A disturbing the peace conviction stays on your record permanently unless you take legal action to clear it. Under federal law, there is no time limit on how long a criminal conviction can appear on a background check, so how long disturbing the peace stays on your record comes down to whether you were convicted and whether your state lets you expunge or seal the case. An arrest that did not lead to a conviction is different: it falls off standard commercial background checks after seven years on its own.
Conviction Versus Arrest: Two Different Clocks
Federal law draws a hard line between arrests and convictions. Background screening companies cannot report an arrest that did not lead to a conviction once seven years have passed from the arrest date.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports If your charge was dropped, dismissed, or you were acquitted, that arrest record drops off commercial background checks after seven years without you doing anything.
Convictions get no such protection. Federal law specifically exempts criminal conviction records from the seven-year reporting cap, which means a background screening company can legally report a misdemeanor conviction indefinitely.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports Some states impose shorter reporting windows that override the federal rule, but in states without those restrictions, a disturbing the peace conviction will keep surfacing on background checks until you clear it.
This catches people off guard. A minor misdemeanor from years ago feels like it should quietly disappear. It doesn’t. The conviction remains visible to employers, landlords, and licensing boards who run screenings, and it can create real barriers to jobs, housing, and professional credentials.
Clearing a Conviction From Your Record
If you already have a conviction, the two paths for getting rid of it are expungement and record sealing. The difference depends on your state. Expungement generally means the record is destroyed. Sealing means it is hidden from public view but still exists in restricted databases. For everyday purposes the result is the same: the conviction stops showing up on standard background checks.
Waiting Periods
Every state that allows record clearing imposes a waiting period after you finish your sentence. For misdemeanor convictions, that window runs from immediate eligibility in a handful of states to five years or more in others. Three to five years is the most common range. The clock does not start until you have completed every piece of the sentence: fines paid, probation finished, community service done. People regularly underestimate how long this takes when probation itself runs twelve to twenty-four months on top of other requirements.
Other Eligibility Requirements
Most states also require that you pick up no new charges or convictions during the waiting window. Some limit eligibility based on the total number of convictions on your record. Disturbing the peace is a low-level misdemeanor everywhere, so it almost never falls into the excluded-offense categories that block expungement for violent or sexual crimes. If this is your only conviction and you have stayed out of trouble, you are a strong candidate in nearly every state that allows expungement.
Automatic Clearing Under Clean Slate Laws
You may not need to file anything at all. More than a dozen states and Washington, D.C. have passed “Clean Slate” laws that automatically seal qualifying records after a set period, with no petition required. The state agency responsible for criminal histories periodically reviews records and seals those that meet the criteria. The usual requirement is that you completed your sentence and stayed crime-free for a specified number of years. Before paying for a formal petition, check whether your conviction already qualifies in your state.
How the Petition Process Works
In states without automatic clearing, or if your record does not qualify, you file a formal petition with the court that handled your original case. Start by pulling together your case information:
- Your case number, date of conviction, and the statute you were convicted under
- Proof that you completed your sentence: receipts for paid fines, documentation showing probation finished, and records of any completed community service
- A copy of your official criminal history report from the state police or equivalent agency, which some courts require with the petition
Most of this comes from the clerk’s office at the courthouse where your case was heard. The criminal history report sometimes requires a separate request and a fingerprinting fee.
Once your documents are in order, file the petition with the court. Filing fees vary by jurisdiction and commonly fall between $100 and several hundred dollars. Some states waive fees if you can show financial hardship. After filing, you must formally notify the prosecutor’s office that handled the original case. The prosecutor gets a window to review the petition and object if they believe you fall short of eligibility.
If the prosecutor does not object, many judges grant the petition on the paperwork alone. If an objection is filed, the court schedules a hearing where both sides present arguments and a judge decides. For a straightforward disturbing the peace expungement with a clean record during the waiting period, contested hearings are uncommon. Prosecutors tend to save objections for more serious offenses or cases with complicating factors.
What Changes After Your Record Is Cleared
Once a court grants your expungement or sealing order, the conviction disappears from public view. Standard commercial background checks run by employers and landlords will not show it. You can legally answer “no” when asked on job or housing applications whether you have been convicted of a crime.
The record does not vanish entirely. Law enforcement agencies and the court system keep access to sealed and expunged records. The conviction can still surface in specific situations: federal security clearance investigations, background screenings for positions working with vulnerable populations, applications for law enforcement jobs, and sentencing if you are ever charged with another offense. For most everyday purposes, though, the record is effectively gone.
Protections While the Record Is Still There
Even before you clear your record, legal protections limit the damage a misdemeanor conviction can do in the job market.
Roughly three-quarters of states have adopted “ban the box” or fair-chance hiring policies that remove criminal history questions from initial job applications and delay background checks until later in the hiring process. The specifics vary. Some laws apply only to public employers; others also cover private companies above a certain size. The core idea is consistent: you get evaluated on your qualifications first, before the conviction enters the conversation.
Federal guidance adds another layer. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has stated that blanket policies rejecting anyone with a criminal record are inconsistent with federal anti-discrimination law. Employers are expected to conduct an individualized assessment that weighs the nature of the offense, how much time has passed, and the responsibilities of the specific position. An older disturbing the peace conviction with no repeat offenses is exactly the kind of record that should receive favorable consideration. If an employer rejects you based solely on that record without weighing those factors, you may have grounds for a complaint with the EEOC.2U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions
If Your Case Is Still Open
Everything above assumes you already have a conviction. If you are facing a charge but have not been convicted yet, you have more leverage, because keeping the conviction off your record in the first place makes the clearing process unnecessary.
Many jurisdictions offer pretrial diversion for low-level misdemeanors. You agree to conditions like community service or educational classes and stay out of trouble for a set period, and the charges are dismissed or declined once you complete the program.3U.S. Department of Justice. Justice Manual 9-22.000 – Pretrial Diversion Program A dismissed charge is far easier to manage than a conviction, and the seven-year federal reporting limit for non-conviction arrests then applies automatically. Deferred adjudication works similarly but usually requires a guilty or no-contest plea, with probation in place of a formal conviction. In some jurisdictions, disturbing the peace is filed as an infraction rather than a misdemeanor, or an attorney can negotiate it down to one, which carries only a fine and no criminal record. Any of these options is worth discussing with a lawyer before the case resolves.