Rhode Island Expungement Fees and Court Costs

Rhode Island expungement fees are lower than most people expect, because the court itself charges nothing. The $100 filing fee that used to sit in R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-1.3-3 was struck from the statute effective July 3, 2021, so there is no fee to file a motion to expunge and no fee when the judge grants it. What you will pay for is a certified criminal record from the Attorney General's office, which costs $5 and is waived for anyone 62 or older or disabled, plus lawyer time and any fine or restitution balance still sitting on the old docket. Bank & Munns, a Providence criminal defense firm with 1,300+ five-star Google reviews, files expungement motions across Rhode Island and explains every cost before anything is filed. Call 401-573-2265 for a free consultation.

Quick answer: There is no court fee to file an expungement motion in Rhode Island and none when the order is granted. The General Assembly removed the old $100 fee from R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-1.3-3 in 2021, and sealing a non-conviction record is free as well. The only routine out-of-pocket cost is a certified BCI criminal record from the Attorney General's office, $5, waived for anyone 62 or older or disabled. Beyond that, budget for lawyer fees, certified copies of the judgment if your lawyer wants them, and any fines, costs, or restitution still owed on the case, because a judge will not clear a record with money outstanding. Eligibility waits are 5 years for a misdemeanor and 10 years for a single felony under § 12-1.3-2.

Rhode Island Expungement Fees

The total cost of an expungement in Rhode Island comes from four places: the Attorney General's records office, the balance left on the original case, the lawyer you hire, and the small collateral costs of getting to court. The court's own share is zero. Most people who call us assume the filing fee is the big number, and it is a relief to hear that it does not exist anymore.

Why the court fee is zero

Until 2021, R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-1.3-3 required a $100 fee for every motion to expunge, payable to the clerk of the court that heard the case. The General Assembly struck that language in two companion bills, P.L. 2021 ch. 141 and ch. 142, and the change took effect on July 3, 2021. Since that date there is no fee to file, no fee at the hearing, and no fee when the order is entered. The same is true of sealing a non-conviction record, such as a dismissal, an acquittal, or a case the Attorney General declined to charge. Nothing is owed to the clerk at any point.

That also means the old hardship waiver is gone, because there is nothing left to waive. If a form, a website, or a clerk's handout still mentions a $100 fee, it is out of date.

The $5 BCI record

The one routine cost is the certified criminal record from the Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Identification, usually called a BCI. It costs $5 and requires photo identification. The fee is waived for people 62 or older and for people with a disability. You need it because the motion has to account for everything on your record, and a BCI is the only document that shows every Rhode Island case in one place, including the arrest that was dismissed in 2011 that you forgot about. A lawyer will not file without one.

Lawyer fees

Bank & Munns does not publish prices online. The work varies too much. In Rhode Island, a single eligible misdemeanor with a clean docket commonly runs a few hundred dollars in lawyer fees, and a felony motion with a contested eligibility question, an objection from the Attorney General, or records that have to be reconstructed from several courts commonly runs into four figures. A person clearing several cases at once often pays less per case than a person clearing one. What you should expect from any lawyer is a written explanation of what the fee covers, whether it includes pulling the BCI and the certified judgment, and whether a second appearance is included if the hearing gets continued.

Collateral costs

These are small but real. Certified copies of the judgment and docket from the clerk cost a few dollars per page, and a record spread across three courts means three clerks. The hearing itself is in person in most courts, which means a morning off work, parking in Providence, or a drive to Warwick, Wakefield, or Newport. If the state objects and the judge continues the matter, that is a second morning. None of it is large. All of it adds up when the motion is not done right the first time.

What you still owe on the old case

This is where the real money hides. Before a judge will expunge a conviction, the sentence has to be fully completed, and that means every fine, court cost, assessment, and restitution order paid in full. A $500 balance from a decade ago can sit on the docket unnoticed until the expungement hearing, and the state will raise it. Pull the docket before you file so you know the number. Clerks can usually take a payment on the spot or set a short schedule.

The cost of getting it wrong

Since there is no filing fee, a denied motion does not cost you money at the clerk's window. It costs you in other ways. The denial appears on the docket. You wait for a new hearing date, which in Providence can be 90 days out. You take another morning off work. And if the denial came at the good-moral-character stage, where the judge found you eligible but was not persuaded that expungement serves the public interest, the second motion has to answer whatever the judge or the Attorney General said the first time, which is harder than filing clean to begin with.

