Quick answer: A Montgomery County expungement petition goes to the court that heard the case — the District Court sits in Rockville and Silver Spring, and the Circuit Court for Montgomery County sits in Rockville, so a case that went upstairs on a jury trial prayer, an indictment or an appeal is petitioned there. Before you file, check the whole case, not one charge: under Md. Code, Crim. Proc. § 10-107, one charge you cannot expunge blocks every other charge from the same arrest.
I’m David Waranch, and I’ve handled thousands of Maryland criminal and traffic cases, including in the Montgomery County courts at Rockville and Silver Spring.
Which Montgomery County Courthouse Gets Your Petition
For non-convictions and convictions alike, § 10-105(b)(1) and § 10-110(b)(1) both require the petition to be filed in the court where the proceeding began. Two exceptions follow: a transferred case is petitioned in the court it went to, and a case appealed to a court exercising appellate jurisdiction is petitioned in that appellate court, which may remand it.
In Montgomery County the District Court hears these cases from two locations, Rockville and Silver Spring, and most filings go back to the building that handled the original charge. The Circuit Court for Montgomery County sits in Rockville, and a case lands there once someone prays a jury trial, a grand jury indicts, or a District Court judgment is appealed for a new trial. Filing in the wrong court only delays things, so this is the first detail to pin down.
| How your case moved | Where the petition is filed | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Charged and disposed of in the District Court at Rockville or Silver Spring | That District Court location | § 10-105(b)(1) · § 10-110(b)(1) |
| Started in the District Court, then a jury trial prayer sent it upstairs | Circuit Court, Rockville | § 10-105(b)(2)(i) |
| Tried in the District Court, then appealed for a new trial | Circuit Court, Rockville (it may remand) | § 10-105(b)(3) |
| Indicted in the Circuit Court from the start | Circuit Court, Rockville | § 10-110(b)(1) |
| Charged in another Maryland county | The court in that county that heard it | § 10-105(b)(1) |
If your record spans more than one county, each case is petitioned where it was heard, and I review the whole history at once. Many Montgomery County expungements grow out of a traffic stop, so it is worth reading how these rules apply to a Montgomery County traffic case as well.
One Ineligible Charge Can Block the Whole Arrest
This rule defeats more petitions than any other, and the live version of this page never mentioned it. Charges that arise from the same incident, transaction or set of facts form a single unit, and the unit stands or falls together:
“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.” — Md. Code, Crim. Proc. § 10-107(b)(1)
So the common hope — “I have several charges, can we clear them all together?” — has to be answered honestly. Separate cases from separate events can be petitioned in the same sitting, but charges from one arrest are one unit, and a single count the statute does not reach keeps the rest visible. A night that produced four charges — three dismissed, one a conviction that is not expungeable — expunges nothing.
Two carve-outs cut the other way. Under § 10-107(a)(2), a minor traffic violation or possession of cannabis under Crim. Law § 5-601 from the same incident is not part of the unit, in either direction. But § 10-101(h) defines a minor traffic violation as a nonincarcerable one — so a jailable traffic charge such as driving while suspended, DUI or DWI or reckless driving sits inside the unit and can sink everything charged with it.
One ineligible charge can block the rest. Under Md. Code, Crim. Proc. § 10-107, charges from the same arrest or incident are treated as a single unit, so if even one of them is not eligible, none of the charges in that unit can be expunged. It is the most common reason a Montgomery County expungement petition is denied. Which offenses qualify is set by § 10-110 for convictions and § 10-105 for dismissals, acquittals, and PBJs. See which Maryland convictions can be expunged or the full Maryland expungement guide.
When You Can File on a Montgomery County Case
Eligibility turns on how the case ended, and each clock runs from the event the statute names — not the arrest date, and not the day you decide you are ready.
| How the case ended | Earliest you can file | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Acquittal, dismissal, nolle prosequi | 3 years after disposition — or immediately with a written general waiver and release of all tort claims arising from the charge | § 10-105(c)(1) |
| Stet | 3 years after the stet | § 10-105(c)(5) |
| Probation before judgment | The later of discharge from probation or 3 years after the PBJ was granted | § 10-105(c)(2)(i) |
| PBJ for DUI or DWI — Transp. § 21-902(a) or (b) | 15 years after discharge from probation | § 10-105(c)(2)(ii) |
| PBJ for § 21-902(c), (d), (h) or (i) | Never — no expungement route exists | § 10-105(a)(3) |
| Conviction on an offense § 10-110 lists | 5 years after completion of the sentence; 7 for second-degree assault, common law battery and most felonies; longer for a short list | § 10-110(c) |
| Any of the above, while another criminal case against you is pending | Not eligible until that case is resolved | § 10-105(e)(4)(iii) · § 10-110(d)(2) |
“Completion of the sentence” includes any period of probation, parole or mandatory supervision (§ 10-101(c)), so two years inside plus three on probation does not start the five-year clock until year five. A new conviction during the wait disqualifies the original under § 10-110(d)(1) until the new one itself becomes eligible. The full conviction ladder is on which Maryland convictions you can expunge, the timing details on Maryland expungement waiting periods, and the reasons petitions fail on six reasons you can’t expunge your record.
