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Rule 4-504 – Petition for Expungement when Charges Filed

May 13, 2021 | Criminal Prodcedure, Maryland

(a) Scope and Venue. A petition for expungement of records may be filed by any defendant who has been charged with the commission of a crime and is eligible under Code, Criminal Procedure Article, § 10-105 or Code, Criminal Procedure Article, § 10-110, as applicable, to request expungement. The petition shall be filed in the original action. If that action was commenced in one court and transferred to another, the petition shall be filed in the court to which the action was transferred, except that for criminal proceedings that began in a circuit court or the District Court and were transferred to a juvenile court under Code, Criminal Procedure Article, §§ 4-202 or 4-202.2, the petition shall be filed in the court that issued the order of transfer. If the proceeding in a court of original jurisdiction was appealed to a court exercising appellate jurisdiction, the petition shall be filed in the appellate court.

Cross reference: See Code, Criminal Procedure Article, § 10-104, which permits the District Court on its own initiative to order expungement when the State has entered a nolle prosequi as to all charges in a case in which the defendant has not been served. See Code, Criminal Procedure Article, § 10-105, which allows an individual’s attorney or personal representative to file a petition for expungement if the individual died before disposition of the charge by nolle prosequi or dismissal. See also Criminal Procedure Article, § 10-105(a)(11), which permits a person who has been convicted of a crime to file a petition for expungement when the act on which the conviction is based no longer is a crime, and Criminal Procedure Article, § 10-105(e)(4), which permits a person to petition for an expungement for an act on which a probation before judgment was based no longer is a crime. See Code, Criminal Procedure Article, § 10-110 regarding petitions for expungement of certain misdemeanor convictions.

(b) Contents–Time for Filing. The petition shall be substantially in the form approved by the State Court Administrator, posted on the Judiciary website, and available in the Clerks’ offices. The petition shall be filed within the times prescribed in Code, Criminal Procedure Article, § 10-105 or Code, Criminal Procedure Article, § 10-110, as applicable. When required by law, the petitioner shall file with the petition a duly executed General Waiver and Release in the form set forth at the end of this Title as Form 4-503.2.
(c) Copies for Service. The petitioner shall file with the clerk a sufficient number of copies of the petition for service on the State’s Attorney and each law enforcement agency named in the petition.
(d) Procedure Upon Filing. Upon filing of a petition, the clerk shall serve copies on the State’s Attorney and each law enforcement agency named in the petition. If a petition is filed pursuant to Code, Criminal Procedure Article, § 10-110, the court shall send written notice of the expungement request to each victim listed in the case in which the petitioner is seeking expungement at the address listed in the court file, advising the victim of the right to offer information relevant to the expungement petition to the court.
(e) Retrieval or Reconstruction of Case File. Upon the filing of a petition for expungement of records in any action in which the original file has been transferred to a Hall of Records Commission facility for storage, or has been destroyed, whether after having been microfilmed or not, the clerk shall retrieve the original case file from the Hall of Records Commission facility, or shall cause a reconstructed case file to be prepared from the microfilmed record, or from the docket entries.

Md. Crim. Causes. 4-504

This Rule is derived in part from former Rule EX3 b and c and is in part new.

Adopted April 6, 1984, eff. July 1, 1984. Amended July 27, 1987, eff. Aug. 17, 1987; May 9, 1991, eff. July 1, 1991; May 14, 1992, eff. July 1, 1992; June 8, 1998, eff. Oct. 1, 1998; Jan. 8, 2002, eff. Feb. 1, 2002; Oct. 31, 2002, eff. Jan. 1, 2003; Nov. 1, 2012, eff. Jan. 1, 2013; Dec. 7, 2015, eff. Jan. 1, 2016; April 9, 2018, eff. July 1, 2018.

HISTORICAL NOTES

2002 Orders

The January 8, 2002, order, in the first sentence of section (a) and in the second sentence of section (b), substituted “Criminal Procedure Article, § 10-105 for “Article 27, § 737.

The October 31, 2002, order, added the cross reference following section (a).

2012 Orders

The November 1, 2012, order added a cross reference after section (a).

2015 Orders

The December 7, 2015, order, added language to section (a) that refer to a certain exception for venue, added a cross reference to reflect statutory changes, deleted a reference to Form 4 504.1 in section (b), required that the form of petition be substantially in the form approved by the State Court Administrator, and specified the availability of the form.

2018 Orders

The April 9, 2018 order, amended the Rule to conform to Chapter 515, Laws of 2016.