7 Things to Know About Rhode Island Expungement Fees

1. The court charges nothing. The $100 fee in R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-1.3-3 was eliminated effective July 3, 2021. There is no fee to file and none when the motion is granted.
2. Sealing is free too. A non-conviction record, such as a dismissal or acquittal, is sealed without any court fee.
3. The BCI is $5. A certified criminal record from the Attorney General's office is the one routine cost, and it is waived for people 62 or older or disabled.
4. Unpaid fines block expungement. Every fine, cost, and restitution order on the case has to be satisfied first, and that balance is often the biggest cost.
5. Lawyer fees vary with the record. In Rhode Island a single clean misdemeanor commonly runs a few hundred dollars, and a contested felony motion more.
6. Some records cost nothing and need no motion. A case filed under R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-10-12 seals itself after the one-year filing period, and past cannabis possession charges were made eligible for automatic clearing under the Cannabis Act.
7. A denied motion costs time, not money. Filing before the waiting period runs, or in the wrong court, means a denial on the docket, a new hearing date, and another morning off work.

Eligibility Waits That Drive the Timeline

Costs matter only if you qualify, and the waiting periods in R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-1.3-2 decide that. They run from the completion of the sentence, which includes probation and parole, not from the date of arrest, and getting that start date wrong is the most common reason a motion gets denied.

• Misdemeanor: 5 years after the sentence is completed, with no new convictions in that time.
• Single felony: 10 years after the sentence is completed, with no new convictions in that time.
• Two, three, or four non-violent felonies: since June 22, 2026, a person with more than one but fewer than five non-violent felony convictions may petition to expunge them 15 years after completing the last sentence, including probation and parole, subject to the good-moral-character finding and an Attorney General objection at the hearing. Five or more felonies remain ineligible.
• Multiple misdemeanors, no felonies: up to five misdemeanor convictions may be expunged after 10 years, but that path excludes DUI, chemical test refusal, and domestic violence convictions.
• Deferred sentence: a case resolved by a deferred sentence agreement under R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-19-19 can be expunged once the deferral period is completed without a violation, without waiting the full 5 or 10 years.
• Filed cases: a one-year filing under § 12-10-12 is sealed automatically when the year ends with no violation.
• DUI and chemical test refusal: never eligible at any offense level under § 12-1.3-2; a pardon is the only route. A DUI charge that was dismissed or resolved as reckless driving is different and can be expunged like any other non-conviction or misdemeanor.
• Crimes of violence: the offenses defined in § 12-1.3-1 (murder, manslaughter, robbery, burglary, first and second degree sexual assault, child molestation, and others) cannot be expunged, and the 2026 amendments added eight more permanent exclusions, including DUI resulting in death, child abuse, child endangerment, and cruelty to or neglect of a child.

The full list is long. If you are not sure which group your conviction falls into, that is the first question to settle, because it determines whether you should be spending anything at all right now.

How an Expungement Motion Actually Works in Court

The process is the same in both courts. Whether the conviction came out of District Court or Superior Court, the motion follows the steps below, and it moves quickly when the paperwork is right and nothing is owed on the docket.

1. Pull the record. Get the $5 BCI from the Attorney General so nothing is missed, and the certified judgment and docket for every case you want cleared. Pay any balance the docket shows.
2. Confirm eligibility. Match each conviction against § 12-1.3-2: how many felonies, misdemeanor or felony, waiting period run, no crime of violence or 2026 exclusion, no pending charges anywhere.
3. File the motion. The motion to expunge and a supporting affidavit go to the clerk of the court that entered the conviction. There is no filing fee. The clerk assigns a hearing date.
4. Give notice. Under § 12-1.3-3, the person filing must notify the Department of the Attorney General and the police department that brought the charge of the hearing date. Skipping this step gets the motion passed or denied.
5. Attend the hearing. The judge has to find that no criminal proceeding is pending, that you have shown good moral character since the conviction, that you are rehabilitated, and that expungement is consistent with the public interest. The state can object. Most uncontested motions take a few minutes.
6. Order goes out. If granted, the clerk sends the order to the police department, the Attorney General, and the state's record repository, and the record is removed from public view. The court keeps a sealed copy. Nothing is owed for the order.

Under R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-1.3-4, once the record is expunged you may lawfully say you were never convicted, with narrow exceptions for applications to become a lawyer, a police officer, a teacher, or a childcare or elder-care worker, and for sentencing if you are ever convicted again.

Why a Cheap Motion Can Cost More

People sometimes file on their own to save the lawyer fee and end up spending more in time and delay. The usual failures are avoidable. A motion filed before the waiting period runs is denied. A motion filed in District Court for a case that was transferred to Superior Court goes nowhere. A motion filed without notice to the Attorney General gets continued, sometimes more than once. A hearing where the judge asks about an unpaid fine that nobody checked ends with a denial and an instruction to come back, and each of those mistakes adds a day off work, a denial on the docket, and months of delay.

A Rhode Island expungement lawyer earns the fee by making sure the motion is filed once, in the right court, at the right time, with the record already clean of balances and the state already notified. When the Attorney General objects, which happens more often on felony motions and on cases with a victim, having someone who can argue rehabilitation and public interest on the record matters. A clean first filing keeps the expungement timeline short. Filing to order is usually a few weeks to a couple of months.

