SB 201
Department of Legislative Services
Maryland General Assembly
2021 Session
FISCAL AND POLICY NOTE
Third Reader - Revised
Senate Bill 201 (Senators Patterson and Sydnor)
Judicial Proceedings Judiciary
Criminal Procedure - Expungement of Records
This bill establishes that beginning October 1, 2021, any records maintained by the State
or a political subdivision of the State relating to the charging of a crime or a specified
civil offense that resulted in specified dispositions must be expunged three years after
disposition of the charge. The bill also requires a court to provide a defendant with notice
of the defendant’s right to expungement under specified circumstances.
Fiscal Summary
State Effect: Potential significant increase in general fund expenditures for State agencies
to comply with the bill’s requirements, as discussed below. Revenues are not affected.
Local Effect: Potential increase in local expenditures for affected local agencies to comply
with the bill’s requirements. Revenues are not affected.
Small Business Effect: None.
Analysis
Bill Summary: The bill essentially establishes automatic expungements for cases
resulting in specified dispositions and requires a court to notify a defendant eligible for an
automatic expungement of the defendant’s right to a petition-based expungement under
existing statute.
Automatic Expungement
Beginning October 1, 2021, any police record, court record or other record maintained by
the State or a political subdivision of the State relating to the charging of a crime or a
civil offense under § 5-601 (c)(2)(ii) of the Criminal Law Article (possession of less than
10 grams of marijuana), including a must-appear violation of the Transportation Article,
must be expunged three years after a disposition of the charge if no charge in the case
resulted in a disposition other than acquittal; dismissal; not guilty; or nolle prosequi, other
than nolle prosequi with a requirement of drug or alcohol treatment.
For a case eligible for expungement under these conditions, the court must send notice of
the disposition of each charge in the case and the date on which expungement is required
to the (1) Central Repository; (2) each booking facility, law enforcement unit, and other
unit of the State and political subdivision of the State that the court believes may have a
record subject to expungement under these conditions; and (3) the person entitled to
expungement.
Notice to Defendant of Availability of Petition-based Expungement
After disposition of all charges of a case eligible for an expungement described above, the
court must notify the defendant of the defendant’s right to expungement under § 10-105 of
the Criminal Procedure Article (petition-based expungement). The court must notify the
defendant by mail if the defendant is not present in court for the disposition. The notice the
court must provide must include a written form for general waiver and release of all tort
claims relating to the charge or charges eligible for expungement.
Current Law: To begin the process of expungement, a petitioner must file a petition for
expungement with the court under § 10-105 or § 10-110 of the Criminal Procedure Article,
which establishes eligibility for the expungement of records pertaining to a criminal charge
or conviction. In general, § 10-110 applies to expungements of convictions, and § 10-105
applies to the expungement of criminal charges that resulted in a disposition other than a
conviction.
Expungement of a court or police record means removal from public inspection:
 by obliteration;
 by removal to a separate secure area to which persons who do not have a legitimate
reason for access are denied access; or
 if access to a court record or police record can be obtained only by reference to
another such record, by the expungement of that record, or the part of it that provides
access.
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Pursuant to § 10-107 of the Criminal Procedure Article, if two or more charges, other than
one for a minor traffic violation, arise from the same incident, transaction, or set of facts,
they are considered to be a unit. If a person is not entitled to expungement of one charge
or conviction in a unit, the person is not entitled to expungement of any other charge in the
unit. This “unit rule” applies to expungements under §§ 10-105 and 10-110.
Section 10-105 of the Criminal Procedure Article
Under § 10-105 of the Criminal Procedure Article, a person who has been charged with the
commission of a crime for which a term of imprisonment may be imposed or who has been
charged with a civil offense or infraction, except a juvenile offense, may file a petition for
expungement of a police record, court record, or other record maintained by the State or a
political subdivision of the State, under various circumstances listed in the statute. These
grounds include acquittal, dismissal of charges, entry of probation before judgment, entry
of nolle prosequi, stet of charge, and gubernatorial pardon. Individuals convicted of a crime
that is no longer a crime, convicted of possession of marijuana under § 5-601 of the
Criminal Law Article, convicted of or found not criminally responsible for specified public
nuisance crimes or specified misdemeanors, or who had a conviction vacated due to being
a victim of human trafficking (as defined in statute), are also eligible for expungement of
the associated criminal records under certain circumstances.
In general, a petition for expungement under § 10-105 based on an acquittal, a
nolle prosequi, or a dismissal may not be filed within 3 years after the disposition, unless
the petitioner files a written waiver and release of all tort claims arising from the charge.
