Second chances start with a clean record.
Why Expungement Matters
Even if your case was dismissed, nolle prosequi, or resolved years ago, it can still appear in background checks and limit opportunities. Expungement removes qualifying records from public view, eliminating barriers that often persist long after a case has closed.
Our attorneys assist clients by:
- Determining eligibility for expungement under Maryland law.
- Preparing and filing petitions and all required documentation.
- Representing clients in court hearings when necessary.
- Ensuring that records are removed from both court files and online databases.
- Advising on timelines and future eligibility for multiple cases.
What Maryland Lets You Expunge, and When
Maryland handles expungement one disposition at a time. What happened at the end of your case, and how long ago it happened, decides whether a petition can be filed now, later, or not at all.
Dismissed Charges, Acquittals, Nolle Prosequi, and Stets
These are the most straightforward category in Maryland expungement law. A charge that ended in a not guilty verdict, a dismissal, a nolle prosequi, or a stet can generally be petitioned under Criminal Procedure § 10-105, and there is no filing fee attached to those petitions. A stet carries its own timing rule, since the case can be reopened for a period before it is treated as closed for expungement purposes.
Probation Before Judgment
A PBJ is not a conviction, but it stays visible until it is expunged. Once probation has been discharged, most PBJ cases become eligible after a waiting period, commonly three years from the discharge. Alcohol and drug related driving offenses are the exception, and Maryland treats a PBJ in those cases far more restrictively, with a waiting period measured in years rather than months and far longer than a standard PBJ. If your PBJ came out of a DUI or DWI charge, the timing question is worth asking before you assume the answer.
Certain Misdemeanor and Nonviolent Felony Convictions
Maryland Criminal Procedure § 10-110 opens expungement to a defined list of misdemeanor convictions and a narrower list of nonviolent felonies. The clock does not start at sentencing. It starts when the full sentence is complete, including probation and parole, and the length of the wait depends on the offense itself. Many
drug possession convictions fall inside this section, which is why people who assumed a conviction was permanent often turn out to have a filing date.
Juvenile matters are handled separately from adult criminal cases and follow their own rules for shielding and expungement. If a
juvenile case is still showing up somewhere it should not, bring us the case number and the county and we will tell you what is on file and what can be removed.
Two Rules That Change Most Eligibility Answers
Most people who find out they do not qualify are tripped up by one of two rules. Neither one appears in the self help guides, and both are the reason an eligibility answer has to come from the file rather than a chart.
Charges from a single incident are treated as one unit. If you were arrested once and charged with four things, and three ended in dismissal while the fourth ended in a conviction that is not eligible, none of the four come off. The unit moves together or not at all.
A petition also cannot go forward while other criminal proceedings are pending against you, and a new conviction during a waiting period can restart the clock on the case you were waiting to clear. Timing matters as much as eligibility, and the order you handle open matters in can decide whether an old case is reachable at all.
Simple steps—when you have the right help.
How a Maryland Expungement Petition Actually Moves
Step 1: We pull and read the record
Bring us the case number, or the county and approximate date. We obtain the docket, confirm the disposition on every charge, and tell you plainly whether a petition can be filed and when.
Step 2: We file in the court that heard the case
The petition goes to the court where the case was decided. If you have cases in more than one court, each one needs its own petition, filed separately in that courthouse.
Step 3: The State's Attorney is served and has 30 days to object
The prosecutor's office reviews the petition and either lets it pass or files an objection within that window.
Step 4: The court holds a hearing if there is an objection
If an objection is filed, the court schedules a hearing and we appear and argue the petition. Knowing how a particular State's Attorney's office evaluates these matters is most of the work at this stage.
Step 5: The order is entered and the agencies comply
Once the court grants the petition, the order goes out to the agencies holding the record, and they are given time to remove it. We verify that the removal actually happened rather than assuming it did.
How Long Does Expungement Take in Maryland?
Plan on months rather than weeks. The State's Attorney's 30 day objection window is fixed, a hearing adds scheduling time on top of it, and the agencies holding your record need their own window to comply after the order is entered.
The rest of the timeline depends on the courthouse. A case decided in Upper Marlboro moves on a different calendar than one decided in Hyattsville, La Plata, Prince Frederick, Leonardtown, Annapolis, or Glen Burnie, and cases in more than one of those courts run on their own separate tracks. If a background check is coming, the date you file is the part of the timeline you control.
What It Costs to File for Expungement
Cost is the question people hesitate to ask, so here is the plain answer.
- There is no filing fee for a petition based on an acquittal, a dismissal, a nolle prosequi, a stet, or a probation before judgment.
- Petitions based on a guilty disposition carry a nonrefundable filing fee, charged per case rather than per charge.
- A fee waiver is available through the court for people who cannot afford the filing fee.
- Cases in multiple courts mean multiple petitions, and any applicable fee applies to each one.
We will tell you what your specific petitions will cost before anything is filed.
What Shows Up on a Background Check Afterward
An expungement removes the case from the public court record and requires the agencies named in the order to remove it from their files. The court file is no longer available to the public, and a standard background check run against your name should no longer return it.
The part most people want to hear is what they can say. Maryland law allows a person whose record has been expunged to answer that the charge did not occur when an employer, a landlord, or most licensing boards ask about it. A small number of licensing and law enforcement contexts have their own disclosure rules, which is why it is worth telling us up front what field you work in.
We do not close a case until we have confirmed the record came down where it was supposed to.
Why Clients Bring Us the Cases They Want Cleared
Palumbo, Palumbo, & Lovelace has practiced in Southern Maryland courts for more than 50 years, from the same Fort Washington office for roughly 40 of them. Our criminal work includes former prosecutor experience, which matters on an expungement because it tells us how the State's Attorney's office weighs an objection before the objection is ever filed. The firm has been recognized by Super Lawyers, and you can read more about our attorneys and the counties we practice in.
- You work directly with an attorney, start to finish. Expungement is the practice area where filing shops are most common, and a form filed without reading the docket is how eligibility gets missed.
- We handle the whole matter, from the eligibility review to the hearing to confirming the record was removed.
- Most of our clients come to us on a referral from someone we already represented.
- We handle the criminal case and the expungement in the same office, so
criminal defense today and a clean record later are one conversation instead of two.
Questions We Hear About Maryland Expungement
Filing in the Courthouse That Heard Your Case
We file expungement petitions in the courts we appear in every week, including Upper Marlboro and Hyattsville in Prince George's County, La Plata in Charles County, Prince Frederick in Calvert County, Leonardtown in St. Mary's County, and Annapolis and Glen Burnie in Anne Arundel County. Maryland is where we live, not a market we drive into.
Bring us the case number and we will tell you where you stand and how long it will take.