Minnesota Automatic Expungement

How Minnesota's Clean Slate Works

Minnesota's Clean Slate Act took effect January 1, 2025, making it one of the first states to implement automated record expungement. The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) handles the automated reviews for eligible records rather than requiring an individual petition or court hearing.

The BCA began processing automated expungements in June 2025. By mid-2026, the historical backlog was more than 98% cleared. Cannabis-related records that qualified for automatic relief were expunged in an earlier wave in May 2024, with a secondary sweep in 2026 to catch records that entered the system after the initial pass.

Which Records Qualify

Automatic expungement applies only to records that meet the Clean Slate Act's eligibility criteria. The automated review is ongoing, so not every qualifying record has necessarily been processed; check the current Minnesota criteria for the record's offense, disposition, and sentence status before assuming automatic relief.

What "Automatic" Actually Means in Practice

The BCA's system runs periodic reviews against the state's criminal history database, checking each record against eligibility criteria. When a record qualifies, the BCA generates the expungement order and transmits it to the relevant courts, law enforcement agencies, and executive branch agencies.

Once a record is expunged:

• It's removed from the public BCA criminal history database
• Courts seal the case file
• Arresting agencies are notified to restrict access
• The record no longer appears on most background checks

"Most" is the key word. Commercial background screening companies that already scraped the record from public court dockets before the expungement may retain stale data in their systems. The FCRA prohibits reporting expunged records, but the data doesn't always get purged from commercial databases immediately.

How to Verify Your Record Was Expunged

Don't assume the automation worked. Database synchronization issues, data entry errors, and timing mismatches can leave records visible even after they should have been cleared.

To verify:

1. Request your BCA criminal history — Minnesota residents can request their own records from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. The expunged records should no longer appear.
2. Check the court system — Minnesota's public court records portal (Minnesota Court Records Online) should show the case as sealed or no longer accessible.
3. Pull a commercial background check — request a file disclosure from any CRA that previously reported the record. Under FCRA Section 609, they must provide your complete file on request.

If an expunged record still appears on any of these sources, you have a clear path to correction:

• For the BCA: use its record-review or correction process and include the case number and supporting disposition documentation
• For commercial screeners: file an FCRA dispute — the CRA has 30 days, or up to 45 days in certain circumstances, to investigate and remove the entry

The Broader Picture

Minnesota's automated system is a model that other states are adopting, but it doesn't cover everything. Federal records (your FBI Identity History Summary), records from other states where you may have had law enforcement contact, and records in commercial databases all operate independently of the BCA's automation.

A complete record audit — checking federal, state, and commercial layers — is the only way to confirm that your history looks the way you expect it to. The Get Your Own Criminal Record toolkit covers the full three-layer process, including verification steps specific to automated sealing states.