The Judiciary's Find a Case page opens the public databases that record an arrest once it becomes a charge. A criminal case search runs by name or county, and a criminal judgment search runs by defendant name, by the State Bureau of Identification number that the State Police assign at fingerprinting, or by complaint or indictment number. Municipal court matters, which include most disorderly persons and ordinance arrests, sit on NJMCDirect, where a person finds his own ticket or complaint by its number. Civil, foreclosure, judgment lien and Tax Court cases have their own searches, and the page also explains how to request court records and how to sign up for the electronic access program that bulk users rely on.
What those databases hold is the court side of an arrest: the complaint, the indictment, the plea and the sentence. The State Police hold the fingerprint side, the Computerized Criminal History that answers fingerprint based background checks, and the expungement page names it as the file an expungement order reaches last. For the county sheriffs, jails and municipal police departments that make and record the arrest itself, see the New Jersey county pages, and for who may order the fingerprint record see the New Jersey background check guide.
- Free to file: the eCourts Expungement System takes a petition without a fee from a self represented person who has a case number and an account.
- Ten years for a clean slate: under N.J.S.A. 2C:52-5.3 an entire record, however many convictions, is expunged once ten years have passed since the last conviction and since fines, probation and parole were completed.
- Five years, one indictable, three disorderly: the regular route for adults, sometimes available after four, allows no more than one indictable conviction and up to three disorderly or petty disorderly persons convictions, with ordinances after two years.
- Dismissed means immediate: under N.J.S.A. 2C:52-6 the court can order an expedited expungement at once when a case is dismissed or the defendant is acquitted on every count.
Written by SearchSystems.net from New Jersey's own systems: the New Jersey Courts Find a Case page, the New Jersey Courts page on expunging a court record, the Office of the Public Defender expungement pamphlet of December 2025, the New Jersey Department of Corrections offender information page, the New Jersey Department of Corrections home page, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Reading the case number before you file
The expungement page spends its first screen on case numbers, because the online system cannot start without one. A Superior Court case carries a Promis Gavel number in the form of a three letter county code, a two digit year and a case number, such as ATL-00-000000, which the Judiciary's own lookup supplies from a name. A municipal summons reads S, a four digit year, a case number and a municipality code, and a warrant reads W followed by the same pattern; the municipality holds those numbers.
A juvenile docket number comes from the court that heard the matter. Once the number is in hand the petitioner registers as a first time user, follows the user guide or the Legal Services of New Jersey step by step guide, and files; a court appearance is not always needed, though the judge may ask for more information. Every county court has an ombudsman who answers questions by email.
The expungement types and their clocks
The court page lists the statutory routes. A clean slate expungement under N.J.S.A. 2C:52-5.3 requires ten years since the last conviction and ten years since fines and fees were paid and probation or parole finished, and it reaches the whole record. A regular expungement for adults covers indictable offenses under 2C:52-2, disorderly persons offenses under 2C:52-3 and ordinance violations under 2C:52-4; in most cases the wait is five years after the sentence for indictable and disorderly persons offenses, two years for an ordinance, sometimes four years with all fines paid, and the limits are one indictable conviction and up to three disorderly or petty disorderly persons offenses.
Juvenile adjudications under 2C:52-4.1 wait three years after final discharge with no new arrest, charge or adjudication in that time. A marijuana expungement under 2C:52-5.1 and a decriminalization expungement under 2C:52-6.1 handle marijuana and hashish offenses after the 2021 law. A recovery court expungement under 2C:35-14(m), the former drug court, is ordered on graduation and needs an application only for graduations before April 18, 2016.
An expedited expungement under 2C:52-6 follows a dismissal or an acquittal on all counts. The New Jersey criminal records guide covers the offenses the statute never allows to be expunged.
The Public Defender's four paths
The Office of the Public Defender's December 2025 pamphlet turns the statute into a checklist. Path one is a regular expungement with no more than one criminal conviction and three disorderly persons convictions after four to five years, with municipal ordinance convictions filed separately. Path two is for someone with no criminal conviction and up to five disorderly persons convictions after three to five years. Path three covers no criminal conviction, no more than two disorderly persons convictions and unlimited ordinance convictions after two years from the last conviction, sentence or fine.
Path four is the clean slate: two or more criminal convictions or six or more disorderly persons convictions, ten years after the last. An early pathway after three to four years exists for a regular expungement if every fine was paid at sentencing or before probation or parole ended, with a compelling circumstances statement. Convictions for criminal homicide, robbery, arson, first and second degree drug distribution, endangering a child, kidnapping and sexual assault, among others, bar expungement and leave a pardon as the only route.
The pamphlet notes that an expungement clears fingerprint based checks such as IdentoGO or an FBI rap sheet once the State Police process the order, but not private name and birth date databases, which must be sent a copy of the order. The unit is reached at 609-940-7824 or dc.expungement@opd.nj.gov.
After the order: the State Police step
A signed order goes to every law enforcement agency that must purge the record, and the Judiciary singles out the Division of State Police as the one that removes expunged complaints from the Computerized Criminal History system used to answer background checks. The State Police run an Expungement Status Portal where the petitioner opens an account, adds the case by the number beginning XP at the top of the order, and watches the status move to complete, at which point the record stops appearing on fingerprint based checks; the Judiciary gives 609-671-7900 for questions about that portal.
Until that status shows complete an employer running a fingerprint check can still see the case, so the pamphlet's advice is to check the portal rather than assume the court order ended the matter.
Who is in state custody
The Department of Corrections offender information page carries the Incarcerated Person Search Engine, visit restrictions, escape notices and population reports by offense, term, age and county of commitment, and the department's home page records the shift of money and messaging services from JPay to ViaPath, with JPay deposits ending August 1, 2026 and a centralized search center for packages and mail from September 15, 2026.
A person arrested and held before trial is in a county jail, not a state prison, so the New Jersey inmate search guide covers the 21 county facilities beside the state engine, and the New Jersey sex offender registry guide covers the tiered registry the State Police publish.
Questions about New Jersey arrest records
Related New Jersey records
New Jersey readers can continue with the New Jersey criminal records guide for conviction files and barred offenses, the New Jersey court records guide for the Superior Court clerks and municipal courts, the New Jersey background check guide for fingerprint based checks, the New Jersey public records law guide for the Open Public Records Act, and the New Jersey county pages for every sheriff and jail.