Michigan's Clean Slate Law in 2026: What Clears Automatically and What Still Takes a Petition

People call our office convinced their record cleared itself. Sometimes they're right. Michigan has been automatically setting aside qualifying convictions since April 11, 2023, and the volume is enormous — State Police data reported in April 2026 put the total at more than 1.5 million convictions cleared without anyone filing anything.

But the automatic track is narrower than its reputation, and the convictions people most want gone are often the ones it doesn't touch. Here's how to tell which side of the line you're on.

The automatic track

MCL 780.621g does the work here, and it runs on a clock with no application, no fee, and no hearing. Michigan State Police simply stops reporting the conviction publicly.

What it covers, and how long you wait:

Conviction	Waiting period	Clock starts
Misdemeanor, max 92 days or less	7 years	Imposition of sentence
Misdemeanor, max 93 days or more	7 years	Imposition of sentence
Felony	10 years	The later of sentence imposition or completion of a term of imprisonment with the Department of Corrections

Read that felony row carefully. The automatic felony clock has only two trigger events — sentencing and release from MDOC. Probation completion and parole discharge are not in it, even though both appear in the petition-based clock under MCL 780.621d. That difference has caught people who assumed the two tracks measure time the same way.

The caps. Not more than 2 felonies and 4 misdemeanors in a lifetime clear automatically. MCL 780.621g(5). Misdemeanors punishable by 92 days or less don't count against the four — those are unlimited.

What the automatic track will never reach

This is the list that sends most people to a petition. Under MCL 780.621g(10), automatic set-aside does not apply to:

• assaultive crimes

• serious misdemeanors as defined in MCL 780.811

• crimes of dishonesty — including forgery, embezzlement, racketeering, and computer crimes, per MCL 780.621g(15)

• any offense punishable by 10 or more years

• offenses whose elements involve a minor, a vulnerable adult, injury or serious impairment, or death

• anything related to human trafficking

  
  

Layered on top, MCL 780.621c(2) applies every ordinary disqualification to the automatic track too — life offenses, the enumerated criminal sexual conduct and child offenses, and traffic offenses including operating while intoxicated.

There is also a cliff worth knowing about. Under MCL 780.621g(7), a person with more than one assaultive conviction in the state police database is cut off from automatic relief entirely — not just as to those offenses, but as to everything on the record.

Two things that stop the automatic clock

Pending charges. MCL 780.621g(6)(b) blocks automatic set-aside if there are criminal charges pending against you in the MSP database. One open case can freeze the entire record, including unrelated old convictions.

New convictions. MCL 780.621g(6)(c) requires that you not be convicted of a criminal offense during the applicable period. Practically, picking up a new case during the wait resets your timeline.

What does *not* stop it: unpaid fines and costs. SCAO has confirmed that MCL 780.621g does not prohibit an automatic set-aside for unpaid fines and costs. Unpaid restitution is different. Under MCL 780.621h(3), a court shall reinstate an automatically set-aside conviction if it determines the individual "has not made a good-faith effort to pay" the ordered restitution. Note the standard — good-faith effort, not payment in full.

And automatic relief is not permanently final. If a conviction was set aside that didn't qualify, MCL 780.621h(2) directs the court to reinstate it on its own motion.

The petition track covers much more

If the automatic track passed you by, applying is usually still available, and eligibility is broader than people assume.

How many. Under MCL 780.621(1)(a), a person with no more than three felony convictions total may apply to set aside their Michigan convictions, and misdemeanors are not capped. Three limits ride along with that: no more than two assaultive crimes in a lifetime, MCL 780.621(1)(b); no more than one conviction for the same offense where that offense is punishable by more than 10 years, MCL 780.621(1)(c); and nothing on the MCL 780.621c(1) exclusion list can be set aside at all.

Waiting periods under MCL 780.621d:

• 3 years for most misdemeanors — running from the last of sentencing, completion of any term of imprisonment, or completion of probation

• 5 years for one felony, a serious misdemeanor, or a first-violation OWI

• 7 years for more than one felony

For the 5- and 7-year tiers, the clock also accounts for discharge from parole.

The "one bad night" rule. MCL 780.621b treats multiple offenses as a single conviction if they occurred within 24 hours and arose from the same transaction. Both conditions are required — it is not a pure 24-hour rule. It does not apply if any offense in the group was an assaultive crime, involved a dangerous weapon, or carried a maximum of 10 or more years.

