Does completing ARD automatically clear my record?

No. Completing ARD leads to a dismissal of the charges, but a separate expungement petition has to be filed and granted before the arrest record is actually purged from Pennsylvania State Police and court records.

Who files the ARD expungement petition?

In some counties the district attorney's office or ARD unit initiates it as a matter of routine; in others, it's expected that the defendant's attorney files it after the dismissal order is entered. Don't assume it happened without confirming.

Is there a deadline to file for ARD expungement?

No statute of limitations bars filing years after ARD completion. The record simply stays visible on background checks until the petition is filed and granted, however long that takes.

Does ARD expungement remove a DUI from my driving record too?

No. Expunging the criminal court record does not remove PennDOT's separate notation of the ARD acceptance, which PennDOT and prosecutors continue to count for the § 3806 look-back period on any future DUI charge.

What if I still owe fines or supervision fees?

Most counties won't process an expungement petition until ARD costs, fines, and any restitution are fully paid and reflected as closed in the court's system, so it's worth confirming the account balance is at zero before filing.

How long does ARD expungement take once filed?

Timelines vary by county, but it commonly takes a few months from filing to a signed order, and then additional time for Pennsylvania State Police and the FBI to process the purge on their end.

Can I check whether an old ARD case was ever expunged?

Yes — ordering a certified Pennsylvania State Police criminal-history report is the most reliable way to confirm whether a prior ARD case was actually expunged or is still sitting on your record.

Expungements & Pardons · ARD Expungement

Completing ARD is not the same as having your record cleared.

Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition ends most cases the way people want — no conviction, charges dismissed, no jail. But dismissal and expungement are two different court events. Once the district attorney's office confirms you completed every ARD condition and moves to dismiss, someone still has to file a petition asking the court to order Pennsylvania State Police, the county clerk of courts, and the FBI to purge the arrest record. Nothing happens automatically. I handle ARD expungement petitions across Dauphin, Cumberland, York, and Adams counties, and the mechanics — and the timing — differ enough county to county that it's worth understanding before you assume your record is already clean.

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How the remedy works

Expungement After Successful ARD Completion.

Authority: Pa.R.Crim.P. 320[1][2]

Record relief, in context

ARD completion is the easy part — the expungement petition is the step that actually clears the record, and it's worth confirming it was done even years after your case closed.

expungement & pardon lawyer · pardon vs. expungement · DUI expungement

Pa.R.Crim.P. 320 sets out the procedure: on satisfactory completion of the ARD program, the attorney for the Commonwealth moves the court to dismiss the charges. That dismissal order is the trigger, but it is not itself an expungement order. A separate expungement petition — usually filed by the defendant's attorney immediately after the dismissal, sometimes bundled into the same filing by local practice — asks the court to direct expungement of the arrest record under 18 Pa.C.S. § 9122(a), which makes expungement of a completed ARD case mandatory once the underlying charges are dismissed.

Because § 9122(a) treats an ARD dismissal as one of the categories where expungement is not discretionary, the fight in most of these cases isn't over eligibility — it's over paperwork getting filed and processed correctly and promptly. Some counties have the DA's office or the ARD unit initiate the expungement petition as a matter of course when a defendant completes the program; others expect defense counsel to file it. Assuming the court did it for you, when your county doesn't work that way, is how people find out years later that an ARD case is still sitting on a criminal-history report.

DUI ARD has an added wrinkle that non-DUI ARD does not: even after the criminal court record is expunged, PennDOT keeps its own record of the ARD acceptance for purposes of the look-back period under 75 Pa.C.S. § 3806. That statute counts a completed ARD acceptance the same as a prior conviction when determining whether a new DUI is a first, second, or subsequent offense within the relevant window. Expungement clears the criminal history; it does not erase the DUI-specific driving record PennDOT keeps for grading purposes.

Costs are modest but real — filing fees, service on the district attorney, and in some counties a hearing — and most counties will not expunge until supervision, fines, and any restitution are fully satisfied and the dismissal order is entered. Filing early, before every condition has posted in the county's system, is a common cause of avoidable delay.

Eligibility at a glance

What qualifies — and what does not.

Expungement After Successful ARD Completion: eligibility categories under Pa.R.Crim.P. 320
Situation	What the law allows	Condition
Successfully completed ARD, DUI or non-DUI	Expungement is mandatory under § 9122(a) once charges are dismissed	Applies regardless of the original charge, provided the case ended in dismissal rather than a conviction
Case still shows a dismissal order but no expungement order	You can petition at any time after dismissal	There is no deadline that forfeits the right, but the record stays visible on background checks until the petition is filed and granted
Outstanding fines, costs, or restitution	Most counties will not process expungement until these are paid in full	Confirm your ARD account is closed out before filing; unpaid balances are a common cause of rejection
DUI ARD completed within the § 3806 look-back window	Court record is expungeable, but PennDOT's ARD notation for DUI grading purposes is not	A future DUI within the statutory window will still be graded as if the ARD case were a prior offense
ARD terminated unsuccessfully / revoked	Not eligible for this expungement path	A revoked ARD case returns to active prosecution; expungement only applies once the case actually ends in dismissal
Multiple charges filed together, only some resolved through ARD	Each charge's disposition controls its own expungement eligibility	A petition should address every count separately if some were dismissed through ARD and others resolved differently
Old ARD case, no attorney ever filed the petition	Still eligible — there is no statute of limitations on filing an ARD expungement petition	This is common; a case from years ago can usually still be cleared once the dismissal order is confirmed

Eligibility categories are statutory, but how a specific docket is graded and disposed controls which category applies. Nothing here is a prediction about a particular record.

