The 2025 legislative session was relatively quiet for expunction law but still potentially important for some people. I have incorporated the changes in the law into the latest version of my Guide to Relief from a Criminal Conviction (Relief Guide), a free resource available from the School of Government here. The discussion below of the 2025 legislative changes is brief, while the Guide is intended to serve as a comprehensive resource on expunctions and other mechanisms for obtaining relief from a criminal conviction in North Carolina.
Waiting period to expunge conviction of nonviolent offense. In 2025, the General Assembly made two material changes, the first in Section 12 of S.L. 2025-71 (S 311). Effective for petitions filed on or after July 9, 2025, the legislation modified G.S. 15A-145.5 to decrease the waiting period from five years to three years for expunction of one nonviolent misdemeanor conviction. Other than this change, the legislation did not alter the waiting-period language, which states that the petition may not be filed earlier than “three years after the date of the conviction or when any active sentence, period of probation, and post-release supervision has been served, whichever occurs later.” G.S. 15A-15A-145.5(c)(1). This phrasing is subject to two different interpretations.
One interpretation is that the petitioner must wait the later of (i) three years after the date of conviction or (ii) when the person completes any active sentence, period of probation, or post-release supervision. Misdemeanor defendants usually complete any active, probationary, or post-release sentence within three years of their conviction; therefore, under this interpretation, they would be eligible for an expunction three years after their conviction date (assuming they meet the other requirements for an expunction). A second interpretation is that petitioners must wait three years after the later of (i) the date of conviction or (ii) completion of any active, probationary, or post-release sentence. Under this interpretation, petitioners who receive an active, probationary, or post-release sentence always must wait three years after the date they complete their sentence because that date always would be the same as or later than their conviction date.
The General Assembly clearly took the second approach for expunctions of more than one conviction of a nonviolent misdemeanor and one or more convictions of a nonviolent felony under G.S. 15A-145.5. In 2020, the General Assembly revised the applicable provisions to state explicitly that petitioners must wait the specified number of years—seven years for more than one misdemeanor and ten years for one felony—after both the conviction date and the date they complete any active, probationary, and post-release sentence. See Section 4 of S.L. 2020-35 (S 562). When it authorized expunctions of two to three nonviolent felony convictions, the General Assembly likewise required petitioners to wait the specified period—twenty years—after both their conviction and sentence-completion date. See S.L. 2021-118 (S 301), as amended by Section 2.3 of S.L. 2021-167 (H 761); see also Section 14 of S.L. 2023-103 (H 193) (imposing waiting period of fifteen years after both conviction and sentence-completion date for one breaking and entering felony under G.S. 14-54(a)). In making these changes, the General Assembly did not alter the waiting-period language for expunging one nonviolent misdemeanor conviction.
The North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts has a single form, AOC-CR-298 (July 2025), for expunging one nonviolent misdemeanor conviction or more than one nonviolent misdemeanor conviction. For both, Finding of Fact no. 3 in the form states that the petitioner must have been convicted of and completed any active, probationary, or post-release sentence at least the specified number of years before filing of the petition—three years for one conviction and seven years for more than one conviction. This approach is consistent with the waiting period for expunging more than one nonviolent misdemeanor conviction, but its applicability to a single nonviolent misdemeanor conviction is an open question.
You can find a further discussion in the Relief Guide of the criteria for expunging convictions of nonviolent offenses under G.S. 15A-145.5 here and a discussion of waiting periods throughout the expunction statutes here.
Dismissals of charges against defendants found incapable to proceed. Tucked away in Section 7 of S.L. 2025-93 (H 307) is a second change to expunction eligibility. Effective for dismissals on or after December 1, 2025, the legislation amended G.S. 15A-1008 to provide that a dismissal by the court of a charge against a defendant found incapable to proceed is not eligible for expunction under G.S. 15A-146, the principal statute authorizing expunctions of dismissals. The change is part of a larger act, Iryna’s law, enacted by the General Assembly following the killing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte in 2025.
Some uncertainty existed over whether dismissals by the court of charges against defendants found incapable to proceed are like other dismissals and are eligible for expunction under G.S. 15A-146. For dismissals by the court on or after December 1, 2025, amended G.S. 15A-1008 makes it clear they are not. The applicable AOC form for petitioning to expunge a dismissal, AOC-CR-287 (Dec. 2025), incorporates this change. The form does not limit the exclusion to dismissals on or after December 1, 2025. Whether dismissals under G.S. 15A-1008 before December 1, 2025, are subject to expunction under G.S. 15A-146 is an open question. Likewise, automatic expunctions of dismissals under G.S. 15A-146(a4) should not include dismissals by the court under G.S. 15A-1008, at least for dismissals on or after December 1, 2025. The change should not affect expunctions of voluntary dismissals by prosecutors, which may occur without a court order of dismissal under G.S. 15A-1008.
You can find a further discussion in the Relief Guide of expunctions of dismissals here and a discussion of different types of dismissals here.
If you have questions about expunctions, you can reach me at rubin@sog.unc.edu or contact our other School of Government expunction afficionado, Phil Dixon, at dixon@sog.unc.edu.
