Can a DUI Be Expunged in Utah?

A misdemeanor DUI conviction in Utah can be expunged, but the wait is longer than most people expect, and a felony DUI cannot be expunged unless it is first reduced to a misdemeanor or pardoned. Utah Code 77-40a-303 sets a 10 year waiting period for a misdemeanor DUI, which is more than double the four year period that applies to an ordinary class B misdemeanor. Expungement seals the conviction so it no longer surfaces on standard background checks run by employers, landlords, and licensing boards.

Glen Neeley has handled Utah DUI cases since 1998 and guides clients through expungement once they become eligible. The rules in this area changed again in 2026, and several of the assumptions drivers carry into the process are wrong in ways that cost time: a plea down to impaired driving does not shorten the wait, the clock usually starts later than people think, and DUI is specifically carved out of Utah's automatic expungement program.

The Ten Year Wait Applies to Reduced Charges Too

Utah Code 77-40a-303(1)(c)(i) sets the waiting period at 10 years for a misdemeanor conviction under Subsection 41-6a-501(2). That cross reference is what catches people. Section 41-6a-501(2) does not just mean a DUI conviction under 41-6a-502. It also covers impaired driving under 41-6a-502.5, driving with any measurable controlled substance taken illegally in the body under 41-6a-517, refusal of a chemical test, comparable local ordinances, and any of those offenses whose judgment is later reduced under Utah Code 76-3-402.

The practical consequence is that negotiating a DUI down to impaired driving is often the right outcome for sentencing purposes, because it avoids the mandatory minimums and the interlock requirement, but it does not move you onto the shorter class B misdemeanor expungement track. The wait stays at 10 years either way. That is worth knowing at the plea stage rather than discovering it nine years later.

When the Waiting Period Actually Starts

The 10 years do not run from the date of arrest or the date of the plea. Utah Code 77-40a-303(1)(c) measures the period from the day the petitioner was convicted or released from incarceration, parole, or probation, whichever occurred last. Because Utah DUI sentences routinely carry 12 to 36 months of probation, the clock most often starts on the day probation terminates.

Two payment conditions sit in front of the waiting period as well. Under 77-40a-303(1)(a) and (b), all fines and interest ordered by the court must be paid in full, and all restitution ordered under 77-38b-205 must be paid in full. An unpaid balance does not merely delay the petition, it means eligibility has not attached at all.

This is why an extended probation term matters more than it appears at sentencing. A probation violation that pushes termination out by a year pushes expungement eligibility out by the same year. For a fuller breakdown of how the timing works across offense types, see Utah expungement waiting periods and how long you have to wait to expunge a DUI.

Felony DUI Cannot Be Expunged, With Two Narrow Exceptions

A third-degree felony DUI is not eligible for expungement. Utah Code 77-40a-303(2)(a)(iv) bars a certificate of eligibility where the conviction is a felony conviction described in Subsection 41-6a-501(2). There is no waiting period for felony DUI because there is no track to wait for. The same bar reaches felony automobile homicide under 76-5-207, which 41-6a-501(2) folds into the same definition.

It is also worth being precise about what makes a DUI a felony. Under 41-6a-502(2)(c), a DUI is a third-degree felony if the driver has two or more prior convictions within 10 years, or if the current conviction comes at any time after a prior felony DUI. That second path has no time limit attached to it, so a felony DUI from decades earlier still elevates a new charge.

Two routes can restore eligibility. If the felony is reduced to a misdemeanor under Utah Code 76-3-402, it is no longer a felony conviction and the 10 year misdemeanor track applies. A pardon from the Board of Pardons and Parole also reopens expungement. Both are difficult and neither is automatic, but a felony DUI is better described as ineligible as it stands than as permanently beyond reach.

Your Wider Criminal History Can Disqualify an Eligible DUI

Meeting the waiting period on the DUI itself is only half the analysis. Utah Code 77-40a-303(4) disqualifies a petitioner whose criminal history, counting previously expunged convictions, contains two or more felony convictions in separate criminal episodes, or any combination of three or more convictions that includes two class A misdemeanors, or any combination of four or more convictions that includes three class B misdemeanors, or five or more convictions of any degree. Every one of those counts excludes drug possession offenses, which Utah Code 77-40a-303(5) governs separately.