The following waiting periods also apply:
 a petition based on probation before judgment or a stet with the requirement of drug
or alcohol abuse treatment may not be filed before the later of (1) the petitioner’s
discharge from probation or completion of treatment or (2) 3 years after the
probation was granted or the stet was entered on the docket;
 a petition based on stet or a compromise may not be filed within 3 years after the
stet or compromise;
 a petition for expungement based on a conviction of a public nuisance crime or a
finding of not criminally responsible for a public nuisance crime or specified
misdemeanors may not be filed within 3 years after the conviction or satisfactory
completion of the sentence or the court’s finding of not criminally responsible;
 a petition based on a nolle prosequi with the requirement of drug or alcohol
treatment may not be filed before the completion of treatment;
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 a petition for expungement of a conviction for possession of marijuana may not be
filed within 4 years after the conviction or the satisfactory completion of the
sentence, whichever is later;
 a petition for expungement based on a full and unconditional gubernatorial pardon
must be filed within 10 years after the pardon was signed by the Governor;
 a petition for expungement based on a conviction of a crime based on an act that is
no longer a crime may be filed at any time; and
 a person may petition the court for expungement at any time based on a showing of
good cause.
A person is not entitled to expungement if (1) subject to a specified exception, the petition
is based on the entry of probation before judgment and the person, within three years of
the entry of the probation before judgment, has been convicted of a crime other than a
minor traffic violation or a crime where the act on which the conviction is based is no
longer a crime or (2) the person is a defendant in a pending criminal proceeding.
Timeline for Expungement
Maryland’s expungement process for removing an eligible record takes a minimum of
90 days. If a State’s Attorney or victim, as applicable, objects, the court must hold a hearing
on the petition. If an objection is not filed within 30 days, as specified, the court must pass
an order requiring the expungement of all police and court records concerning the charges.
After the court orders are sent to each required agency, each agency has 60 days from
receipt to comply with the order.
State Expenditures: General fund expenditures may increase significantly for State
agencies to expunge records in accordance with the bill. This analysis assumes that the bill
applies only to applicable dispositions of charges occurring on or after the bill’s
October 1, 2021 effective date.
Judiciary
General fund expenditures for the Judiciary may increase significantly to comply with the
bill’s provisions, including by as much as $350,000 in fiscal 2022 for computer
programming and significant expenditures for additional personnel, as discussed below.
Additional general fund expenditures are incurred for the Judiciary to mail notices of
expungement eligibility to defendants as required under the bill.
The bill requires the automatic expungement of court records in cases involving specified
dispositions, as opposed to the current petition-based process for most expungements.
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Exhibit 1 contains information on the number of petitions for expungement filed in the
trial courts in fiscal 2019 and 2020.
Exhibit 1
Petitions for Expungement
Fiscal 2019 and 2020
District Court Circuit Court
Fiscal 2019 74,508 10,951
Fiscal 2020 55,105 8,642
Source: Maryland Judiciary
Exhibit 2 contains information on the number of cases in fiscal 2019 and 2020 that were
disposed of entirely by (1) acquittal; (2) dismissal; (3) not guilty; or (4) nolle prosequi,
except nolle prosequi with a requirement of drug or alcohol treatment.
Exhibit 2
Cases Eligible for Automatic Expungement Under the Bill
Fiscal 2019 and 2020
District District Court Civil – Possession of
Court Must Appear Less Than 10 Grams Circuit Court
Criminal Traffic of Marijuana Cases
Fiscal2019 95,294 217,396 17,127 9,102
Fiscal 2020* 74,666 159,060 11,840 7,604
*Fiscal 2020 numbers are impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and are not an accurate depiction
of a typical year of data.
Source: Maryland Judiciary
The Judiciary assumes that an automatic expungement process requires 0.25 hours
(15 minutes) to complete, compared to the 1.5 hours (90 minutes) required to process a
traditional petition-based expungement. Contributors to this difference include the
elimination of procedural requirements for automatic expungements, such as verification
of compliance by applicable custodians of records, the review of and hearings on petitions,
SB 201/ Page 5
as well as the anticipated statewide implementation of the Maryland Electronic Courts
system.
Applying this assumption to the number of eligible cases cited in Exhibit 2, the Judiciary
advises that it requires 68 clerks in the District Court and 2 clerks in the circuit courts to
implement the bill, at a cost of $4.0 million in fiscal 2022, increasing to $5.1 million by
fiscal 2026.
