Your CORI, short for Criminal Offender Record Information, is the record Massachusetts keeps of every criminal case that was ever opened against you in a state court. Employers check it. Landlords check it. Licensing boards check it. If you have ever been arraigned in a Massachusetts court, even on a charge that was dismissed the same day, there is a CORI entry with your name on it.
People come to this topic with three questions. What is on my record? What can an employer actually see? And can I get it sealed so it stops following me around? This guide answers all three under current Massachusetts law: G.L. c. 6, §§ 167 through 178, which governs the CORI system, and G.L. c. 276, § 100A and related sections, which govern sealing and expungement.
What a CORI Actually Contains
A CORI is built from court records, not police records. It lists every Massachusetts criminal charge that reached arraignment, along with the outcome: guilty, not guilty, dismissed, nolle prossed (dropped by the prosecutor), or continued without a finding (a CWOF). It includes open cases, probation terms, and sentences.
It does not include arrests that never led to a court case, out-of-state convictions, federal charges, or civil matters like restraining orders. Those can appear on other background checks, but they are not CORI. That distinction matters later, because sealing your CORI only controls what the Massachusetts system reports.
How to Get a Copy of Your Own CORI
Before you apply for a job or file anything to seal a record, get your own copy. People are routinely surprised by what is on it: old defaults they thought were resolved, charges listed under a misspelled name, cases they forgot existed. The Department of Criminal Justice Information Services (DCJIS) runs the system, and every personal request goes through it one of two ways.
Option 1: Online Through iCORI
- Go to the iCORI service page on mass.gov and create an individual account. You need a valid Massachusetts driver’s license or state ID card to register online.
- Select a personal record request and enter your identifying information exactly as it appears on your ID.
- Pay the $25 fee by credit or debit card. If you receive public assistance or cannot afford the fee, you can submit an Affidavit of Indigency instead and get the report for free.
- Your report is typically available to download within a few business days, often sooner.
Option 2: By Mail
If you do not have a Massachusetts license or ID, you cannot register online and must apply by mail. Download the Personal CORI Request Form from the CORI forms page on mass.gov, complete it, and have your signature notarized. Mail it to the DCJIS CORI Unit with a money order or bank cashier’s check for $25 made out to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Cash and personal checks are not accepted. Indigent applicants mail the completed Affidavit of Indigency in place of payment. The CORI Massachusetts form packet and current mailing address are both on the DCJIS pages, and processing by mail takes longer than the online route, so plan on a few weeks.
One more tip: what you receive as a personal request is the complete record. It is more than most employers will ever see, which brings us to the next question.
What Employers Can See, and What They Can Ask
Access to CORI is tiered. Most private employers qualify only for what the law calls standard access, and a standard-access CORI check Massachusetts employers run is deliberately limited. It shows:
- Pending criminal charges, including cases continued without a finding that are still open
- Misdemeanor convictions for 5 years after disposition or release from incarceration, whichever is later
- Felony convictions for 10 years after disposition or release, whichever is later
- Convictions for murder, voluntary manslaughter, involuntary manslaughter, and sex offenses, which remain visible with no time limit
Older convictions fall off a standard-access report even without sealing. Some employers, such as schools, hospitals, long-term care facilities, and agencies serving children or vulnerable adults, are granted broader access by statute, and law enforcement sees everything.
Separate from what employers can see is what they can ask, and Massachusetts law restricts this sharply. Under the state’s ban-the-box law, an employer cannot ask about criminal history on an initial written job application at all. The question can only come later in the process. Even then, an employer may never ask you about:
- An arrest or case that did not end in a conviction, including dismissals and not-guilty findings
- A first conviction for certain minor misdemeanors, including drunkenness, simple assault, speeding, a minor traffic violation, affray, or disturbing the peace
- A misdemeanor conviction more than 3 years old, unless you have a more recent conviction
- Any sealed record or sealed juvenile record
An employer who runs your CORI must get your written authorization first, and if the employer plans to reject you based on the record, it must give you a copy before making the decision so you can dispute errors. These obligations date to the 2010 CORI reform law and remain in force.
Sealing: Who Qualifies and How Long You Wait
Sealing does not destroy a record. It hides the record from employers, landlords, and the general public, while courts and law enforcement retain access. For most people asking how to seal your criminal record in Massachusetts, the answer runs through G.L. c. 276, § 100A and a set of waiting periods that the 2018 criminal justice reform law cut substantially. The current periods:
- Misdemeanor convictions: 3 years from the date of disposition or your release from incarceration, whichever is later, with no new convictions during that time
- Felony convictions: 7 years from disposition or release, whichever is later, with no new convictions during that time
- Sex offenses: 15 years after supervision ends, and never while you are still required to register; anyone ever classified as a Level 2 or Level 3 sex offender cannot seal that offense
- Juvenile records: 3 years from the final disposition under G.L. c. 276, § 100B, with no new findings in between
- Non-convictions: no waiting period; a dismissal, not-guilty finding, or nolle prosequi can be sealed at any time through the court
A small set of convictions can never be sealed under § 100A: certain firearms offenses such as unlicensed sale of guns or ammunition, some crimes against public justice such as perjury and witness intimidation, and violations of the state ethics laws by public officials. Resisting arrest, which used to be on the unsealable list, became sealable when the 2018 reform took effect.
