Expungements
All petitions for expungement must contain the information required by the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure. Please see cite
of Pa.R.Crim.P.722 below.
It
should be further noted that it takes approximately six
months to a year to have a record completely expunged and in
some instances the expungement process can take
significantly longer. If all the required criteria are met
and all case financials have been resolved
(no outstanding costs,
fines and/or restitution and all restitution checks cashed),
the Clerk's office submits
the expungement Order to the Administrative Office of PA
Courts (AOPC) for immediate removal from the Common Pleas
Case Management System (CPCMS or statewide docketing
network) and from the UJS Portal.
In
addition to servicing the expungement order on AOPC the
Order is provided to the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP)
Central Repository where an expungement Order may experience
a substantial delay in being processed. At times PSP - at
the direction of their Chief Counsel - will reject an
expungement as the charge(s) are not considered legally
expungable.
Rule 722. Contents of Order for
Expungement
Every order for expungement shall
include:
(1) the defendant's name, date of
birth, and social security number;
(2) the OTN;
(3) the district justice docket
number and the magisterial district number, or the Municipal
Court docket number;
(4) the court of common pleas
docket number, if any;
(5) the specific charges, as they
appear on the charging document, to be expunged;
(6) the date of arrest and the
criminal justice agency which made the arrest;
(7) the disposition;
(8) the reason for expungement;
and
(9) the criminal justice agencies
upon which certified copies of the order shall be served.
Comment:
This rule sets forth the information that must be included
in every expungement order, but is not intended to be an
exclusive list.
When a summons instead of an
arrest warrant is issued pursuant to Rule 518, the date of
the summons constitutes the "date of arrest" for purposes of
paragraph (6).
For purposes of this rule,
"criminal justice agency" includes police departments,
county detectives, and other law enforcement agencies.
The "reason for expungement" in
paragraph (8) means, for example, acquittal, successful
completion of ARD, or age.