However, the Department of Legislative Services (DLS) advises that the actual need for
additional court personnel can only be determined with actual experience under the bill and
is dependent on (1) the bill’s overall effect on the number of expungement petitions filed
and automatic expungements required and (2) the distribution of expungements between
these categories. Some of the cases eligible for automatic expungements under the bill may
be the subject of current petitions for expungements under existing statute and may
continue to be the subject of a petition for expungement under the bill if a defendant
(especially after receiving direct notice from the court) decides to sign a waiver and release
of tort claims and petition for expungement earlier than three years after disposition of
charges free of charge, since the Judiciary does not charge a fee to file a petition to expunge
the dispositions affected by the bill. Also, if the Judiciary’s assumption of the amount of
time required to process an automatic expungement is accurate, six automatic expungements
can be processed in the amount of time needed for one petition-based expungement.
Regardless, personnel-related expenditures for the Judiciary may be significant. For
illustrative purposes only, the cost associated with one clerk is approximately $57,200 in
fiscal 2022 and increases to $73,400 by fiscal 2026; costs associated with adding one clerk
in each District Court location are approximately $1.9 million in fiscal 2022 and a
minimum of $2.2 million annually thereafter. Furthermore, the timing of the need for
additional personnel is also affected, since the initial phases of the bill’s implementation
include notification to defendants and applicable custodians of records and expungement
of records in response to an anticipated increase in petitions; the final phase of
implementation, which begins three years after the bill’s effective date, includes
expungement of court records eligible for an automatic expungement.
The Judiciary advises that the bill requires approximately $6,000 in additional expenditures
to revise and restock the expungement form and brochures. DLS advises that the revision
of forms in response to statutory changes is a routine function of the Judiciary and can be
incorporated into regular printing orders.
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Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services
The Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) within the Department of Public Safety
and Correctional Services (DPSCS) is the Central Repository for criminal record history
information in Maryland. CJIS may experience increased volume in expungements since
eligible individuals do not need to petition for expungement.
DPSCS advises that it can comply with the bill’s requirements using existing budgeted
resources so long as it receives notification from the courts of eligible cases/records.
However, DPSCS did not provide adequate clarification and explanation of this
assessment. DPSCS has traditionally advised that CJIS requires one additional
administrative employee for every 2,500 additional orders for expungement it receives.
Depending on the overall effect of the bill on CJIS workloads, CJIS may require additional
personnel. It should be noted that a traffic law violation is not a “reportable event” to CJIS.
Also, use and possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana is a civil offense, not a criminal
offense; DPSCS did not provide information on what, if any, information CJIS receives
regarding those civil violations.
The cost associated with each additional administrative position is approximately $61,500
in fiscal 2022 and increases to $79,400 by fiscal 2026. As noted above, any need for
additional personnel may not materialize until future years, once the first cohort of
automatic expungements need to be processed.
DPSCS advises that CJIS has received the following number of expungement orders from
courts in recent years: 48,848 in fiscal 2017; 69,771 in fiscal 2018; and 72,925 in
fiscal 2019. While the workload for CJIS has increased in recent years, the unit has not
experienced a corresponding increase in staffing, and CJIS has been accommodating
workloads beyond the 2,500 caseload standard.
Department of State Police
Depending on the workload generated by the bill, general fund expenditures for the
Department of State Police (DSP) increase by as much as $290,000 in fiscal 2022 if DSP
has to hire three administrative personnel and create a computerized tracking system to log
court notifications of eligible automatic expungements and internally document
compliance with expungements; fiscal 2026 expenditures total approximately $162,500.
These costs may be mitigated depending on actual changes to DSP workloads under the
bill and the notification system implemented by the courts. As with other affected entities,
the potential need for additional personnel due to the bill may not completely materialize
until future years, once the automatic expungement process is fully implemented.
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Motor Vehicle Administration
While the bill refers to must-appear violations of State traffic laws, the bill is not anticipated
to affect the Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA). The bill alters provisions of the
Criminal Procedure Article; MVA advises that it retains and expunges driving records in
accordance with the provisions of the Transportation Article. The Transportation Article
requires MVA to automatically expunge a driving record depending on specified factors,
such as the length of time since the individual’s most recent conviction for a moving
violation or a “criminal offense” involving a motor vehicle and administrative actions taken
on the individual’s driver’s license. However, MVA is also statutorily prohibited from
expunging specified driving record entries.
Other Agencies
Additional State agencies (e.g., the Department of Natural Resources) may also incur
additional expenditures should they experience a demonstrable increase in workload under
the bill. However, these agencies tend to have fewer interactions with
expungement-eligible records than the agencies mentioned above.
Local Expenditures: Local expenditures may increase for local law enforcement agencies
to expunge records in accordance with the bill. State’s Attorneys’ offices may initially
experience increased workloads if they have to expunge additional records under the bill
or respond to additional petitions for e