offenses against the person, offenses against the family, firearms offenses, sexual offenses, cruelty to animals and corruption of minors
• Anyone whose history includes certain prior convictions, including most felonies other than qualifying drug offenses, or multiple more serious convictions
• Cases where court-ordered restitution hasn’t been paid
• Records that don’t match cleanly between court and State Police systems, which happens most often with older cases

Why people still need a lawyer after Clean Slate

Clean Slate depends on court and State Police data lining up. Older cases, cases with missing dispositions, and cases from before electronic dockets are the ones most often missed. Some records that Clean Slate won’t touch, including M1 misdemeanors and some lower-grade felonies, can still be sealed by petition. And some cases qualify for full expungement, which removes the record entirely instead of hiding it.

We check whether your records were actually sealed, identify anything Clean Slate missed, and file petitions for what’s left.

Common questions