Maine Criminal Records

Maine sells its public criminal history to anyone, online, for $31, and defines in a statute which parts of a record are public and which are confidential, with no time limit on the public part. The courts are in the middle of moving online region by region, so a Maine court search today is one system for the counties that have joined and the clerk's counter for the rest. Sealing arrived in 2022 and reaches only the smallest class of crime, and a Maine judgment can be enforced for twenty years. This page gives the Maine rule and the Maine search for each record, with government sources only.

The Maine State Police's State Bureau of Identification runs the repository and sells the public record through the state's online request service, which "provides you with electronic access to request criminal history record and juvenile crime information maintained by the Maine State Police, State Bureau of Identification." The Bureau prices it: "This service costs $31, payable by credit card (on line) and by check or money order via US Mail. If a notarized background check is desired (such as for visas or international adoptions) then the charge will be $41. Criminal Justice agencies can access an individual's complete CHR" through their own channels. What the public gets is defined by the Criminal History Record Information Act, Title 16, chapter 7: section 704 covers "dissemination of public criminal history record information," meaning convictions and cases still pending, and the act states that "there is no time limitation on dissemination of public criminal history record information" except for the categories section 703 names; section 705 covers "dissemination of confidential criminal history record information," meaning the acquittals, dismissals and other non-conviction data that only the criminal justice agencies and the entities the section lists may see, and it requires an agency to check with the Bureau "before disseminating any confidential criminal history record information for a noncriminal justice purpose to ensure that the most up-to-date disposition information is being used." So a Maine report showing a dismissed case did not come from the Bureau. It is a name and date of birth search, and the criminal records page explains why a name match is a guess; the fingerprint version is for the person's own review and the employers and licensing boards the statutes name.

Maine tries felonies and misdemeanors on a unified criminal docket in each of the sixteen counties, in the Superior Court and the District Court sitting together, and the Judicial Branch is moving those courts onto Maine eCourts by region. Its access page sets the current rule: "members of the public can use re:SearchMaine to search only for public cases in courts where eFiling is available," and its announcement explains that "re:SearchMaine is the new online search tool to access electronic case records, replacing the Maine eCourts Odyssey Portal," while the eCourts questions page notes the same replacement. The system's own sign-in is candid about its standing: "re:Search is providing an unofficial copy of case index information and documents that were accepted in the eFiling system. The clerk of the court is the official custodian of the court's records. Please contact the clerk to obtain an official copy of a document." A court not yet on eFiling, and every case filed before its court joined, is searched through the clerk's office, and the county pages on this site link each courthouse. A background check company's "Maine court record" is a copy of re:SearchMaine or of a clerk's index on the date it was pulled, and the criminal records page explains what a copy misses.

Maine has no expungement statute; a conviction leaves the public record only by pardon or, since 2022, by a post-judgment motion to seal under Title 15, chapter 310-A, sections 2261 to 2269. The definitions section, enacted by Public Law 2021, chapter 674, limits an eligible conviction to "a conviction for a current or former Class E crime, except a conviction for a current or former Class E crime under Title 17-A, chapter 11," the sexual assault chapter, and the 2024 amendments removed the age limit of the original law and added the Class D and E marijuana convictions that predate legalization. The motion goes to the court that entered the conviction, after the waiting period and clean record the chapter requires, and the Judicial Branch's sealing page states the effect: "If your Maine criminal conviction is sealed under this process, it means that you may respond to inquiries from persons other than criminal justice agencies, the court, and other entities described in 15 M.R.S. 2265 as if the conviction had not occurred." A Class D misdemeanor or any felony cannot be sealed in Maine at all. A copy sold before the order keeps the case, and the federal rule on complete and up to date public records, on the criminal records page, is what forces the copy to catch up.

The same chapter that closes non-conviction data opens the arrest. Section 706 of the Criminal History Record Information Act, "public information about persons detained following arrest," makes the name, the charge and the custody of a person detained after arrest public, and Maine's Freedom of Access Act, Title 1, chapter 13, opens the police log and the incident report subject to the intelligence and investigative record exceptions in Title 16, chapter 9. So a Maine arrest is public on the day it happens, and it becomes confidential only if the case ends without a conviction, at which point the Bureau stops releasing it while the news account and the copied roster remain. Who is in custody is a county question: the Department of Corrections says so itself, "if your family member or friend has been ordered detained in a jail or sentenced to a jail by a court, please contact the jail for the county where the court is located for information about them. The Department of Corrections does not operate the jails," and its adult resident search covers state prisoners and community corrections clients, "available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week." The county jails, the Cumberland County Jail in Portland among them, post their own rosters, linked from the county pages. The arrest records page covers what happens to a booking after it leaves the roster.

A Maine judgment can be enforced for twenty years under Title 14, section 864, and the lien follows the writ of execution rather than the judgment. Under Title 14, section 4651-A, filing the writ of execution with the registry of deeds creates a lien on the debtor's real estate in that county, and its duration turns on the date: a lien created before September 1, 2020 "continues for a period of 20 years from the date of the filing of the writ of execution or of the recording of the writ of execution in the registry of deeds, unless the judgment is paid, discharged or released," while Public Law 2019, chapter 622, "An Act To Reduce the Duration of Execution Liens," cut the term for liens created on or after that date to ten years, renewable. The court records page covers where the judgments and the registries of deeds are searched.

Maine is a single federal judicial district, the District of Maine, under 28 U.S.C. 99, and court is held at Bangor and Portland. A federal criminal case from any of Maine's sixteen counties is on that one docket and on PACER, whose prices and gaps are on the criminal records page.

Whether a person has a Maine record: the Bureau answers it online for $31, by name and date of birth, convictions and pending cases only.

Whether a person was charged in a county: re:SearchMaine answers it for the courts on eFiling, and the clerk for the rest and for everything older.

Whether a person was arrested: the person detained is public information under section 706, and the police log is open under the Freedom of Access Act.

Whether a person is in custody now: the county jail answers it, and the Department's search for state prison and supervision.

Whether an old case can still be found: a sealed Class E conviction may be denied, everything heavier stays, a judgment runs twenty years and its execution lien ten or twenty by date, and a copy that predates a sealing is reached through the federal rule.