Expunging Appellate Records
Note: Salt Lake County Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice Initiatives does NOT provide guidance on expunging appellate records. For more information please contact an attorney or the Utah Courts Self-Help Center.
Utah Courts Information on Expunging Appellate Records
If a defendant in a criminal case appealed their case to the Utah Court of Appeals or Utah Supreme Court, they may also want to expunge their appellate records. This requires a separate process and does not happen automatically just because the trial court expunged its records.
To do this, the defendant must file a petition with the Utah Supreme Court. (see Supreme Court Standing Order No. 12).
Requirements
The petitioner must have an order from a district court which expunges their entire trial court record as well as any information in possession of other government entities, such as law enforcement.
- a written petition;
- a copy of the expungement petition that was filed with the district court;
- a certified copy of the district court's expungement order; and
- a proposed redacted appellate court opinion to replace the previously-published opinion
Effect of Appellate Expungement
If the Utah Supreme Court grants the expungement petition, the appellate courts will:
- Seal any appellate court records, including appellate briefs. No one may access a sealed record except by order of the court.
- Replace the previously-issued opinion with a redacted opinion.
- Notify LexisNexis and Westlaw of the redacted opinion. The defendant may notify other publishers about the redacted opinion.
Note: non-government entities (such as legal publishers) do not have an obligation to expunge or redact information in their possession.