All Roll Calls
Yes: 130 • No: 1
TennesseeSB 1055114th General Assembly (2025-2026)SenateWALLET
AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 7; Title 16; Title 38; Title 40; Title 55 and Title 57, relative to expunction.
Sponsored By: Sponsor information unavailable
Signed by Governor
Expunction
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
12 provisions identified: 3 benefits, 1 costs, 8 mixed.
Conviction clearing with waiting periods and limits
You can seek to clear listed convictions, including specified Class C, D, and E felonies. The limit is two eligible offenses: two misdemeanors, or one felony and one misdemeanor. Eligible convictions from one continuous episode, at the same location with one criminal intent, count as one offense. Wait at least five years after sentence completion for misdemeanors or Class E felonies, and 10 years for Class C or D felonies. You must finish imprisonment or probation, meet release terms, and pay fines, restitution, costs, and other assessments. A sentence-required period free from substance dependence or abuse must last at least one year. Each offense must predate any ineligible conviction, including qualifying federal or out-of-state convictions; specified prior expunctions also block eligibility. Ordinary conviction petitions require a clerk's fee, whose amount is not given here. The law favors granting eligible petitions, but denial means waiting at least two years before filing again.
Free record clearing after qualifying case outcomes
You can request free destruction of public records after qualifying dismissals, dropped charges, grand-jury no-true-bill decisions, or release without charges. After acquittal on all charges, the judge must offer record destruction without requiring a petition. A personal representative can apply when charges end because the person died. Free relief also covers successfully defended, denied protection orders and expired qualifying bonds with no remaining surety duty. Findings of insanity or incompetence are excluded; diversion has a separate process. Some commercial-driver or commercial-vehicle cases and implied-consent dismissals with imposed costs are also excluded. The law includes implied-consent violations and juvenile courts handling adults for offenses committed at age 18 or older.
Cleared records restore rights and legal status
An expunction order subjects public conviction records to destruction and legally treats the conviction as if it never happened. You regain your prior legal status and must not face adverse consequences from the expunged offense. Leaving out the cleared matter when answering an inquiry is not perjury or a false statement. A copy of the order proves your restored status. People otherwise eligible under state and federal law can buy a firearm and seek a handgun carry permit.
Pardoned people can clear nonviolent convictions
People with nonviolent convictions can ask the convicting court to clear public records after receiving a governor's pardon. This route requires a favorable parole-board vote for the pardon and the convicting judge's finding that the crime was nonviolent.
Clear related charges from electronic records
A conviction from the same conduct or indictment can block full record clearing for related charges. You can still request removal of the other charges from national and state crime databases and public court-clerk databases. Records of the offense you were convicted of can remain. The state investigation bureau records the removed offenses in its expunged-offender and pretrial-diversion database. The same-conduct barrier does not apply to this database relief or qualifying trafficking victims whose convictions resulted from victimization.
Cleared records stay private with exceptions
Clerks must keep expunged records private; unauthorized release is a Class A misdemeanor. Ordinary conviction-expunction records are accessible only to the prosecutor, defendant, defense lawyer, and judge. They can increase a sentence only after the person is later charged and convicted of another crime. Other confidential records remain available for law-enforcement work and confidential state audits; criminal-case lawyers can request defendant or witness arrest histories. Some arrest histories, investigation reports, confidential files, and appellate opinions fall outside the public records destroyed by expunction. Children's Services and Human Services must explain legally required retention, remove identifying details when allowed, and expunge records when retention duties end. At your request, records used only for education in a public museum, library, or building can be spared destruction.
Record clearing after diversion requires a fee
You can request removal of public records after charges are dismissed following successful pretrial or judicial diversion. This route excludes sexual offenses and violent sexual offenses. You must pay the applicable clerk's fee; the supplied text does not give its amount.
Record relief for mistaken arrests and protests
Courts can order faster record clearing when an investigation shows the arrested or charged person was mistaken for someone else. People convicted while challenging segregation or discrimination laws can seek relief after at least 37 years. That route covers eligible misdemeanors and specified Class C, D, or E felonies, with offense and sentence limits. Applicants must finish supervision and have no other convictions during that period, except minor traffic violations. The prosecutor receives notice by certified mail and has 20 calendar days after receipt to object; an objection requires court resolution. An authorized person can apply for someone who has died.
Voting conviction relief after fifteen years
You can seek record clearing for illegal registration or voting convictions after at least 15 years from sentence completion. You must finish imprisonment or probation, meet release terms, and pay fines, restitution, court costs, and other assessments. The offense must predate any ineligible conviction, including qualifying federal or out-of-state convictions. Prior record clearing under the law's specified provisions can block this route.
New funds support record clearing work
The law creates a district attorneys' fund for required record searches, expunction petitions, and proposed orders. Leftover money can support specified prosecution and law-enforcement work; salary supplements remain subject to the existing statutory limit. A separate state fund supports public defender education. Remaining public defender money can support district services and programs through annual appropriations. Both funds carry unspent money forward, and the district attorneys' fund receives an annual audit; no funding amount is stated.
State checks guide court record clearing
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation must provide a certificate checking whether an offense qualifies for record clearing. Courts generally need it for ordinary conviction and trafficking-victim relief; specified arrest and case-outcome routes are exempt unless diversion applies. The certificate covers offense eligibility, while the court decides whether the person qualifies. In the general petition process, prosecutors have 60 days to respond, and courts cannot grant relief before day 61 after service. Courts review evidence and weigh the applicant's interest against public safety and justice. Courts must send orders to the bureau within 30 days for database entry, including identifying details and case dates.
Arrest record relief requires review and fees
You can ask to clear an arrest record when the court with jurisdiction has no record of that arrest. The clerk must certify the missing court history. The court reviews that certification and evidence from you and the prosecutor; relief is not automatic. You must pay the applicable clerk's fee, whose amount is not given here.
Sponsors & Cosponsors
Sponsors
There is no primary sponsor on record.
Cosponsors
There are no cosponsors for this bill.
Roll Call Votes
Senate vote • 4/14/2025
FLOOR VOTE: as Amended Third Consideration 4/14/2025
Yes: 30 • No: 0
House vote • 4/14/2025
FLOOR VOTE: REGULAR CALENDAR PASSAGE ON THIRD CONSIDERATION 4/14/2025
Yes: 92 • No: 0
Senate vote • 4/1/2025
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
Yes: 8 • No: 1
Bill Text
Enrolled / Public Chapter
Fiscal Note
HA0361
Introduced
SA0362
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