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Vermont House advances bill shifting record clearance toward sealing with limits on access
Summary
The House advanced H.655, a measure to streamline criminal record clearance by favoring sealing over expungement, expand qualifying offenses mostly to misdemeanors, and set waiting periods (misdemeanors: 3 years; most felonies: 7 years; some DUIs: 10 years); the bill was amended in committee and ordered to third reading.
Representative Dolan (Member from Essex Junction) presented H.655, saying the bill moves Vermont from a two-track system of expungement and sealing to a primarily sealing-based approach that balances removing collateral barriers with preserving records needed for specific criminal-justice and licensing purposes.
The measure would expand the list of qualifying crimes (primarily misdemeanors and a limited set of nonviolent felonies), allow limited access to sealed records for certain entities for up to 10 years, and provide that after the limited-access period some records will be fully sealed. Under the bill, qualifying misdemeanors generally require at least three years to…
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