Expungement Workflow AI
An AI- and automation-powered workflow from Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands for reentry legal teams, to analyze criminal records, flag eligible charges, and generate expungement petitions—freeing up legal staff time and dramatically increasing the number of people served.
Project Description
The Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands developed a technology-assisted system to streamline criminal record expungements. Using a trained instance of ChatGPT alongside document automation tools, the platform reviews anonymized criminal records, identifies charges eligible for expungement, and generates petitions for attorney review and filing.
This process directly supports reentry and economic mobility by removing a common barrier to housing, employment, and education—lingering criminal charges that are legally eligible for removal but remain due to procedural complexity or resource constraints.
It also helps more pro bono attorneys work on expungement.
How It Was Built
The workflow layers several tools:
- ChatGPT – Reads criminal records, classifies each entry (dismissed, retired, diverted, conviction), and flags eligible charges. The legal aid team built the custom GPT ExpungeMate on the ChatGPT platform, so it is more informed about the local laws, process, and data.
- Excel + Zapier – Structures flagged data and routes it into the document automation system.
- Gavel – Generates formatted petitions in bulk, ready for attorney review and client signatures.
The integration is designed so that records with 15–20 eligible charges can be processed in minutes, versus hours of manual work.
Value for Users and Teams
- For Legal Aid Staff: Reduces manual petition drafting time from hours to minutes, allowing more focus on client counseling and outreach.
- For Clients: Increases access to timely expungement, unlocking opportunities for jobs, housing, and stability.
- For Pro Bono Attorneys: Simplifies case preparation, making it easier for volunteers to participate without deep prior experience in expungement law.
How to Measure It
- Processing Speed: Average time to prepare complete expungement petitions before and after adoption.
- Volume: Number of charges and petitions completed per clinic or time period.
- Impact Metrics: Estimated dollar value of waived court costs; number of individuals who successfully clear their records.
How It Can Be Adapted
- Expand eligibility detection to include certain conviction types with nuanced statutory criteria.
- Adapt the classification logic and petition templates for other jurisdictions with different expungement laws.
- Integrate with online filing systems for end-to-end automation.