Criminal Records and Outcomes in Massachusetts

Massachusetts CORI, Federal Records, Case Outcomes, Sealing, and Expungement

Massachusetts courts and criminal-justice agencies create records when a criminal case begins. Federal agencies may keep fingerprint and disposition information about the same event. Police departments, licensing boards, schools, civil protective-order registries, and private background-screening companies may maintain separate records.

These records do not all contain the same information or follow the same access rules. Whether a complaint issued, whether arraignment occurred, how the case ended, and whether the record was later sealed or expunged determine what records exist and who may obtain them.

Attorney Joe Serpa has practiced Massachusetts criminal defense since 1995. He evaluates both the criminal charge and the records that an arrest, arraignment, disposition, or conviction may create. The defense can then address the outcome that the evidence and law permit while accounting for employment, education, professional licensing, immigration, firearms, and driving consequences.

Massachusetts Criminal Offender Record Information

M.G.L. c. 6, §§ 167 to 178L governs Massachusetts criminal offender record information, commonly called CORI. Section 167 defines CORI as records and data compiled by a Massachusetts criminal-justice agency that concern an identifiable person and relate to a criminal charge, arrest, pretrial proceeding, judicial proceeding, sentence, incarceration, rehabilitation, or release.

The Department of Criminal Justice Information Services maintains the CORI system. The Criminal Record Review Board reviews complaints concerning access to and use of CORI.

Section 167 places several limits on what the CORI system includes:

• The statute restricts CORI to information recorded in criminal proceedings that were not dismissed before arraignment.
• The statute excludes an offense for which the law provides no possible term of incarceration.
• The statute principally covers people who were eighteen or older at the time of the offense. It also covers a person under eighteen who was adjudicated as an adult in the Superior Court or after transfer from a juvenile session.

Section 167 separately defines "all available criminal offender record information." That definition excludes records sealed under M.G.L. c. 94C, § 34 or M.G.L. c. 276, §§ 100A to 100C, together with the existence of those sealed records.

The firm’s page on Massachusetts criminal records and CORI access explains what different employers, landlords, licensing authorities, courts, and law-enforcement agencies may receive. Those requesters do not all have the same access.

Federal and Other Records

The FBI maintains an Identity History Summary under 28 U.S.C. § 534. When Massachusetts authorities submit fingerprints and disposition information, the federal summary may include the arrest, charge, and final disposition.

A Massachusetts judge cannot directly order the FBI to alter an independently maintained federal record. For the sealing and expungement orders that M.G.L. c. 276, § 100T identifies, the statute requires Massachusetts to notify the FBI and the United States Department of Justice and request a corresponding federal change. A person should verify the FBI file rather than assume that every state change has already appeared there. The guide to expunging or sealing a federal criminal record explains the statutory request and the FBI Identity History Summary Challenge procedure.

Other records remain outside both CORI and the federal identity-history system. A police department may retain its incident report even when no criminal complaint issues. The statewide domestic-violence record-keeping system maintains information about 209A and 258E orders under separate rules. The page on removing a Massachusetts 209A or 258E registry record addresses that distinct procedure.

Schools, licensing authorities, news organizations, and private background-screening companies may also keep information obtained from their own sources. A Massachusetts sealing or expungement order does not automatically erase a record that an independent federal or private entity maintains.

The Procedural Stage Determines the Court Record

A Complaint Application Before Arraignment

In an eligible case, M.G.L. c. 218, § 35A allows the accused to oppose a complaint at a private clerk-magistrate hearing. If the clerk-magistrate denies the application, no criminal complaint issues, no arraignment occurs, and no CORI entry results from that application.

The denial does not erase a police report, arrest record, booking record, school record, or other record created before the hearing. Nor is the denial technically a final judgment, although renewed applications are rare in Attorney Serpa’s experience and a denial ordinarily ends the application in practice.

Arraignment and Later Dispositions

Arraignment ordinarily creates a CORI entry. The later disposition updates that record. A dismissal, not-guilty verdict, continuance without a finding, guilty plea, and guilty verdict therefore produce different entries and different legal consequences.

The requester’s access level determines how much of that information the requester receives. An employer, landlord, licensing board, court, and law-enforcement agency may receive different information from the same record. Sealing can restrict that access, but sealing does not destroy the underlying Massachusetts record.

Criminal Case Outcomes and Their Record Consequences

Dismissal and a Not-Guilty Verdict

A dismissal and a not-guilty verdict are non-conviction dispositions, but the law treats their records differently from a matter that ended before arraignment. The CORI records the charge and disposition unless the record is sealed.

A person whose case ended in dismissal or nolle prosequi may petition the court for sealing under M.G.L. c. 276, § 100C without waiting three or seven years. The judge may seal the record when substantial justice would best be served. A not-guilty finding, grand-jury no bill, or judicial finding of no probable cause must be sealed unless the defendant objects.

The Massachusetts criminal-dismissal guide explains when a prosecutor or judge may end a case before trial. Attorney Serpa has obtained not-guilty verdicts in Massachusetts OUI jury trials across Eastern Massachusetts. Representative outcomes appear on the criminal-defense results page.

Continuance Without a Finding

Under Massachusetts law, a continuance without a finding is not a conviction and does not enter a guilty finding. The defendant admits to sufficient facts, and the judge continues the case with conditions. If the defendant completes the continuance successfully, the court dismisses the charge.

Other legal systems apply their own definitions. Federal immigration law treats a qualifying Massachusetts CWOF as a conviction under 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(48)(A). Massachusetts counts an OUI CWOF as a prior offense in a later OUI proceeding. Professional licensing authorities apply their own reporting and disciplinary rules.

