Quick answer: An Anne Arundel expungement petition goes to the court that heard your case, not the one nearest home. The District Court here sits in two places, Annapolis and Glen Burnie; the Circuit Court sits in Annapolis. Eligibility then turns on your disposition and on Crim. Proc. § 10-107: one non-expungeable count blocks every other charge from the same arrest.
I’m David Waranch, and I’ve handled thousands of Maryland criminal and traffic cases, in both Anne Arundel courthouses. Statewide eligibility sits on my convictions you can expunge page.
Getting three counts dismissed does not clear the arrest. Charges from one incident are treated as a unit, and if you cannot expunge one of them you cannot expunge any of them. The dismissed counts stay visible because of the count you pled to. This is the most common reason a petition comes back denied.
Which Anne Arundel Courthouse Gets Your Petition
Crim. Proc. § 10-105(b)(1) and § 10-110(b)(1) both require filing “in the court in which the proceeding began.” Most counties have one District Court building; Anne Arundel has two. A case out of Glen Burnie, Pasadena, Severna Park or the BWI Marshall corridor was heard at the Glen Burnie location and belongs there — filing in Annapolis because it is the county seat is the wrong court. Your case papers, not your address, settle it.
| Where the case was heard | Where the petition goes | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| District Court, Glen Burnie location | Glen Burnie | § 10-105(b)(1) / § 10-110(b)(1) |
| District Court, Annapolis location | Annapolis | § 10-105(b)(1) / § 10-110(b)(1) |
| Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County | Annapolis | § 10-105(b)(1) / § 10-110(b)(1) |
| District Court case appealed to the Circuit Court | The Circuit Court, in Annapolis | § 10-105(b)(3)(i) |
| Case transferred from one court to another | The court it was transferred to | § 10-105(b)(2)(i) |
| Charge transferred to juvenile court | The court of original jurisdiction | § 10-105(b)(2)(ii) / § 10-106(b) |
The Unit Rule: One Bad Count Blocks the Whole Arrest
“If a person is not entitled to expungement of one charge or conviction in a unit, the person is not entitled to expungement of any other charge or conviction in the unit.”
Crim. Proc. § 10-107(b)(1). A unit is two or more charges from “the same incident, transaction, or set of facts” — what a typical Anne Arundel stop produces. A nolle pros on four counts changes nothing if the fifth is a conviction you cannot reach. Two things sit outside the unit: a minor traffic violation and possession of cannabis under Crim. Law § 5-601, per § 10-107(a)(2) and (b)(2). Read that narrowly — § 10-101(h) makes a minor traffic violation a nonincarcerable one, meaning a payable, fine-only citation. Anything jailable joins the unit: DUI, driving while suspended, driving without a license, reckless driving. See also six reasons you cannot expunge a Maryland record.
Your Disposition Sets the Clock
Each wait runs from the event in the right column.
| How your case ended | Earliest you can file | Measured from |
|---|---|---|
| Acquittal, dismissal, or nolle prosequi | 3 years — or immediately with a written general waiver and release of all tort claims from the charge, § 10-105(c)(1) | The disposition |
| Stet, or a compromise under Crim. Law § 3-207 | 3 years, § 10-105(c)(5) | The stet or compromise |
| Probation before judgment (general) | The later of discharge from probation or 3 years, § 10-105(c)(2)(i) | Discharge / grant of probation |
| PBJ for DUI or DWI, Transp. § 21-902(a) or (b) | 15 years, § 10-105(c)(2)(ii) | Discharge from probation |
| PBJ for § 21-902(c), (d), (h) or (i) | Never — excluded by § 10-105(a)(3) | — |
| Conviction on an offense listed in § 10-110(a) | 5 years as the general rule; 3, 7, 10 or 15 in the cases § 10-110(c) names | Completion of the sentence |
| Conviction for possession of cannabis, Crim. Law § 5-601 | On completion of the sentence, § 10-105(a)(12) and (c)(8) | The sentence |
The full 3, 7, 10 and 15-year ladder is on my convictions you can expunge page; the waiver-and-release shortcut is in early expungement.
Three disqualifiers catch people otherwise inside their window. You are ineligible while a defendant in any pending criminal proceeding — § 10-105(e)(4)(iii), § 10-110(d)(2). A new conviction during the wait does not restart the clock; § 10-110(d)(1) makes the original ineligible “unless the new conviction becomes eligible for expungement.” And on a PBJ, a conviction beyond a minor traffic violation within three years defeats it — § 10-105(e)(4)(i).
DUI Records Are the Hard Case in This County
Much of the docket in Annapolis and Glen Burnie is Transp. § 21-902, and the standard advice — take the PBJ, expunge it later — fails here twice. A PBJ for § 21-902(a) or (b) waits 15 years from discharge from probation; a PBJ for § 21-902(c), (d), (h) or (i) is never expungeable. Any conviction beyond a minor traffic violation inside those 15 years, or a second § 21-902 PBJ, takes the first away too — § 10-105(e)(4)(ii). And § 21-902 is jailable, so it is never a minor traffic violation: it sits inside the unit, and one unexpungeable DUI count locks up every other charge from the same stop. Weigh it at the plea: expunging a Maryland DUI or DWI, plus Anne Arundel County DUI and Maryland DUI.
