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Sealing Misdemeanor Records in Arkansas (Part 1 of 2)

Cody Bassham
3 hours ago
6 min read

This is Part 1 of our two-part series on sealing criminal records in Arkansas. Part 2 covers felonies: Part 2 — Felonies.

A criminal record follows you long after the case is closed. Even a single misdemeanor shows up on background checks for jobs, apartments, and professional licenses — sometimes decades after the fact. The good news: for most Arkansas misdemeanors, the law gives you a clear path to put it behind you, often with no waiting period at all.

This article covers sealing misdemeanors, violations, arrests, and dismissed charges, with links to the actual statutes so you can read the law for yourself.

What "sealing" means in Arkansas

Arkansas uses the term sealing rather than expungement, though people use the words interchangeably. Under Ark. Code Ann. § 16-90-1404, sealing means the record is expunged, removed from public access, sequestered, and treated as confidential. The record is not destroyed — courts, prosecutors, and certain licensing agencies can still reach it for limited purposes — but it disappears from the background checks that employers and landlords run.

Two points worth knowing up front:

  • Sealing is not automatic. Arkansas has no general "clean slate" law. You must file a uniform petition with the court, and a judge must grant it.

  • Sealing alone does not restore felony firearm rights. That generally requires a governor's pardon or a dismissal under the First Offender Act (discussed below).

The law that governs: the Comprehensive Criminal Record Sealing Act of 2013

Nearly all adult record sealing in Arkansas runs through one statute: the Comprehensive Criminal Record Sealing Act of 2013 (Act 1460 of 2013), codified at Ark. Code Ann. §§ 16-90-1401 through 16-90-1419. The Act replaced a patchwork of older expungement statutes with a single uniform petition process, and the legislature has since loosened its eligibility rules several times — most significantly in 2019 and 2021.

The sections you will deal with most often:

Sealing a misdemeanor

Misdemeanors are the easy case. Under § 16-90-1405, you can petition to seal any misdemeanor or violation immediately after you have:

  • completed your sentence, including full payment of restitution;

  • paid all court costs; and

  • paid any driver's license reinstatement fees and completed reinstatement requirements tied to the case.

This applies even to convictions from before January 1, 2014, when the Act took effect.

Six misdemeanors carry a five-year waiting period after sentence completion:

  1. Negligent homicide (Class A misdemeanor), § 5-10-105

  2. Battery in the third degree, § 5-13-203

  3. Indecent exposure, § 5-14-112

  4. Public sexual indecency, § 5-14-111

  5. Sexual assault in the fourth degree, § 5-14-127

  6. Domestic battering in the third degree, § 5-26-305

Misdemeanor DWI and BWI convictions under § 5-65-103 cannot be sealed until the lookback periods in § 5-65-111 have run — in practice, a ten-year wait for a first offense.

One hard exclusion: if you held a commercial driver license (or CDL learner's permit) when you committed a traffic offense, that offense cannot be sealed at all, no matter the vehicle you were driving.

Arrests, dismissals, and other paths to a clean record

The Act covers more than convictions, and several older statutes still do important work:

  • Arrests with no charge. If you were arrested but the prosecutor never filed charges (or charges weren't filed within a year), you can petition to seal the arrest record under § 16-90-1409.

  • Dismissals, nolle prosequi, and acquittals. If your case was dismissed, dropped, or you were found not guilty, § 16-90-1410 lets you seal the record with no waiting period.

  • First Offender Act (Act 346 of 1975). If you were sentenced as a first offender under §§ 16-93-301 through 16-93-303, successful completion of probation results in dismissal and sealing — and unlike ordinary sealing, an Act 346 dismissal restores firearm rights. This decision has to be made at sentencing, which is one more reason to have counsel before you plead.

  • Pre-2014 felonies under the Community Punishment Act. Felonies sentenced under Act 531 of 1993, § 16-93-1201 et seq., follow that Act's own sealing provision, § 16-93-1207.

  • Drug court and specialty court graduates may be entitled to sealing under § 16-98-303(g).

  • Pardoned offenses. A person who receives a governor's pardon can seal the pardoned conviction under § 16-90-1411, with limited exceptions.

  • Victims of human trafficking may seal qualifying convictions under § 16-90-1412.

How the process works

Sealing runs on a uniform petition created by the Arkansas Crime Information Center under § 16-90-1414, filed according to the procedure in § 16-90-1413:

  1. File the uniform petition in the court where you were convicted (for arrest records, the circuit or district court in the county of arrest). There is no filing fee — § 16-90-1419 now prohibits clerks from charging one.

  2. Serve the prosecutor (and the arresting agency, if a named party) within three days of filing.

  3. The prosecutor has 30 days to object. For a misdemeanor, if no written objection is filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.

  4. The court applies the standards in § 16-90-1415. For most misdemeanors, the court shall seal unless the State shows by clear and convincing evidence that it shouldn't.

  5. The uniform order issues. The clerk certifies copies to the prosecutor, the arresting agency, the Arkansas Crime Information Center, and any district court involved, and the agencies sequester their records.

If a petition is denied, you generally must wait one year before refiling on the same record (90 days for most misdemeanors), and either side can appeal.

It's a paperwork-driven process, but the details still trip people up — which statute governs an older case, whether one of the five-year offenses is involved, and what "completion of sentence" means when old fines or restitution are outstanding. Those are the issues that get petitions denied when they're filed wrong.

What a sealed record actually does for you

The payoff is in § 16-90-1417. Once the uniform order is entered, the conduct underlying the record is deemed as a matter of law never to have occurred, and you may legally state that it did not occur and that no record exists. For most job applications, rental applications, and background checks, that is the whole ballgame.

The limits, so no one is surprised later:

  • Certain entities retain access under § 16-90-1416 — you and your attorney, criminal justice agencies, courts and prosecutors in later proceedings, the Arkansas Crime Information Center, and law enforcement licensing bodies, among others.

  • The conviction can still be used in future criminal cases — for example, as a prior offense for habitual-offender sentencing or for impeachment — under § 16-90-1417(a).

  • Firearm rights are not restored by sealing a felony. That takes a pardon or an Act 346 first-offender dismissal.

  • Federal agencies and immigration authorities follow federal law, not Arkansas's sealing statute.

The law keeps moving — mostly in your favor

If you looked into sealing a few years ago and were quoted a fee or told to wait, look again. The General Assembly has steadily widened the door:

Act 680 of 2019 eliminated the $50 filing fee and removed the old 60-day waiting period, so most misdemeanors are now sealable the day the sentence is complete.

Arkansas still has no automatic "clean slate" sealing, so nothing happens unless you file. And if there's a felony on your record too, see Part 2 of this series — felony sealing has loosened even more.

Ready to put your record behind you?

Most people who qualify for sealing never file — they assume they don't qualify, or the uniform petition sat in a drawer. The first step is a straightforward eligibility review: what's on your record, which statute controls, and whether any waiting period has already run.

Bassham Law Firm PLLC handles record sealing petitions across central Arkansas from our office in Conway. Call 501-459-9500 or reach us through basshamlaw.com for a consultation, and bring whatever paperwork you have — a judgment and disposition sheet is a great start, but we can pull your record if you don't.

This article is for general information only and is not legal advice. Statutes cited are current as of November 2026; eligibility depends on the specific facts of your case.

Statutes cited

 
 
 

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