Michigan expungement: who qualifies under Clean Slate in 2026

An old conviction doesn't just sit in a file. It shows up when you apply for a job, a lease, a professional license, a loan — years after you've moved on. A record can quietly close doors long after the sentence is served, and most people carrying one don't know Michigan changed the rules in their favor.

Michigan's Clean Slate law is one of the broadest second-chance laws in the country. Some convictions now clear themselves automatically. Others you can ask a court to set aside. But the eligibility lines are specific, the exclusions matter, and "automatic" doesn't mean "guaranteed for everyone." This is who qualifies in 2026, what's left out, and how the process actually works — so you know where you stand before you spend a dollar.

What Clean Slate changed

Michigan passed the bipartisan Clean Slate Act in 2020. Parts took effect in 2021, and the automatic expungement system went live in April 2023. Since then, Michigan has cleared more than 1.6 million convictions without anyone filing a thing — the state runs the records itself and sets them aside once the waiting period passes.

The legal term for clearing a Michigan record is "setting aside" a conviction, governed by MCL 780.621 and the sections that follow. Once a conviction is set aside, it comes off the public record. You can, in most situations, lawfully answer that you have not been convicted of that offense.

There are two ways it happens: automatically, or by application. Knowing which path applies to you is the whole game.

The automatic path — who clears without filing

The automatic system uses the state criminal history database to track waiting periods and clear eligible convictions on its own. The headline rules:

• Misdemeanors are set aside automatically 7 years after sentencing.
• Eligible felonies are set aside automatically 10 years after sentencing or release from incarceration, whichever is later.
• The cap is up to 4 misdemeanors and 2 felonies per person through the automatic process.

There are conditions underneath those numbers — you generally can't have pending charges, and certain assaultive or serious offenses are carved out of the automatic track even when the time has passed. The cleanest way to see your own status is to check your record on the Michigan State Police ICHAT system, which shows what's already been cleared.

If your conviction qualifies and the time has run, you may not need to do anything at all. The risk is assuming that — and not checking — when your offense actually falls outside the automatic rules.

The application path — when you have to ask

Plenty of records don't clear on their own but can still be set aside if you petition the court. The application process exists for exactly that gap, and Clean Slate widened who's eligible to use it.

You'd typically go the application route when you've hit your automatic cap but have older convictions still on the record, when your offense type isn't on the automatic list but is eligible by petition, or when you want a record cleared sooner than the automatic clock allows. A first-time OWI, for example, isn't eligible for automatic expungement, but Michigan now allows a single OWI offense to be set aside by application under its own specific rules — a meaningful change for a lot of people.

The application itself is a court filing: the right forms, certified records of the conviction, fingerprints sent to the State Police, and notice to the prosecutor and the Attorney General, who can object. A judge decides. Because a prosecutor can push back and a judge has discretion, this is the path where eligibility analysis and a clean, complete filing matter most — and where ELN's criminal defense practice can do the most good, on the petition and the eligibility review rather than on a courtroom fight.

What can't be cleared

This is where people get hurt by bad information, so be clear-eyed about the exclusions. Michigan does not allow these to be set aside:

• The most serious felonies, including murder and other crimes carrying a life sentence
• Criminal sexual conduct offenses (with very narrow exceptions)
• Human trafficking offenses
• Traffic offenses that caused injury or death
• Most offenses while charges are still pending elsewhere

OWI sits in its own category — excluded from automatic clearing, but reachable by application for a first offense under the dedicated OWI set-aside rules. If your situation involves a DUI that also caused a crash, the analysis gets more complicated fast, and the injury side may intersect with a personal injury matter entirely separate from the criminal record.

The pattern to take away: "Clean Slate" is broad, but it is not everything. A confident promise from a website that your specific record "will" be cleared is a claim no one can responsibly make without looking at your actual history.

When to call ELN

If you have one or two old misdemeanors and the years have clearly passed, start by checking ICHAT — there's a real chance the state already cleared them and you owe no one a fee to confirm it. We'd rather you learn that for free.

Call us when it's not simple: when you have multiple convictions, when you're near or over the automatic cap, when your offense type is borderline, when a first OWI is involved, or when an earlier set-aside attempt was denied. Those are the situations where a careful eligibility review and a complete petition change the outcome — and where guessing wrong costs you a filing fee and months of waiting for nothing. A free consultation tells you which path is yours before you commit to it.

If you're carrying a Michigan record and you're not sure where it stands, reach out to ELN and we'll walk through your eligibility with you. And if someone you know has been quietly held back by an old conviction, send them this — Clean Slate may already be on their side.

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This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Eligibility to set aside a conviction depends on the specific facts of your record. Michael Okechukwu is licensed to practice law in Michigan. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. If you have questions about your situation, schedule a consultation.