The process

Step by step.

Step 1
Confirm the dismissal order is entered
Before anything else, confirm the court has actually entered the order dismissing the charges under Rule 320 — expungement can't proceed without it, and some counties combine both requests into one hearing date.
Step 2
Verify all ARD conditions and costs are satisfied
Supervision fees, program costs, fines, and any restitution have to be fully paid and reflected in the county's case-management system, or the expungement petition can be held up or denied.
Step 3
Prepare and file the expungement petition
The petition identifies the docket, the charges, and the basis for mandatory expungement under § 9122(a), and is filed with the clerk of courts in the county that prosecuted the case.
Step 4
Serve the district attorney's office
The DA's office is entitled to notice and an opportunity to object; in most ARD-completion cases there is no objection, since the Commonwealth itself moved for dismissal.
Step 5
Court order and distribution
Once signed, the expungement order goes to the clerk of courts, Pennsylvania State Police, and — where applicable — local police departments and the FBI, each of which has to purge or flag the record on their end.
Step 6
Confirm the record is actually cleared
Processing delays at PSP or the FBI are common; ordering a certified criminal-history check a few months later confirms the expungement actually went through rather than assuming it did.

Jurisdiction & venue

Where the petition is filed.

Dauphin County

The Dauphin County DA's office ARD unit and the clerk of courts handle a high volume of ARD cases; local practice generally expects defense counsel to file the expungement petition once the dismissal order is entered, and turnaround runs several months.

Cumberland County

Cumberland County's clerk of courts processes expungement petitions on a standard motions schedule; DUI ARD cases in particular should be checked against PennDOT's separate driving record before assuming the case is fully closed.

York County

York County's DA's office has an established ARD program with its own completion-verification step before a dismissal order issues, which in turn triggers the expungement petition timeline.

Adams County

Smaller docket volume in Adams County can mean faster turnaround on both the dismissal and the expungement petition, but the same two-step process — dismissal, then a separate petition — still applies.

Perry and Franklin Counties

Both counties route ARD completions through their respective DA's offices and clerk of courts; rural counties sometimes rely more heavily on defense counsel to prompt the expungement filing rather than doing it automatically.

Lancaster County

Lancaster's ARD unit handles a large docket, and petitions there typically move faster when filed promptly after the dismissal order rather than months or years later, since supporting records are easier to pull while the case is fresh.

Where these petitions are won or lost.

Don't assume dismissal means expunged
The single most common mistake is treating the ARD completion letter or the dismissal order as the end of the process; without a separate expungement order, the arrest stays on your record.
File as soon as conditions are satisfied
Waiting years to file doesn't hurt eligibility, but it does mean the record sits visible on background checks longer than necessary — file as soon as costs and supervision are closed out.
Track PennDOT separately for DUI ARD
For DUI cases, confirm what PennDOT's driving record shows independent of the criminal court expungement, since the two systems are not the same and § 3806 look-back counts the ARD acceptance regardless of the court-side expungement.
Get confirmation, not just a filed stamp
A petition being filed isn't the same as it being granted and distributed; follow up until you have a signed order and confirmation it reached PSP.
Bundle related charges
Where an ARD case was originally filed with related summary offenses, address all of them in the same petition where possible rather than leaving pieces of the record behind.
Order a certified check afterward
A certified Pennsylvania State Police criminal-history check a few months after the order is entered is the only reliable way to confirm the record was actually purged, not just that a petition was filed.

Where we file

Record relief across Central Pennsylvania.

Other record-relief guides.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions.

Common questions about ard expungement in Pennsylvania — eligibility, procedure, and what the order actually changes.

No. Completing ARD leads to a dismissal of the charges, but a separate expungement petition has to be filed and granted before the arrest record is actually purged from Pennsylvania State Police and court records.
In some counties the district attorney's office or ARD unit initiates it as a matter of routine; in others, it's expected that the defendant's attorney files it after the dismissal order is entered. Don't assume it happened without confirming.
No statute of limitations bars filing years after ARD completion. The record simply stays visible on background checks until the petition is filed and granted, however long that takes.
No. Expunging the criminal court record does not remove PennDOT's separate notation of the ARD acceptance, which PennDOT and prosecutors continue to count for the § 3806 look-back period on any future DUI charge.
Most counties won't process an expungement petition until ARD costs, fines, and any restitution are fully paid and reflected as closed in the court's system, so it's worth confirming the account balance is at zero before filing.
Timelines vary by county, but it commonly takes a few months from filing to a signed order, and then additional time for Pennsylvania State Police and the FBI to process the purge on their end.
Yes — ordering a certified Pennsylvania State Police criminal-history report is the most reliable way to confirm whether a prior ARD case was actually expunged or is still sitting on your record.

[1]Pa.R.Crim.P. 320 — Expungement upon successful completion of an ARD program — the rule that makes ARD records expungeable.
[2]18 Pa.C.S. § 9122 — Expungement of criminal history record information.
[3]75 Pa.C.S. § 3807 — Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) for DUI.
[4]75 Pa.C.S. § 3806 — Prior offense look-back window (10 years) and ARD counting rules.

Statutes are summarized for public reference. Confirm current text at palegis.us. This page is attorney advertising, not legal advice.

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