RI H8085

Persons convicted of petty misdemeanors (as defined in § 11-1-2) may file for expungement of their records after 1 year from the date of sentencing, bypassing the standard 5-year waiting period for misdemeanors.

Petty misdemeanor expungements are exempt from the "first offender" requirement that typically applies to other expungement requests.

Courts may grant petty misdemeanor expungements 1 year after sentence imposition, compared to 5 years for regular misdemeanors and 10 years for felonies.

The act takes effect immediately upon passage.