Mississippi Expungement, Sealing & Court Record Removal

Mississippi's Expungement Law - What It Covers and What It Doesn't

Mississippi's expungement statutes - primarily Miss. Code § 99-15-26 (non-convictions) and Miss. Code § 99-19-71 (certain conviction records) - provide significantly more limited relief than most other states. Understanding the specific categories of eligibility is critical because Mississippi has not enacted broad "clean slate" reforms.

When Mississippi expungement is granted, the record is expunged from the court file and from the Mississippi Department of Public Safety criminal history repository. The case should be removed from public access. You may generally deny the expunged arrest or conviction in most civilian contexts. Learn more about expungement vs. record sealing on our blog.

What expungement does not do is update Google, data broker websites, or any third-party platform that independently indexed the record from courts.ms.gov or other public sources before the expungement order was entered.

Expungement Eligibility in Mississippi

Mississippi's eligibility rules are among the most restrictive in the country. Confirming your eligibility before investing time and money in a petition is essential. For more information, visit the Mississippi Courts.

Non-Conviction Expungement - Miss. Code § 99-15-26

If you were arrested or charged but the case did not result in a conviction - because charges were dismissed, you were acquitted, the DA declined to prosecute, or you successfully completed a pre-trial diversion program - you may petition for expungement of the arrest record after a one-year waiting period. The petition is filed in the circuit court of the county where the arrest or charge originated.

First-Offense Misdemeanor Expungement - Miss. Code § 99-19-71

First-offense misdemeanor convictions are eligible for expungement after a five-year waiting period following sentence completion, provided there are no subsequent convictions. The offense must be a true first offense - if you have any prior misdemeanor or felony conviction, this provision does not apply. The petition is filed in the circuit or county court where the conviction occurred.

Limited Felony Expungement - Miss. Code § 99-19-71

Mississippi provides very limited felony expungement for certain first-offense, non-violent felony convictions after a five-year waiting period. The offense must not be a crime of violence (as defined in Mississippi law), a sex offense, a DUI conviction, or a drug trafficking offense. The applicant must have had no subsequent convictions. Because the eligible categories are narrow, many Mississippi felony convictions do not qualify under any current statute.

Why Mississippi Court Records Persist Online After Expungement

Mississippi expungement removes the record from official government systems - but the online ecosystem operates independently and is not updated by court orders. For more information, visit the Mississippi Legislature.

courts.ms.gov - Mississippi Court Portal

The Mississippi judiciary provides public access to court records through courts.ms.gov. After expungement, the record should be sealed from public access on the portal. However, data brokers that scraped courts.ms.gov before the expungement order was entered have already indexed the data, and they retain it until separately contacted.

Mississippi Department of Public Safety

The Mississippi Department of Public Safety maintains the state's criminal history repository. After expungement, the court notifies DPS, which should update its records. Background checks run through DPS after the update should no longer return the expunged record. However, commercial background check companies that maintain independent databases from prior public record scrapes are not automatically updated. Learn more about court record removal on our blog.

CourtListener and Legal Aggregators

CourtListener indexes published opinions from the Mississippi Court of Appeals and Mississippi Supreme Court. If your case generated a published appellate decision, that record persists independently. Appellate opinions are permanent legal records that are not affected by trial court expungement orders. Learn more about background check reports on our blog.

Data Broker Sites

Spokeo, BeenVerified, Intelius, TruthFinder, and other commercial data brokers compile criminal history profiles from courts.ms.gov and other public sources. Each must be individually contacted with an opt-out request. For Mississippi residents without an expungement order - whose felony records are not eligible for expungement - data broker opt-outs are the most important practical step available.

How to Remove Mississippi Court Records from Google and Data Broker Sites

Whether or not expungement is available, the following steps address the online dimension of your record. For Mississippi residents without an expungement order, steps 3–5 are the primary available strategies.

1. 1
   Determine whether your record is eligible for expungement
   Review Miss. Code § 99-15-26 (non-convictions) and § 99-19-71 (conviction expungement) against your specific record. If your charge was dismissed or you were acquitted, non-conviction expungement is likely available. If you have a first-offense misdemeanor or a narrow first-offense non-violent felony, conviction expungement may be possible. For most other felonies, consult a Mississippi criminal defense attorney to confirm no legal pathway exists before focusing solely on online strategies.
2. 2
   Confirm courts.ms.gov has updated if expungement was obtained
   Search courts.ms.gov for your name and case number. If the case still appears 60 days after your expungement order was signed, contact the circuit court clerk to escalate the update to the public portal. Also follow up with the Mississippi Department of Public Safety to confirm the criminal history record has been updated.
3. 3
   Audit all URLs showing your record in Google
   Search Google for your full name combined with county, charge type, and year. Document every URL - courts.ms.gov pages, data broker profiles, CourtListener, Justia, news articles, mugshot sites. This list is your removal work queue regardless of whether expungement was obtained.
4. 4
   Submit comprehensive data broker opt-out requests
   Submit opt-out requests to Spokeo, BeenVerified, Intelius, TruthFinder, PeopleFinder, Whitepages, and all other aggregators showing your record. For Mississippi residents with an expungement order, include that documentation. For those without, submit as standard privacy opt-outs. Re-check all sites at 90-day intervals.
5. 5
   Use Google's Personal Information Removal Tool
   Submit Google Personal Information Removal Tool requests for any URLs in search results referencing your record. For pages already restricted at the source, use the outdated content removal tool at removals.google.com. For records that cannot be removed from their source, a content suppression strategy - creating new positive online content - can reduce the search ranking of court record results over time.

Frequently Asked Questions - Mississippi Court Records

More Resources on Court Record Removal

Understanding your options means looking at the full picture - legal relief, online removal, and what actually shows up on background checks. These guides cover the details:

• Expungement vs. Record Sealing - What's the Difference? - How the two forms of legal relief differ in scope, accessibility, and effect on background checks.
• Can Court Records Be Removed? - A frank breakdown of what can and cannot be removed from public record systems.
• How Court Records Appear on Background Checks - Why some records show up even after legal relief, and how to address each source.
• How to Remove Court Records from Spokeo - Step-by-step guide for one of the most common data broker sources.

Official Mississippi Court Record Resources

Use these authoritative sources to understand Mississippi expungement eligibility under Miss. Code §99-15-26 and §99-19-71. Always verify current statute language with the court or a licensed attorney.

• Mississippi Courts (courts.ms.gov) - Official portal for court locations, case information, and expungement petition guidance.
• Mississippi Legislature (legislature.ms.gov) - Full text of Miss. Code §99-15-26 (non-conviction expungement) and §99-19-71 (first-offense misdemeanor expungement).
• U.S. Federal Courts (uscourts.gov) - Federal court records are not affected by Mississippi state expungement orders.
• FTC: What to Know About Background Checks - Consumer guidance on background check companies and your rights under the FCRA.