Sealing by petition in Virginia

Who qualifies under §19.2-392.12

A person who was convicted of, or had a charge deferred and dismissed for, a (i) misdemeanor, (ii) Class 5 or 6 felony, or (iii) violation of §18.2-95 or another felony offense punished as larceny under that section, where the offense date was on or after January 1, 1986, may petition for sealing of the criminal history record information and court records for that charge or conviction.

The petition may also ask to seal specifically identified ancillary matters related to that charge or conviction.

What the petition has to contain

• A copy of the warrant, summons or indictment, if reasonably available.
• The date of arrest and the name of the arresting agency.
• The date of conviction or deferred dismissal, and the case number associated with each court record covered by the petition.
• Where that information is not reasonably available, the petition must state why.
• The charge or conviction and any ancillary matters to be sealed, with the date of final disposition for each.
• The petitioner's date of birth, sex, race and Social Security number, if available, and the full name used at the time of arrest or summons.

One transaction per petition, two grants per lifetime

One petition may cover several charges or convictions only if they all arose out of the same transaction or occurrence and all are eligible for sealing. Charges from different transactions or occurrences need separate petitions. Ancillary matters are not treated as separate transactions or occurrences.

There is a hard limit: a petitioner may have only two petitions granted under §19.2-392.12 in their lifetime. That is a strong argument for checking whether a charge is on track to be sealed automatically before spending one of them.

The Commonwealth is a party and gets 30 days

The Commonwealth is made a party to the proceeding. The petitioner must serve a copy of the petition on the attorney for the Commonwealth of the county or city where it was filed, by delivery or first-class mail. The attorney for the Commonwealth may file an objection or answer, or give written notice that there is no objection, within 30 days of delivery or receipt.

What §19.2-392.12:1 covers

The companion section addresses misdemeanor convictions or deferred dismissals together with any related ancillary matters, and is filed on the CC-1203 petition with the CC-1203A addendum for subsection (A) and the CC-1203B addendum for subsection (B). Its orders are CC-1204, CC-1204A, CC-1205 and CC-1205A.

No filing fee

§19.2-392.12(B) says plainly that a person shall not be required to pay any court fees or costs for filing a petition under that section. Copying, postage, fingerprinting or a lawyer's time are separate costs that the statute does not address.