New Mexico Expungement, Sealing & Court Record Removal

New Mexico's Expanded Expungement Law - What Changed in 2019

Before 2019, New Mexico offered almost no expungement for conviction records. The 2019 legislation - now codified at NMSA § 29-3A-1 et seq. - created a comprehensive expungement framework that covers a wide range of non-violent offenses after waiting periods tied to offense severity.

New Mexico expungement, when granted, results in:

• Sealing of the court record from public access on nmcourts.gov
• Notification of the New Mexico Department of Public Safety to seal the criminal history record
• The legal right to deny the conviction in most private employment and licensing contexts

What expungement does not do:

• Remove copies already cached by Google, data brokers, or third-party aggregators
• Affect federal records or FBI criminal history
• Apply to DWI, violent offenses, sexual offenses, or crimes against children

Who Is Eligible for Expungement in New Mexico?

Eligibility under the 2019 law requires meeting the waiting period and offense-type requirements, as well as satisfying general conditions at the time of petition. Learn more about Spokeo removal on our blog.

Misdemeanor Expungement

For petty misdemeanor convictions, the waiting period is one year after final discharge from all conditions of the sentence. For misdemeanors, it is two years. General requirements include:

• All fines, fees, restitution, and other conditions of sentence must be satisfied
• No pending criminal charges in any jurisdiction at the time of petition
• No subsequent conviction for a felony or misdemeanor during the waiting period
• The offense must not be among the categorically excluded offenses

Felony Expungement

New Mexico's 2019 law made felony expungement available for the first time on a broad basis. For felony petitions:

• The waiting period ranges from 4 years (4th degree) to 10 years (1st degree) from discharge
• The offense must be non-violent and not among the excluded categories
• No subsequent felony conviction during the waiting period
• The court retains discretion to deny the petition based on public safety considerations

Excluded offenses under § 29-3A-4(E) include: DWI convictions, sexual offenses, homicide offenses, crimes against children, human trafficking, and any offense where the victim was a household member. These categories fall outside the expungement statute regardless of time elapsed, so the route for them runs through online removal, de-indexing and suppression.

Why New Mexico Records Persist Online After Expungement

New Mexico expungement seals the official record - but the online footprint from the period when the record was publicly accessible does not automatically disappear. Each source must be addressed separately.

NMCourts Case Lookup (nmcourts.gov)

New Mexico's public court case search portal at nmcourts.gov is the primary public-facing court records tool. After an expungement order is granted and processed, the case should be restricted from this portal. Processing delays between the district court and the statewide case management system mean the case may remain visible for several weeks after the order is signed. The Department of Public Safety must also be separately notified.

New Mexico Department of Public Safety Criminal History

The NM DPS maintains the state criminal history database. The court's expungement order must be served on the DPS, which then updates the criminal history record. Employers conducting state criminal history checks through DPS should no longer see the record once the update is processed. However, federal criminal history through the FBI is not affected by New Mexico state expungement orders.

CourtListener and Legal Research Platforms

CourtListener indexes New Mexico Court of Appeals and Supreme Court opinions. If your case generated a published appellate decision, that opinion may appear in CourtListener, Google Scholar, and Justia independently of the trial court expungement. Published opinions are legal precedent documents - removal requests often work best when accompanied by a court order specifically directing the publisher to remove or restrict the content.

Data Broker Sites

Spokeo, BeenVerified, Intelius, TruthFinder, and similar aggregators indexed your record from the nmcourts.gov portal before the expungement order was entered. After expungement, the portal restricts new access - but these sites retain their historical data. Each must be individually contacted with opt-out requests and documentation of the expungement order.

How to Remove New Mexico Court Records from Google and Data Broker Sites

After obtaining a New Mexico expungement, the following steps address the online dimension of your record. We evaluate each source and pursue removal where it is realistically achievable.

1. 1
   Obtain your expungement order and serve the DPS
   File your petition in the appropriate New Mexico court. After the court grants the expungement, serve the order on the New Mexico Department of Public Safety and confirm the state criminal history record has been updated. Obtain certified copies of the expungement order for use in data broker removal requests.
2. 2
   Verify nmcourts.gov is updated
   Search the NMCourts case lookup portal for your name and case number to confirm the case is restricted from public view. If the case still appears after the expungement order is processed, contact the clerk of the court of conviction to trigger the portal update.
3. 3
   Audit all URLs showing your record in Google
   Search Google with your full name, county or city, charge type, and year in various combinations. Document every URL returning a result - nmcourts.gov, CourtListener, Justia, data broker sites, and any local news coverage. This URL inventory is your removal work queue.
4. 4
   Submit data broker opt-out requests with expungement documentation
   Submit opt-out requests to all major data brokers displaying your record. Include a copy of the expungement order where accepted - many platforms offer expedited processing for expungement-documented requests. Re-check each site in 90 days and re-submit as needed.
5. 5
   Contact legal databases if your case appears there
   If your case appears on CourtListener or Justia, contact these platforms directly with documentation of the expungement order. CourtListener typically de-indexes records from expunged or sealed state court proceedings when provided with documentation. Justia's policy varies by content type.
6. 6
   Use Google's removal tools for de-indexed source pages
   After source pages are restricted or removed, submit requests through Google's Personal Information Removal Tool for URLs referencing the expunged record. Use Google's outdated content removal tool (removals.google.com) to de-cache pages that have been restricted at the source but still appear in Google's index.