Some Records Come Off Without Anyone Filing
Crim. Proc. § 10-105.1 is barely known. Since October 1, 2021, a qualifying record is expunged automatically three years after disposition, with no petition, where no charge in the case ended in anything other than acquittal, dismissal, not guilty or nolle prosequi. Nolle prosequi with a treatment requirement is excluded, as are certain Transportation Article citations.
One PBJ, stet or conviction anywhere on the case number drops the whole file back into the petition track — usually the real answer to “it should have fallen off by now.”
The State’s Attorney Has 30 Days to Object
The court serves your petition on the State’s Attorney for Anne Arundel County. Unless an objection is filed within 30 days after service, the court shall pass the expungement order — § 10-105(d)(2) for non-convictions, § 10-110(e)(3) for convictions. Most uncontested petitions end there.
A timely objection means a hearing. On the conviction track the court also notifies each listed victim, who may object, and the judge must find on the record that you are eligible, not a risk to public safety, and that expungement is in the interest of justice — § 10-110(e)(2), (f)(2). No lawyer can influence whether a prosecutor objects; the work is filing a petition that leaves nothing to object to. After the order, § 10-105(f) and § 10-110(h) give custodians 60 days to confirm compliance in writing. Those two periods, 30 plus 60, are where the commonly quoted “about 90 days” comes from. No filing fee appears here because I have no source for one.
What an Expungement Actually Buys You
Under Crim. Proc. § 10-109, an employer or school may not require you to disclose expunged information, nor may a State or local unit deciding a license, permit or registration. Refusing cannot be the sole reason to fire or not hire you, and a violation is a misdemeanor carrying up to $1,000 or a year in jail. One precision: § 10-109(a)(2) — which lets you answer as though it never happened — is written for a charge that did not result in a conviction and for a pardoned conviction, so an expunged conviction under § 10-110 rests on (a)(1) and (a)(3) instead.
Annapolis, Glen Burnie and the Rest of the County
- Expungement lawyer in Annapolis — the District Court’s Annapolis location plus the Circuit Court, which takes felonies and appeals.
- Expungement lawyer in Glen Burnie — the north county District Court location: Ritchie Highway, I-97, BWI Marshall.
Everywhere else — Pasadena, Severna Park, Odenton, Crofton, Millersville, Arnold, Severn, Edgewater — the case was heard at one of those two. Watch a Laurel address: it straddles the Prince George’s line, and your case papers control. What you accept at the trial date decides what is left to expunge: Anne Arundel reckless driving, Anne Arundel traffic, Maryland criminal defense, Maryland traffic violations. Nearby: < href="https://davidwaranch.com/prince-georges-county-expungement-lawyer/">Prince George’s, Baltimore County, Howard, Montgomery, Calvert, Frederick.
Anne Arundel County Expungement Questions
The court that heard the case. Md. Code, Crim. Proc. 10-105(b)(1) and 10-110(b)(1) both require the petition to be filed in the court in which the proceeding began. Anne Arundel is unusual because the District Court sits in two locations, Annapolis and Glen Burnie, so a case heard at the Glen Burnie location is petitioned in Glen Burnie even though Annapolis is the county seat. Circuit Court cases are petitioned in Annapolis. If a District Court case was appealed to the Circuit Court, section 10-105(b)(3)(i) sends the petition to the Circuit Court instead.
Usually because of the unit rule, or because something else in the case was not a clean non-conviction. Under Crim. Proc. 10-107(b)(1), charges from one incident form a unit, and if you are not entitled to expunge one charge in the unit you are not entitled to expunge any of them. Separately, the automatic expungement in Crim. Proc. 10-105.1 reaches only a case where no charge ended in anything other than acquittal, dismissal, not guilty or nolle prosequi. A single PBJ, stet or conviction on the same case number takes the whole file out of the automatic track, and it stays visible until someone petitions.
Sometimes, but far later than people expect. A probation before judgment for a violation of Transportation Article 21-902(a) or (b) cannot be petitioned for 15 years after you are discharged from probation, under Crim. Proc. 10-105(c)(2)(ii). A probation before judgment for 21-902(c), (d), (h) or (i) is excluded from expungement entirely by 10-105(a)(3). Section 10-105(e)(4)(ii) then defeats the petition if within those 15 years you are convicted of anything other than a minor traffic violation, or you receive a second 21-902 probation before judgment. This belongs in the decision before the plea, not afterward.
Law Offices of David R. Waranch — 301-563-9575 · toll-free 1-877-566-2408. Hablamos Español.
Last updated: August 2026. Statutory references: Md. Code, Crim. Proc. §§ 10-101, 10-105, 10-105.1, 10-106, 10-107, 10-109, 10-110; Md. Code, Crim. Law §§ 3-207, 5-601; Md. Code, Transp. § 21-902. This page is general information about Maryland law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.