Indiana Expungement, Restricted Access & Court Record Removal

Indiana's Restricted Access Petition - What It Is and What It Isn't

Indiana's expungement statute, codified at IC 35-38-9, is often described as "expungement" but functions more accurately as restricted access. When a petition is granted, the court orders that the records be restricted from public access - they are not physically destroyed, and they do not disappear from all systems. For the full legislative text, see the Indiana General Assembly website.

The practical consequences of this distinction are significant. A restricted Indiana record:

• Is no longer accessible to the general public through mycase.in.gov or standard court clerk searches
• Is no longer reportable by most private background check companies
• Allows you to legally deny the conviction on most job applications under IC 35-38-9-9.5
• Remains accessible to law enforcement, prosecutors, courts, and certain professional licensing boards under IC 35-38-9-10
• Can still be accessed by federal agencies and for federal background checks including security clearances
• Does not erase any information already stored by commercial data broker sites that scraped mycase.in.gov before the restriction order

Indiana Expungement Eligibility - Waiting Periods and Offense Types

Indiana's eligibility structure is organized by offense tier, with corresponding waiting periods. All waiting periods run from the date of conviction (or arrest, for non-conviction records), not from the date of sentence completion. You must also be current on all fines, fees, and restitution, with no pending charges at the time of filing. For more information, visit the Indiana Courts.

Arrests With No Conviction

If you were arrested but the charges were dismissed, you were acquitted, or no charges were filed, you may petition for restriction after 1 year from the arrest date. These are the easiest petitions and are typically granted without a hearing if the paperwork is correct.

Misdemeanor Convictions

Most misdemeanor convictions qualify for expungement after a 5-year waiting period from the date of conviction. The petitioner must have no new criminal convictions during the waiting period and must have paid all court-ordered fines and fees.

• Class A through Class C misdemeanors generally qualify
• Misdemeanor convictions for sex offenses, official misconduct, and perjury are excluded
• Multiple misdemeanor convictions can be petitioned together in a single filing

Class D Felony / Level 6 Felony Convictions

Indiana's lowest-tier felonies - formerly Class D, now Level 6 - are eligible after 8 years from the date of conviction or 3 years after the completion of all sentences and probation, whichever is later. These petitions require prosecutorial consent unless the prosecutor declines to object within 30 days.

Higher-Level Felony Convictions

Felonies at Level 5 and above (formerly Class C and above) face more demanding criteria: Learn more about background check reports on our blog.

• Level 5 / Class C felonies: 8 years from conviction or 3 years post-sentence; prosecutorial consent required
• Level 3-4 / Class A-B felonies: 10 years from conviction or 5 years post-sentence; prosecutorial consent required; judge has full discretion to deny
• Violent felonies, sex offenses, felonies resulting in bodily injury to a minor, and official misconduct are categorically excluded
• Murder, rape, child molestation, and human trafficking are not eligible for expungement under Indiana law, so online removal and suppression become the route

The One-Petition Lifetime Limit

Indiana's most important procedural limitation: you may only file one expungement petition in your lifetime. If you have multiple convictions across different counties, you must coordinate the filing of petitions in all relevant counties simultaneously, completing them all within a one-year window. Missing a qualifying conviction means it cannot be expunged later. Consulting with an attorney before filing is strongly advisable for anyone with a complex record.

Why Indiana Court Records Persist Online After Expungement

Indiana's restriction order closes the courthouse door to public access - but it does not reach the dozens of commercial sites that scraped and copied your mycase.in.gov records before the order was entered. Three systems are primarily responsible for persistent online records. For more information, visit the Indiana General Assembly.

mycase.in.gov: Indiana's Public Case Portal

The Indiana Office of Court Technology operates mycase.in.gov, a free public search portal covering all Indiana courts. Employers, landlords, journalists, and data companies routinely search mycase to compile records on individuals.

Once an expungement order is granted, the circuit or superior court where the case was filed notifies the Indiana State Police and instructs the Odyssey case management system (which powers mycase) to restrict public display of the record. This process should occur within days to weeks of the order. You can verify by searching your own name on mycase after a restriction order is granted.

The problem: before the order, data aggregators had already downloaded and stored your case information independently. Restricting mycase does not send a deletion signal to those third-party databases.

Indiana State Police Criminal History Repository

The Indiana State Police (ISP) maintains the central criminal history repository. After a restriction order, ISP must update the record to reflect restricted status. However, private background check companies that license ISP data on a periodic basis - rather than in real-time - may continue to display your record until their next data refresh. Individuals are entitled to request a personal review of their ISP criminal history record at in.gov/isp/2493.htm.

Commercial Data Brokers and Background Check Sites

Sites including Spokeo, BeenVerified, Whitepages, Instant Checkmate, Intelius, US Search, and Radaris compile and sell court record information to the public. These sites have no automatic connection to Indiana's court restriction system. They receive no notification when an expungement order is entered, and they are under no obligation to proactively update their databases.

To remove your Indiana record from these sites, you must submit individual opt-out requests to each platform - a process that can involve 50-300+ separate submissions depending on how widely your record was distributed.

How to Remove Indiana Court Records from Google and Data Brokers

The removal process for Indiana records follows the same three-stage framework as other states: verify the legal record is restricted, clear the commercial data broker copies, then clean the Google index.

Step 1: Confirm mycase.in.gov Access Is Restricted

Before any online removal work begins, search your name on mycase.in.gov to confirm the case record no longer appears in public results. If it still shows, contact the clerk of the court where the expungement was granted and provide the certified order. The clerk must notify the court's Odyssey system administrator to apply the restriction flag.

Step 2: Request Your ISP Criminal History Record

Order a personal criminal history record review from the Indiana State Police to confirm your record reflects restricted status. If an error exists, submit the certified expungement order to ISP with a written correction request. ISP's records unit can be reached through in.gov/isp.

Step 3: Submit Opt-Out Requests to Data Brokers

1. Spokeo: spokeo.com/optout - search your listing, click "Remove this listing," enter your email for confirmation.
2. BeenVerified: optout.beenverified.com - enter your name and Indiana as state, locate the correct profile, submit opt-out. Processing 24-72 hours.
3. Whitepages: whitepages.com/suppression_requests - paste the direct URL to your listing to submit.
4. Intelius / PeopleLooker / TruthFinder: intelius.com/optout - one submission covers the full PeopleConnect family of sites.
5. Instant Checkmate / CheckPeople: instantcheckmate.com/opt-out - provide name, state, date of birth to locate and remove your record.
6. Radaris: radaris.com/page/how-to-remove - requires email verification and may take 7-14 days to process fully.
7. MyLife: mylife.com/ccpa/index.pubview - submit a CCPA-based deletion request. MyLife requires persistent follow-up and may re-populate listings.
8. LexisNexis: risk.lexisnexis.com/consumer-access - submit a suppression request with your expungement order for their enterprise background check product.

Step 4: Use Google's Removal Tools

Once data broker pages are removed, use Google's tools to clear the search index:

• Outdated Content Removal Tool (search.google.com/search-console/remove-outdated-content): Use for pages already removed from the source site that still appear in Google results or Google Cache.
• Personal Information Removal Tool (g.co/removeinfo): Use for live pages that still display your personal court information and the site owner has not removed them despite your request.

Step 5: Address Bing and Alternative Search Engines

Submit a removal request through Bing's Content Removal tool at bing.com/webmaster/tools/contentremoval. Since DuckDuckGo and Yahoo both rely heavily on Bing's index, a successful Bing de-indexing cascades to those platforms as well.