First-offense OWI. Since February 19, 2022, a first-violation operating while intoxicated conviction can be set aside — by application only, never automatically, and only once in a lifetime. MCL 780.621c(3). Two cautions. First, the court applies a tougher, offense-specific standard under MCL 780.621c(4), weighing whether you completed and benefited from rehabilitative or educational programming. Second, and this is the one clients never expect: MCL 780.621c(5) provides that the order must not remove the conviction from your Secretary of State driving record. The OWI comes off your public criminal record and stays on your driving record.

Marijuana convictions get their own, much friendlier process. MCL 780.621e sets up a self-contained procedure that does not carry over the waiting periods, fingerprint requirement, or $50 MSP fee that apply to ordinary applications, and SCAO's instructions to form MC 227a state there should be no filing fee. Filing creates a rebuttable presumption that the conviction was based on conduct that would not have been a crime on or after December 6, 2018 — and the burden of rebutting it rests solely on the prosecuting agency, by a preponderance. If the prosecuting agency files no answer within 60 days, the court must enter the order within 21 days. Use form MC 227a, not MC 227.

What an application actually involves

File in the court where the conviction happened — a separate application for each court. Use SCAO form MC 227, signed under oath.

Send a copy of the application with one complete set of fingerprints and a $50 fee payable to the State of Michigan to the Michigan State Police. MCL 780.621d(8)–(9). The fee goes to MSP, not the court. Under MCL 780.621d(8), the court cannot act on the application until MSP reports back, so MSP processing time is built into your timeline and outside the court's control.

Serve the Attorney General and every prosecuting attorney who handled the case. MCL 780.621d(10). If the conviction was for an assaultive crime or serious misdemeanor, the prosecutor must notify the victim, who has the right to appear and be heard.

At the hearing, the court must find both that your circumstances and behavior since the conviction warrant the set-aside and that granting it is consistent with the public welfare. MCL 780.621d(13). The statute is blunt about what you're asking for: "The setting aside of a conviction or convictions under this act is a privilege and conditional and is not a right." MCL 780.621d(14).

If you're denied, MCL 780.621d(5) bars refiling for three years unless the order specifies an earlier date. That makes a thin, poorly documented first application expensive.

What a set-aside does — and doesn't do

Does: You are considered not to have been convicted for most purposes. MCL 780.622(1). The conviction leaves public view and public ICHAT results. Under MCL 780.622(8), it cannot be used as evidence against anyone in a negligent hiring, admission, or licensure action.

Doesn't: Courts, judicial branch agencies, prosecutors, law enforcement, MDOC, the Attorney General, and the Governor retain access through a nonpublic record. MCL 780.623(2). Most importantly, MCL 780.622(9) allows a set-aside conviction to be counted as a prior for charging an offense as a second or subsequent offense and for habitual offender sentencing under MCL 769.10 through 769.12. A set-aside OWI or drug conviction still counts against you next time. Sex offender registration obligations also survive, MCL 780.622(3), and no fines, costs, or restitution are refunded or forgiven.

A word on firearms. MCL 750.224f(9) provides that Michigan's felon-in-possession restriction does not apply to a conviction that has been expunged or set aside, unless the order expressly provides otherwise. That is the state prohibition only. Whether the separate federal firearm prohibition under 18 USC 922(g)(1) is lifted is a distinct question that turns on federal law and the specifics of your conviction and your rights under Michigan law. Do not treat a Michigan set-aside as clearance to buy or possess a firearm without getting that analyzed.

What this means for you

Pull your own record first. You can request your Michigan criminal history from MSP, and it will show whether the automatic track already did the work.

If it didn't, find out why — a cap, an exclusion, an open case, or just time remaining. The answer determines whether you wait, clear up the obstacle, or file.

And if you file, file once and file well. Three years is a long time to wait for a second try.

If you have a Michigan conviction you want off your record, Scozzari Law can review your history, tell you which track applies, and handle the application. Contact us at (616) 226-4343, or e-mail james.scozzari@scozzzarilaw.com to set up a consultation.

This article is general information about Michigan law and is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship with Scozzari Law, PLLC. Michigan law changes, and how it applies depends entirely on the facts of your case. If you have a family law or criminal matter in Kent County or elsewhere in Michigan, talk to a lawyer about your specific situation.