Two details in that provision are commonly misread. The counts run on separate criminal episodes rather than individual charges, so several offenses arising from one incident count once. And the statute expressly counts convictions you already had expunged, which means a prior expungement does not clear the slate for eligibility purposes.

Utah Code 77-40a-303(7) softens this over time. Once 10 years have passed for all convictions, the numerical limits for felonies and class A misdemeanors each increase by one, and the class B and total-conviction limits stop applying where the highest offense in the episode is a class B misdemeanor or lower. If you are carrying more than one conviction, see expungement with multiple offenses for how the sequencing works.

Clean Slate Automatic Expungement Does Not Reach DUI

Utah runs an automatic expungement program, often called Clean Slate, under Utah Code 77-40a-205. It clears qualifying cases without a petition. DUI is not one of them. Section 77-40a-205(3)(f)(vi) excludes any offense under Title 41, Chapter 6a, Part 5, which is the entire Driving Under the Influence and Reckless Driving part of the traffic code, and 77-40a-205(3)(f)(ix) closes the same door for a DUI charged under the pre-2005 version of the statute.

That exclusion covers impaired driving and reckless driving as well, so a reduced charge does not slip into the automatic program either. Waiting for a DUI to clear itself is not a strategy that works. Every DUI expungement in Utah runs through the petition process described below.

How the Petition Process Works

The process starts at the Bureau of Criminal Identification. You apply for a certificate of eligibility, and BCI reviews your criminal history against the statutory criteria. If BCI issues the certificate, Utah Code 77-40a-304(2)(b)(i) makes it valid for 180 days from the day it is issued. If it expires before you file, you have to request a new one.

With a valid certificate, you file a petition for expungement with the court that entered the conviction. The prosecuting attorney and any victim receive notice and have an opportunity to respond. If nobody objects, the court can grant the expungement without a hearing. If there is an objection, the court sets a hearing. Utah Code 77-40a-306(1) then requires the court to find by clear and convincing evidence that the statutory requirements are met and that the interests of the public would not be harmed by granting the expungement.

BCI charges a state application fee and a separate issuance fee for each certificate, and both are the same anywhere in Utah. The court charges its own filing fee on top of that, and it is not the same in every court: the fee set for district court differs from the fee set for justice court, so the number depends on which court handled your case. Confirm current figures with BCI and with that court before you budget for the process.

Once the order issues, agencies holding the record seal it. Glen Neeley handles the eligibility review first, because a common reason a petition fails is an incomplete sentence: an unpaid balance, outstanding restitution, or a probation term that was extended and never formally closed.

What Expungement Does Not Reach

Expungement seals the criminal record. It does not reach your driving record. The Driver License Division maintains DUI-related administrative actions separately from the criminal case, and a sealed conviction does not remove the DUI notation the DLD holds. Insurers rate from driving records rather than criminal records, so expungement generally does not undo the premium increase. See how a DUI affects your driver's license for how that separate track works.

Federal records are not controlled by a Utah court order. A DUI prosecuted in federal court, on a military base, or in a national park cannot be expunged under Utah law, and a conviction from another state has to be addressed under that state's law. Utah courts cannot expunge an out-of-state conviction even for a current Utah resident.

News coverage, previously public court records, and online references created before the order are also outside its reach. Utah's expungement statute does not require private parties to take down material they already published. If you are weighing expungement against other options, expungement compared with record sealing sets out the differences.

What Clearing the Record Changes

Employment screening is where a sealed DUI makes the most difference. Standard background checks stop surfacing the conviction, and in most circumstances you can answer that you have not been convicted of the offense. Healthcare, education, transportation, financial services, and government roles in Utah commonly run criminal history reviews, and some employers in those fields treat a DUI as disqualifying well after the sentence is served.

Professional licensing boards review criminal history at initial licensure and at renewal. A sealed conviction is not reportable in most licensing contexts, which reopens paths that were closed. How a DUI affects professional licenses covers the boards that ask and what they do with the answer.

Housing applications increasingly include criminal background checks, and property managers use them to screen tenants. College and graduate admissions questions about criminal history are affected the same way. None of this changes the underlying penalties a DUI conviction carries while it is on your record, which is the argument for handling the original case as well as it can be handled.

Utah DUI Expungement Questions

Find Out Whether Your DUI Can Be Expunged

Glen Neeley reviews eligibility before you spend anything on the process, so you know whether the waiting period has run, whether your wider record disqualifies you, and what the realistic timeline looks like.