If the probation department alleges a violation, the judge conducts a probation surrender hearing. The judge may continue or modify the conditions, extend the continuance, or terminate it, enter a guilty finding, and impose sentence. The page on CWOFs, pretrial probation, and diversion explains those distinctions without treating the three dispositions as interchangeable.

Pretrial Probation and Diversion

Pretrial probation under M.G.L. c. 276, § 87 does not require an admission to sufficient facts or create a guilty finding. If the defendant completes the conditions, the court dismisses the case. Diversion programs may also lead to dismissal when the person and charge satisfy the governing requirements.

Neither disposition answers every record or disclosure question. If arraignment occurred, the later dismissal does not erase the CORI entry. A school, professional regulator, employer, or immigration authority may ask a question that requires disclosure or separate legal review. The absence of an admission or guilty finding does not answer every collateral-consequence question.

A Conviction

A guilty plea, guilty verdict, or other qualifying guilty finding creates a conviction and permits the judge to impose the sentence authorized by the offense. The conviction remains on CORI unless the person later obtains sealing or expungement.

An eligible conviction may qualify for sealing under M.G.L. c. 276, § 100A after the applicable waiting period. Sealing does not change the original disposition, erase an independently maintained federal record, restore firearms eligibility, or eliminate an immigration consequence.

Professional Licensing, Immigration, and Education

A criminal charge can require attention before the court reaches a disposition. Each licensing authority defines its own reportable event, deadline, and disclosure question.

For example, S.J.C. Rule 4:01, § 12(8) requires a Massachusetts lawyer to notify bar counsel within ten days of a conviction. Section 12(1) defines conviction to include an admission to sufficient facts. A criminal charge alone does not create that reporting duty. FINRA asks about specified criminal charges when filed, while other boards may ask about charges at renewal or require notice on a different schedule.

A pre-arraignment result prevents a CORI entry from the complaint application, but it does not answer every licensing form. Counsel must read the exact question and apply the rule governing the particular profession. The criminal-defense page for licensed professionals and the licensed-professional FAQs address those rules by profession.

Federal immigration law also applies its own definition of conviction and may treat an admission differently from Massachusetts law. Sealing a Massachusetts record does not eliminate the federal immigration consequences of the disposition. A noncitizen should review the immigration consequences of Massachusetts criminal charges before entering a plea or admission.

Schools and universities may maintain disciplinary records and ask about conduct, arrests, charges, or dispositions under their own policies. The page on criminal defense for college and university students addresses the criminal case and the separate school proceeding.

Sealing and Expungement

Sealing restricts who may access an eligible Massachusetts criminal record. It does not destroy the record. Expungement permanently erases or destroys a narrower category of covered records maintained by Massachusetts courts, criminal-justice agencies, and state, county, or municipal agencies.

Under M.G.L. c. 276, § 100A, a person submits a written request to the Commissioner of Probation after the applicable waiting period. The Commissioner seals an eligible adult conviction when the applicant satisfies the statutory requirements. The principal periods are three years for a misdemeanor and seven years for a felony, including any period of incarceration or custody. Other eligibility requirements and offense-specific restrictions also apply.

M.G.L. c. 276, § 100C governs specified non-conviction dispositions. A not-guilty finding, grand-jury no bill, or judicial finding of no probable cause must be sealed unless the defendant objects. A dismissal or nolle prosequi requires a petition, and the judge may seal the record when substantial justice would best be served. Section 100C sets no three-year or seven-year waiting period for those dispositions.

Expungement under M.G.L. c. 276, §§ 100E to 100U applies only when the record and petitioner satisfy the governing statutory requirements. Massachusetts also permits expungement on separate grounds involving specified errors, fraud, identity misuse, or conduct that is no longer criminal. An expungement order does not necessarily remove information independently maintained by the FBI, a private background-screening company, a school, a licensing authority, or a news organization.

The consumer guide to sealing and expungement explains the available procedures. The Massachusetts sealing and expungement standards page provides the statutory eligibility rules, waiting periods, exclusions, and federal-record considerations. The CORI sealing and expungement FAQ answers common questions about the filing process and the effect of an order.

Criminal Records and Outcomes Resources

• Your Massachusetts Criminal Record: Who Can See It and What It Shows explains CORI access levels and the information different requesters may receive.
• Expunging or Sealing Your Massachusetts Criminal Record is the main consumer guide to conviction sealing, non-conviction sealing, and expungement.
• Massachusetts Sealing and Expungement Standards provides the detailed statutory requirements and exclusions.
• Expunging or Sealing a Federal Criminal Record distinguishes a Massachusetts record from an FBI record and a federal criminal case.
• CWOF, Pretrial Probation, and Diversion in Massachusetts Criminal Law compares dispositions that may end in dismissal but carry different admissions and consequences.
• Eastern Massachusetts Criminal Defense for Licensed Professionals addresses charge and conviction reporting by profession.
• How Massachusetts Criminal Cases May Be Dismissed or Stopped Before Trial explains why a non-conviction result differs from a case stopped before arraignment.
• Disclosing a Criminal Record on a Massachusetts Firearms License Application covers what a license to carry or firearm identification card application requires, which prior cases disqualify an applicant, and what a sealed record does at the licensing desk.

Attorney Serpa reviews the charge, procedural stage, potential disposition, and collateral consequences before advising the client about a proposed resolution. To discuss a Massachusetts criminal case or an existing criminal record, contact Serpa Law Office for a free consultation. The Boston office is at 20 Park Plaza, Suite 400A. The Quincy Office is at 500 Victory Road, Suite 400A.

The office can be reached at 617.936.0201.