Louisiana Expungement With Multiple Convictions: Act 580 and Filing Strategy

The Rules Changed in 2024

Before August 1, 2024, Louisiana law effectively limited individuals to a single felony expungement in their lifetime. If you had two or more felony convictions, you could expunge one and the rest stayed on your record permanently. For someone carrying multiple non-violent felonies from years past, this meant that clearing your record completely was mathematically impossible.

Senate Bill 116, enacted as Act 580 and effective August 1, 2024, fundamentally changed this. The new law amended La. C. Cr. P. Article 978(F) to allow multiple felony expungements within a single ten-year period, provided that each felony independently meets all standard eligibility requirements.

This is one of the most significant expansions of expungement access in Louisiana's history, and it applies retroactively — meaning felonies that occurred before 2024 can be expunged under the new rules as long as the eligibility criteria are met today.

What Act 580 Actually Allows

The core change is the removal of the one-felony-per-lifetime cap. Under the new framework:

Multiple felonies can be expunged in a single filing period. If you have three felony convictions, each more than ten years old, and you have had no subsequent convictions during that ten-year period, you can file to expunge all three.

Each felony must independently qualify. Act 580 does not create blanket eligibility for all felonies. Every conviction you want to expunge must meet the standard Article 978 requirements on its own: ten years elapsed since sentence completion, no subsequent convictions during the lookback period, no pending charges, and the offense is not a crime of violence, sex offense, domestic abuse battery, or drug trafficking offense carrying more than five years.

Consolidated filing is possible. If all of your eligible felonies are in the same parish, you can file a single consolidated motion covering multiple offenses. If they span different parishes, you must file separately in each parish — Louisiana enforces a strict one-parish-per-motion jurisdictional rule.

The broader lifetime limit remains. While Act 580 removed the one-felony cap within a ten-year window, the broader statutory framework maintains a lifetime limit of one felony expungement every fifteen years for certain categories. In practice, this means you can file multiple felony expungements simultaneously (if all are over ten years old), but if you acquire a new felony conviction after expunging, you may need to wait fifteen years before filing again.

Handling Multiple Misdemeanor Convictions

Multiple misdemeanor convictions are simpler. Article 977 does not impose a one-per-lifetime cap on misdemeanor expungements. If you have several eligible misdemeanor convictions (five-year clean waiting period met, no excluded offense categories, no subsequent felonies), you can file to expunge each one.

The same parish jurisdiction rule applies: one motion per arrest, filed in the parish where each arrest occurred.

The special marijuana rule under Act 342 (2023) also applies per-conviction: each first-offense misdemeanor marijuana possession conviction is independently eligible for expungement after just 90 days, with a reduced total fee of $300 instead of $550.

Mixed Records: Felonies and Misdemeanors Together

Many people carry a mix of felony and misdemeanor convictions. Under the current framework, you can pursue both types simultaneously:

• File Article 977 motions for eligible misdemeanors (five-year wait)
• File Article 978 motions for eligible felonies (ten-year wait)
• File Article 976 motions for any non-conviction arrests (no wait)

Each filing is an independent motion with its own $550 fee (or fee waiver), filed in the parish where each arrest occurred. This is where the cost of multiple convictions becomes a serious barrier — three arrests across three parishes means three separate $550 payments, totaling $1,650 in filing fees alone.

Filing Sequence Matters

When you have convictions across multiple parishes, the order in which you file can affect your eligibility. Here is why:

Under Article 977 and 978, you must not have been convicted of any criminal offense during the lookback period (five years for misdemeanors, ten years for felonies). A conviction that falls within the lookback period of another conviction can create a cascade: expunging one conviction first may be necessary before the other becomes eligible.

Example: You have a 2012 felony in Jefferson Parish and a 2015 misdemeanor in Orleans Parish. The 2015 misdemeanor falls within the ten-year lookback window for the 2012 felony, potentially blocking the felony expungement. But the misdemeanor itself may be independently eligible for expungement (if five clean years have passed since 2020). By expunging the misdemeanor first, you may clear the lookback window for the felony filing.

This kind of sequential strategy requires careful analysis of dates, parishes, and charge categories. Getting the sequence wrong means paying $550 for a motion that will be denied — and those fees are non-refundable.

The Cost Problem and Fee Waivers

The financial burden of multiple filings is the biggest practical obstacle. For someone with three arrests across different parishes, the total filing cost can reach $1,650 to $2,200 before attorney fees.

Fee reduction options apply per filing:

DA fee waiver. Available for non-conviction cases (dismissed, acquitted, DA refusal) where the petitioner has no prior felony convictions. Saves $50 per filing.

In Forma Pauperis. If you meet the income threshold (SNAP, SSI, Medicaid, or below 125% of the federal poverty line), the judge can waive the Clerk and Sheriff fees. The LSP fee ($250) can also be waived unless you have any prior felony conviction — which, if you are filing for multiple felonies, you do. This means the LSP fee is likely non-waivable for multi-felony filers.

Strategic prioritization. If you cannot afford to file everything at once, prioritize the conviction that is causing the most immediate harm (the one blocking a job, an apartment, or a professional license) and file that one first.

Getting Help

An attorney is not strictly necessary for straightforward single-filing expungements, but multi-conviction strategies with cross-parish filings and sequential timing dependencies are where legal counsel provides real value. The cost of an attorney ($1,500–$2,500) may be worth it if the alternative is paying $550 per attempt through trial and error.

The Louisiana Expungement & Record Sealing Guide covers the eligibility rules for each article pathway, the filing process, and the fee waiver options for both single and multiple conviction scenarios.

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