How Expungement Works in Tennessee: A 2025 Guide

A criminal record follows people into jobs, apartments, and licenses long after a case is over. Tennessee does allow many records to be erased through expungement — but the rules changed in 2025, and a lot of what is online is out of date. Here is a current, plain-English overview. To see whether your record qualifies, call (865) 935-9558.

Tennessee has no "automatic" expungement

First, the myth. Tennessee does not have automatic or "clean slate" expungement. Every clean-slate proposal to date has failed in the legislature. With one narrow exception below, clearing a record in Tennessee requires filing a petition — records do not fall off on their own after a set number of years.

The narrow exception: if you are acquitted at trial, the judge is required to ask whether you want the records removed and destroyed, at no cost and without a separate petition. But that is acquittal-only. Dismissals, no-true-bills, and cases that were nolle prossed still require you to file.

The 2025 restructuring

In 2025, Public Chapter 268 reorganized Tennessee's expungement statutes. The old catch-all section was converted to definitions, and the substantive rules were spread across new sections covering dismissals and acquittals, eligible convictions, the petition procedure, and the legal effect of an expungement. If you are reading an article or form that still cites the old single statute for everything, it predates this change.

Importantly, the restructuring did not lengthen the waiting periods, and it modestly expanded eligibility in places — for example, to include attempt, conspiracy, facilitation, and solicitation of an otherwise-eligible offense.

Waiting periods (unchanged)

For eligible convictions, the waiting period runs from the completion of your sentence:

• 5 years for a misdemeanor or a Class E felony;
• 10 years for a Class C or Class D felony.

Records from cases that were dismissed, no-billed, or ended in acquittal generally do not carry these conviction waiting periods.

What it costs

The fee picture also changed. The statute now sets a ceiling of up to $100 — and some counties charge nothing to expunge a dismissed charge. The older figures you may still see quoted (in the $180–$280 range) are gone. Note that the state's own public expungement guidance had not fully caught up as of mid-2026, which is part of why there is so much stale information floating around.

Eligibility is a whitelist — with gates

Tennessee expungement of convictions works from a list of eligible offenses, not a list of excluded ones. On top of that, several categories are gated out — for instance, sexual offenses, offenses involving a minor victim, and certain high-loss cases. And some convictions can never be expunged at all: a DUI conviction, for example, cannot be erased in Tennessee. Whether a specific record qualifies is genuinely fact-specific, which is where a lawyer's review earns its keep.

One myth to ignore

You may have seen a claim about a new "20-year DUI expungement rule" taking effect in 2026. That is false — the bill behind it was withdrawn. A DUI conviction remains non-expungeable in Tennessee.

How to find out where you stand

The practical path is simple: pull your record, identify each charge and how it resolved, and check it against the current eligibility rules and waiting periods. We do this for clients regularly and can tell you honestly what can be cleared and when. Call (865) 935-9558, or learn more about our criminal defense practice.

This article is general information about Tennessee law, not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for talking with an attorney about your specific situation. Tennessee statutes change; this reflects our understanding as of July 2026. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.