How to Expunge a Record in Vermont

The Important Distinction First

Most people searching for how to "expunge" a record in Vermont actually need to file for sealing. Since Act 60 took effect on July 1, 2025, true expungement — the physical destruction of your records — is reserved for convictions involving conduct Vermont has since decriminalized (like small-quantity cannabis possession). For all other qualifying offenses, the remedy is sealing, which removes the record from public view while preserving it in a confidential file accessible to law enforcement, prosecutors, and courts.

The good news: both remedies use essentially the same filing process, and both allow you to legally deny the conviction on job and housing applications. Use Form 200-00129 for expungement and Form 200-00130 for sealing.

Step 1: Get Your Official Criminal History

Filing a petition based on memory is the fastest way to get denied. You need the exact docket numbers, offense dates, and disposition details for every charge on your record.

You have two options:

Through the court: File a Criminal Record Check Request (Form 200-00331) with the Superior Court Criminal Division in the county where your case was heard. The fee is $30 per name search. You can also visit a courthouse in person and use the public access terminals for free (though printing costs extra).

Through VCIC: The Vermont Crime Information Center maintains the state's centralized criminal history. Submit a Request for Personal Criminal Record Check with a notarized identity verification form and $30 (cashier's check or money order payable to the Vermont Department of Public Safety). Mail it with a self-addressed stamped envelope. Walk-ins at the Waterbury office get results in about 10 minutes with two forms of ID and $30 in cash, credit card, or money order.

The VCIC report is more comprehensive because it pulls records across all Vermont counties, while a court request only covers one county. If you have cases in multiple counties, the VCIC report is the better starting point.

Step 2: Audit Your Eligibility

With your criminal history in hand, check each charge against Vermont's eligibility rules:

• Misdemeanors: 3 years after completing your sentence (including probation). Excluded: domestic assault, stalking, prostitution, prohibited conduct, abuse of a vulnerable adult, violations of abuse prevention orders, and sexual exploitation of children.
• Non-violent felonies: 7 years after sentence completion. Limited to grand larceny, criminal mischief, forgery, unlawful mischief, and burglary of an unoccupied dwelling.
• DUI (first offense): 10 years after sentence completion, plus no subsequent convictions and no commercial driver's license.
• Youth offenses (18-21 at the time): 30 days after completing sentence conditions and paying restitution and surcharges.
• Dismissed/acquitted charges: Should be automatically sealed within 60 days unless a party objects in the interest of justice. If they're still showing, you can petition at any time.

The waiting period starts from the date you completed your entire sentence — not your conviction date, not your release date. If you were sentenced to jail time followed by two years of probation, the clock starts the day probation ended.

Step 3: Clear All Financial Obligations

The court will deny your petition if you owe anything related to the conviction. Before filing, verify with the court clerk and the Restitution Unit of the Vermont Center for Crime Victim Services that all restitution, administrative surcharges, fines, and court fees are paid in full. Get written confirmation if possible — you may need to show it at a hearing.

Step 4: Complete the Petition

For decriminalized conduct (true expungement): Use Form 200-00129 (Petition to Expunge Criminal History).

For everything else (sealing): Use Form 200-00130 (Petition to Seal Criminal History).

Fill in your personal information, the docket number, the offense, the county, and the date of disposition. If you have eligible charges in multiple counties, you need a separate petition for each county.

Step 5: File the Petition

File your completed petition with the Superior Court Criminal Division in the county where the conviction occurred. There is no filing fee for most petitions. The one exception: sealing a DUI conviction committed when you were 25 or older carries a $90 filing fee. If $90 is a hardship, file Form 600-00229 (Application to Waive Filing Fees and Service Costs) alongside your petition.

Step 6: Wait for the Prosecutor's Response

The court serves a copy of your petition on the county State's Attorney or the Vermont Attorney General. The prosecutor reviews it and can either stipulate (agree) or object.

If the prosecutor stipulates, the judge can grant the order without a hearing. This is the fastest path — many straightforward, single-charge petitions resolve this way.

If the prosecutor objects, the court schedules a formal hearing. You'll need to attend (in person or remotely) and demonstrate that you meet all statutory eligibility requirements and that sealing is in the interest of justice. Cases involving victims add another step: the prosecutor must notify the victim, who has the right to submit a statement.

Step 7: If You're Denied

A denial triggers a mandatory two-year waiting period before you can file a new petition for the same offense, unless the judge explicitly authorizes a shorter timeframe. This is why getting the eligibility audit right in Step 2 matters — a premature filing wastes years.

Step 8: Enforce the Order

When the judge signs your order, the court distributes copies to the prosecuting agency, the arresting department, the Restitution Unit, and VCIC. But the order doesn't instantly clear every database.

VCIC updates the state repository and notifies the FBI, but the federal update can take up to six months. During that window, a fingerprint-based federal background check may still return your record. Private background screening companies are even slower — they buy bulk court data and often fail to refresh it promptly.

After the order is granted, proactively send a certified copy to any background screening company you know has reported your record. If a private company continues reporting the sealed conviction, file a dispute under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The company generally has 30 days to investigate and correct or delete inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable information.

The Vermont Expungement & Record Sealing Guide includes the full post-order enforcement workflow, including dispute templates for private background check companies and instructions for verifying that VCIC and the FBI have processed your order.

See more Vermont guides →