Thousands of Marylanders are placed on probation each year.^[1] Before the passage of the Expungement Reform Act of 2025 (“Senate Bill 432”) earlier this year, one emergency, one missed phone bill, or one minor probation condition violation would have automatically disqualified these individuals from seeking to have their records expunged.^[2] During the 2025 legislative session, the Maryland General Assembly passed Senate Bill 432, allowing individuals to expunge their records by eliminating automatic disqualification for probation violations.^[3] The changes amended Maryland Criminal Procedure § 10-101, which governs the qualifications and procedures for expunging an eligible criminal record.^[4]  It will go into effect beginning October 1, 2025.^[5]

This legislation expands opportunities for Maryland citizens by reducing the collateral consequences of a criminal record, allowing greater access to employment, housing, and education.^[6] The implications of this reform are two-fold: (1) it will provide economic opportunity for Maryland residents, and (2) it will increase public safety.^[7] Given that the new standard seals criminal records for individuals who complete their sentences, Maryland residents who seek to move past their mistakes have an increased chance of stable employment and housing.^[8] This stability, in turn, reduces recidivism and increases tax revenue.^[9]

Prior to this reform, probation violations automatically blocked expungement, no matter the offense or how much time had passed.^[10] In 2022, the Maryland Supreme Court held in In re Expungement Petition of Abhishek I. that a probation violation renders otherwise eligible records ineligible for expungement.^[11] This decision significantly narrowed expungement eligibility by disqualifying individuals who failed to “satisfactorily” comply with the terms of their sentence.^[12] This mostly impacted repeat offenders who often come from low-income communities, who then lose their chance to reform and reintegrate into society over a minor violation of probation.^[13]

Maryland lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 432 in January 2025, as a means to address this decision.^[14] This Bill clarified that a probation violation does not automatically bar an individual from expungement.^[15] Senate Bill 432 redefines the eligibility standard, measuring from the “completion” of the sentence rather than the “satisfaction” of probation.^[16] This means that if an individual completes the duration of the sentence, regardless of whether the conditions of their probation were completely satisfied (with some exceptions), the individual is still eligible for expungement.^[17] Furthermore, the legislation broadens expungement eligibility to cover certain previously excluded misdemeanor offenses that were previously excluded and mandates shielding for pardoned cannabis offenses and stet dispositions.^[18] The list of eligible offenses now includes crimes such as credit card theft, false statements to police, and driving without a license.^[19]

By making the standard more rehabilitation-oriented, the Expungement Reform Act helps residents with criminal records to re-enter society with stability, making Maryland a safer and more prosperous state. In short, this bill offers many residents a second chance to become productive members of society, bringing a new era of social and economic promise to the state.

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Natalia Ortega is a second-year day student and a First Year Staff Editor for Law Forum. Natalia earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland, College Park in Criminology & Criminal Justice, with a minor in Law and Society. At the University of Baltimore, Natalia is a competitor for the National Trial League Mock Trial Team, the Justice of Phi Alpha Delta, and a member of the Honor Board and a Law School Ambassador.  Previously, Natalia interned at the Montgomery County District Court with the Honorable Aileen E. Oliver. She expects to graduate May 2027. 

^[1] DPP Data Dashboard, Md. Dep’t of Pub. Safety and Corr. Serv. (last visited, Nov. 1, 2025), https://www.dpscs.state.md.us/community_releases/DPP-Annual-Data-Dashboard.shtml (on file with the University of Baltimore Law Forum).

^[2] See infra, note 11.

^[3] Ryan Ewig & Heather Warnken, Maryland Takes a Stand for Second Chances with Passage of the Expungement Reform Act of 2025, Clean Slate Initiative (May 27, 2025), https://www.cleanslateinitiative.org/updates/maryland-passes-expungement-reform-act-of-2025 (on file with the University of Baltimore Law Forum).

^[4] Md. Code Ann., Crim. Proc. § 10-101 (West 2023).

^[5] § 10-101.

^[6] Maryland’s Expungement Reform Act: A Crucial Step Towards Justice and Second Chances, Md. Access to Just. Comm’n (April 30, 2025), https://www.mdaccesstojustice.org/news-insights/marylands-expungement-reform-act-a-crucial-step-towards-justice-and-second-chances/ (on file with the University of Baltimore Law Forum).

^[7] Ewig & Warnken, supra note 3.

^[8] Id.

^[9] Maryland’s Expungement Reform Act: A Crucial Step Towards Justice and Second Chances supra, note 4.

^[10] Ewig & Warnken, supra note 3.

^[11] See generally In re Expungement Petition of Abhishek I., 255 Md.App. 464, 282 A.3d 318 (Md. 2022) (holding that a probation violation, no matter how minor, bars otherwise eligible records from expungement).

^[12] Ewig & Warnken, supra note 3.

^[13] Id.

^[14] S.B. 432.

^[15] Id.

^[16] Maryland’s Expungement Reform Act: A Crucial Step Towards Justice and Second Chances supra, note 6.

^[17] Id.; see also Md. Code Ann., Crim. Proc. § 10-105(e)(4)(i-iii) (West 2023) (discussing the exceptions to eligibility).

^[18] Id. (stet dispositions refer to cases indefinitely postponed and placed on an inactive or dormant docket without a conviction).

^[19] Criminal record expungement, parole reform measures signed into law,  Md. Matters (April 23, 2025), https://marylandmatters.org/2025/04/23/criminal-record-expungement-parole-reform-measures-signed-into-law/ (on file with the University of Baltimore Law Forum).