Legal Question in Criminal Law in Minnesota

Re: how to expunge a domestic assault from 1996

The shortest answer would be "you don't." A longer answer would begin with, it might be possible, but there could be no assurance of ultimate success, and it would likely involve a hotly contested legal battle against the state.

I don't think there would any serious chance at all, without a lawyer representing you and helping attempt to obtain such relief from the court. A lawyer would need to look into and investigate the facts of your situation, in order to properly evaluate possible legal strategies to pursue on your behalf.

Under the Minnesota expungement statute, most convictions cannot be "expunged" any more. There is another way to seek "expungement" of criminal records, under the "inherent authority of the court" line of cases. But a relatively recent case makes it more difficult to get relief on that basis which would result in making executive branch records of conviction non-public.