February 19, 2025
Virginia’s General Assembly is considering legislation to delay the implementation of the state’s expungement law. Currently, it appears likely that legislators will pass the delay. These changes would provide localities additional time to process the mandated expungements required under a 2021 law.
The companion bills SB1466 and HB2723 comprise the legislation that would update the 2021 law’s mandated automatic expungement process. According to lawmakers, these bills would give localities an additional 12 months for the required changes. As such, they have received strong support from state lawmakers.
These bills would ease the burden on counties and cities mandated to process expungements. The bills would extend the deadline for making the required changes to July 1, 2026. According to lawmakers, this extended deadline would help the many localities that have struggled with complying with the 2021 law’s mandated changes.
This expansion also requires local courts to automatically seal certain criminal records dating back to 1960. These include non-conviction records, such as deferred, acquitted, or dismissed cases. Other records included by the legislation include non-violent misdemeanors, such as trespassing, shoplifting, and other low-level offenses. This legislation would seal these convictions after the impacted individuals refrained from further convictions for seven years.
Furthermore, these bills would expand the number of records eligible for expungement by petition. The petition-based expungement process has already gone into effect. Some localities have already taken steps to handle the surge in expungement requests despite the 2021 law not requiring courts to create automatic record-sealing systems until July 1, 2025.
This time frame gave localities the time to set up procedures and infrastructure for processing the records eligible for sealing. However, reorganizing the procedures and infrastructure would come with high costs. These costs include hiring additional staff to help identify and process these expungements and upgrading existing technology.
Implementing SB1466 and HB2723 would accomplish more than extending the implementation date by 12 months. It would also reduce how many records local courts need to clear manually. Furthermore, the legislation would reduce how long it takes to seal records automatically. Finally, the two bills would have local courts seal records dating back to 1986 and no further.
Lawmakers have acknowledged that these changes would not entirely remove the issues courts face with implementing new procedures and reorganizing infrastructure. However, the bills would provide more time and reduce the number of records local courts need to clear. Many legislators have offered strong support because these changes would address the issues.