Two routes can move the date forward: the waiver and release in § 10-105(c)(1), which trades your tort claims from the charge for filing now, and the good-cause provision in § 10-105(c)(9) — both explained on my early expungement page. Note that good cause lives in § 10-105 and never reaches a conviction under § 10-110. Separately, § 10-105.1 expunges a case automatically three years after disposition where every charge ended in acquittal, dismissal, not guilty or nolle prosequi.
After You File in Montgomery County
The court serves the petition on the State’s Attorney for Montgomery County, who has 30 days to object. If nothing is filed in that window the statute is mandatory — the court shall order expungement (§ 10-105(d)(2), § 10-110(e)(3)). On a conviction petition, each listed victim is notified as well and holds the same right to object.
An objection means a hearing. On a conviction the court must then find on the record — among other things — that you are not a risk to public safety, that any restitution is paid or cannot be, and that expungement is in the interest of justice (§ 10-110(f)(2)). Unpaid restitution is a standalone loser. No one can promise the State will not object, but I can make sure the petition is complete and eligible before it ever goes in.
Once the order is entered, every custodian of the records has 60 days to certify compliance in writing (§ 10-105(f), § 10-110(h)). Those 30 and 60 days are where the commonly quoted “90 days” comes from — and they are the only intervals the statute fixes. Nothing sets a deadline for the court itself to rule, so treat any promised total timeline with suspicion. The step-by-step sequence is laid out on how the Maryland expungement process works.
The Maryland Judiciary publishes the filing fees: none where the case ended in acquittal, dismissal, PBJ, nolle prosequi, stet or not criminally responsible, and $30 per case for an eligible guilty disposition — per case, not per charge in a unit — nonrefundable even if the petition is denied, and waivable if you cannot pay.
What Expungement Actually Does
Expungement is removal from public inspection, not the destruction of every trace (§ 10-101(e) and (f)). What it buys you is set out in § 10-109: an expunged charge should stop appearing on Maryland Judiciary Case Search and routine background checks, an employer or school may not require you to disclose it, and refusing to disclose one cannot by itself be grounds to fire you or refuse to hire you. That is why a dismissed case still showing online is worth clearing — a dismissal is not the same as a removal.
One limit worth stating plainly: expungement clears court and police records, not your MVA driving record, where points and license actions follow the Transportation Article. If a traffic conviction is the problem behind a background check, see whether a traffic conviction shows on a background check.
Montgomery County Charges We Help Clear
The best expungement work often happens before there is anything to expunge. A dismissal or PBJ today means a three-year wait; a conviction on the same facts can mean five years, seven, fifteen, or never. Getting the disposition right at the front end is the difference.
- DUI and DWI · reckless driving · hit and run
- Driving while suspended · while revoked · without a license · without insurance
- CDL violations · MVA hearings · other criminal offenses
- Bench warrants — an open warrant is a pending case, which blocks every petition you have
Serving Montgomery County and Nearby Counties
Whether your record is from Silver Spring, Rockville, Bethesda, Gaithersburg, Germantown, Wheaton or Takoma Park, the case is petitioned in the Montgomery County court that heard it, and I can handle it. If your case sits in a neighboring jurisdiction, each of those has its own courts and State’s Attorney:
- Silver Spring expungement lawyer — the second Montgomery County District Court location
- Prince George’s County · Howard County · Frederick County
- Anne Arundel County · Baltimore County
Common Questions
You file a petition in the court that handled your Montgomery County case. If no one objects within thirty days, the court orders the expungement, and the agencies holding the records have sixty days to comply.
There is no filing fee for a dismissal, acquittal, or probation-before-judgment. Expunging an eligible guilty disposition carries a thirty-dollar fee per case, which can be waived if you cannot afford it.
Yes. The unit rule treats charges from the same incident as one group, so a single ineligible charge can block the others. That is the first thing to review before filing.
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, 10-107, 10-109, 10-110; Md. Code, Crim. Law § 5-601; Md. Code, Transp. § 21-902. Filing fees from the Maryland Judiciary’s published expungement fee information. This page is general information about Maryland law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.