Related Reading

• Rhode Island expungement lawyer
• Rhode Island expungement timeline
• Convictions That Cannot Be Expunged in Rhode Island
• Rhode Island misdemeanor defense lawyer
• Rhode Island felony defense lawyer
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Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to file for expungement in Rhode Island?

Nothing at the courthouse. Rhode Island eliminated the court filing fee for expungement motions effective July 3, 2021, when the General Assembly struck the fee language from R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-1.3-3, and there is no fee when the motion is granted either. The one routine cost is the certified BCI criminal record from the Attorney General's office, which is $5 and is waived for people 62 or older or disabled. Beyond that, plan for certified copies of the judgment and docket if your lawyer wants them, lawyer fees, and the full payment of any fine, court cost, or restitution still owed on the case, since a judge will not expunge a conviction with money outstanding. Clearing more than one docket number means more than one motion and more than one hearing, but still no court fee for any of them.

Do I still have to pay the $100 expungement fee?

No. The $100 fee was removed from the statute in 2021 by P.L. 2021 ch. 141 and ch. 142, and it has not been charged since July 3 of that year. Because there is no fee, there is nothing to waive, so the old hardship motion that people used to file alongside an expungement motion is no longer part of the process. Sealing a non-conviction record, such as a dismissed charge or an acquittal, is free as well. If you see the $100 figure on a form, a clerk's handout, or another website, it is out of date. The only thing you will be asked to pay for is the $5 BCI from the Attorney General's office, and that is waived for anyone 62 or older or disabled.

Do I have to pay off old fines before I can expunge a Rhode Island conviction?

Yes. Expungement under R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-1.3-2 requires that the sentence be completed, and the sentence includes every fine, cost, assessment, and restitution order the court imposed. An unpaid balance is the most common reason an otherwise eligible motion gets denied or continued. The amount is often larger than every other expungement cost combined, especially on older cases where interest or collection fees may have been added. Before filing, pull the docket sheet from the clerk and check for a balance. If one exists, pay it or set up a payment arrangement and get written confirmation. Bring that confirmation to the hearing. Once the balance is at zero, the waiting period is measured from the date the sentence was actually completed, which can be later than the sentencing date itself.

How long do I have to wait before I can file?

Under R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-1.3-2, a misdemeanor can be expunged 5 years after the sentence is completed, and a single felony after 10 years, in each case with no new convictions during the wait and no charges pending. Since June 22, 2026, a person with two, three, or four non-violent felony convictions may petition to expunge them 15 years after completing the last sentence, including probation and parole, subject to the good-moral-character finding and any objection from the Attorney General. A person with more than one misdemeanor and no felonies may clear up to five of them after 10 years. A deferred sentence under § 12-19-19 can be expunged as soon as the deferral period ends without a violation. The clock starts when the sentence is fully served, including probation and payment of fines, not at arrest or at the plea. Counting from the wrong date leads to a denied motion, so confirm the completion date on the certified judgment before you file.

Does a lawyer charge a flat fee for expungement in Rhode Island?

Many do, for a single straightforward motion. The amount depends on the work, and Bank & Munns does not publish prices because every record is different. In Rhode Island, a single misdemeanor with a clean docket and no objection from the state commonly runs a few hundred dollars in lawyer fees. A felony motion with a contested eligibility question, an Attorney General objection, or records spread across several courts commonly runs into four figures, and a multiple-felony petition on the new 15-year track is closer to a contested hearing than a paperwork job. When you compare quotes, ask three things: whether the BCI and the certified copies are included, whether a second court appearance is covered if the hearing is continued, and whether the lawyer will check for unpaid balances before filing. A quote that leaves those out is not comparable to one that includes them.

Are there Rhode Island records that clear without any cost at all?

Yes. A misdemeanor placed on a one-year filing under R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-10-12 is sealed automatically when the year ends without a violation, and no motion is required. Past civil and criminal cannabis possession charges were made eligible for automatic expungement when Rhode Island legalized adult-use cannabis in 2022, so a simple possession record may already be cleared or may be cleared without a motion. A case that ended in dismissal or acquittal is sealed under the rules for non-conviction records, and that is free too. If you are not sure whether your record has already been cleared, a $5 BCI report will show what is still visible, and that is a cheap way to find out before doing anything else.

What happens if my expungement motion is denied?

You lose time, not money. There is no court fee, so nothing is forfeited at the clerk's window, but the denial appears on the docket and you start over with a new hearing date, another notice to the Attorney General and the police, and another morning in court. If the motion was denied because the waiting period had not run, you can refile once it has. If it was denied on the merits after an objection from the state, the judge's reasons matter, because a finding on good moral character or the public interest has to be answered in the next motion, and some problems can be fixed while others cannot. A denial does not bar you from filing again later, but it costs another hearing date and more months with the record public. Getting it right the first time is the single largest cost saving available in this process.