In Delaware records eligible for expungement fall into two categories: mandatory and discretionary (by petition). Per a 2021 law, records authorized for mandatory expungement must be automatically expunged effective in August 2024.  These include most misdemeanor convictions, as well as cases “terminated in favor of the accused,” including acquittals, dismissals after probation before judgment, dismissals of all charges, and arrests that are not charged within 1 year of the arrest. In 2021 and 2022 the category of mandatory expougements was expanded to include more misdemeanors and a handful of minor felonies. Until the automatic system is operational, records may only be expunged on application to the State Bureau of Investigation after waiting periods of three years after conviction (for violations), five years (for less serious misdemeanors, including decriminalized marijuana offenses but excluding domestic violence and other offenses), and ten years (for a handful of less serious felonies). Undisposed cases became eligible in 2022 for mandatory expungement after seven years. In all but the least serious cases, the person must have no prior or subsequent convictions.

Additional convictions may be expunged upon petition to the court, if the person has no prior or subsequent disqualifying convictions, after waiting periods ranging from three to seven years.  Pardoned convictions may also be expunged on petition.  Victims of human trafficking convicted of any nonviolent crime or adjudicated delinquent may petition for pardon or vacatur, with expungement to follow in either case.  Juvenile records may be expunged under a bifurcated scheme analogous to the one applicable to criminal records, with expungement mandatory in some cases and discretionary in others, with certain “prohibitions to expungement.” Expungement means that all law-enforcement agency records and court records are “destroyed, segregated, or placed in the custody of the State Bureau of Identification,” and are not released except to law enforcement and the courts.