Indiana has a significant new expungement law starting on July 1, 2013.

Some highlights include:

• Any arrest not resulting in a conviction or if the conviction is vacated shall be expunged after 1 year.

• All convictions for misdemeanors and all convictions for Class D felonies reduced to misdemeanors shall be expunged after 5 years.

• Class D felonies (excluding certain specific crimes and most sex or violent crimes) shall be expunged after 8 years.

• Class A, B, and C felonies (excluding certain specific crimes and most sex or violent crimes) may be expunged after 8 years.

• Crimes that resulted in serious bodily injury (and other crimes that were specifically excluded in the above options) may be expunged after 10 years, excluding specific sex and homicide crimes.

• With the prosecutor’s consent, these time limits may be waived.

• The extent to which records are expunged or sealed varies with the severity of the conviction.

• A person may not have pending charges, must have completed the sentence, and must not have been convicted of a new crime within that time frame.

This is a very detailed and complicated statute. If you want to know if you are eligible to petition a court for expungement of your prior arrest or conviction under this new statute and want help to file the petition in court, you should feel free to contact Vonderheide & Knecht.