The Two Ways to Seal a Record
Route 1: The Mail-In Petition (Administrative Sealing)
If your waiting period has run, sealing is close to automatic and there is no hearing and no judge involved.
- Download the Petition to Seal from mass.gov (it is the form filed under G.L. c. 276, § 100A).
- Complete it and sign under the penalties of perjury. You do not need to list every case; a request to seal covers all eligible cases on your record.
- Mail it to the Commissioner of Probation in Boston. There is no fee.
- The Probation Department verifies your eligibility and seals every case that qualifies, typically within several weeks to a few months. You receive written confirmation.
The tradeoff on this route is patience: you must wait out the full 3 or 7 years, but once you have, the Commissioner must seal eligible cases.
Route 2: A Motion in Court (Discretionary Sealing)
Cases that ended without a conviction can be sealed under G.L. c. 276, § 100C without any waiting period. You file a motion in the court where the case ended, and a judge decides whether good cause exists to seal. Under the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision in Commonwealth v. Pon, the judge weighs the disadvantage the record causes you, your rehabilitation, and other relevant circumstances against the public’s interest in open records. Practical evidence helps: a job you were denied, a housing application that went nowhere, steady employment since the case closed. Dismissals and not-guilty findings are sealed this way frequently, and a judge can act far sooner than the § 100A clock would ever allow.
Expungement Is a Different Thing
Sealing hides a record; expungement destroys it, permanently and everywhere in the state system. Massachusetts allowed almost no expungement before 2018. Now, under G.L. c. 276, §§ 100E through 100U, there are two main paths.
Time-based expungement is for offenses committed before your 21st birthday. You may have no more than two eligible records, the same 3-year (misdemeanor) and 7-year (felony) waiting periods apply, and a long list of offenses is excluded, including most crimes involving violence, weapons, or operating under the influence. Petitions go to the Commissioner of Probation for certification and then to a judge.
Reason-based expungement under § 100K¼ has no age limit. It applies when the record exists because of identity theft, a demonstrable error by law enforcement or the court, or an offense that is no longer a crime. The marijuana provision deserves its own mention: for possession or cultivation in amounts Massachusetts has since decriminalized, a court is required to order expungement within 30 days of the petition. It is one of the few mandatory expungement provisions in the statute.
After Sealing: What You Can Say
This is the payoff, and the statute spells it out. Once a record is sealed, you may answer “no record” when an employer, landlord, or most licensing applications ask whether you have a criminal record. That is not a loophole; § 100A expressly authorizes the answer. A standard CORI check comes back clean as to the sealed cases, and an employer cannot lawfully ask about them or hold your answer against you.
Keep the limits in mind. Courts, police, and prosecutors still see sealed records. So do certain agencies screening for work with children, the elderly, or people with disabilities, and firearms licensing authorities. Sealing also does not reach FBI databases, commercial background check companies that bought data before the seal, or news coverage of the case. It is powerful for the ordinary CORI check, which is where most of the damage happens, but it is not a time machine.
Common Questions
How much does a CORI check cost?
A personal CORI request costs $25, whether you submit it online or by mail. If you receive public assistance or cannot afford the fee, an Affidavit of Indigency waives it entirely. Filing to seal your record with the Commissioner of Probation is free.
How far back does a CORI go?
Your own copy goes back your entire life; nothing ages off the underlying record. What ages off is employer visibility: on a standard-access report, misdemeanor convictions stop appearing 5 years after disposition or release and felonies stop appearing after 10 years, except murder, manslaughter, and sex offense convictions, which always appear.
Can landlords run a CORI?
Yes. Housing providers can register with DCJIS and run applicants with written consent, generally at the standard access level. A sealed record does not appear, and you may answer “no record” on a rental application once sealing is complete.
How long before I can seal a felony?
Seven years from the disposition date or your release from custody, whichever is later, with no new convictions in the meantime. The clock includes probation and parole time already served toward disposition, and sex offenses carry a longer 15-year period after supervision ends.
Does a CWOF show up on a CORI check?
While the continuance is open, yes, it appears as a pending matter even on standard access. Once the case is dismissed at the end of the continuance period, it becomes a non-conviction, an employer cannot ask about it, and you can move to seal it in court right away under § 100C.
Will sealing remove my record from FBI or out-of-state checks?
No. Massachusetts sealing controls the state CORI system. Fingerprint-based FBI checks, other states’ databases, and private data brokers that collected the case before sealing are outside its reach, though you can ask a private screening company to correct its data once the state record is sealed.
The mail-in petition is simple enough to do yourself, but eligibility questions, § 100C motions, and expungement petitions have real strategy to them, and a criminal defense lawyer or a legal aid organization can review your record and handle the sealing petition with you.