Will a DUI Show Up on a Background Check in Michigan?
Here’s the dreaded lawyer answer: it depends. In many cases, yes, it will show up. Michigan treats operating while intoxicated as a criminal offense committed with a vehicle, so a conviction can reach both your Michigan State Police criminal history record and your Secretary of State driving record.
Those are separate files, held by separate agencies, and there are different rules about what gets reported and how long it stays. Knowing which record someone reviews is the difference between panic and a plan, and it is where my team and I start as Michigan DUI and OWI defense attorneys who also handle driver’s license restoration cases.
Two Records, Two Different Sets of Rules
Michigan does not keep one master file on you. It keeps two, and they answer to different agencies under different statutes.
The first is your criminal history record, held by the Michigan State Police.
The second is your driving record, held by the Secretary of State.
Most offenses touch only one of these. A retail fraud conviction reaches the criminal side. A speeding ticket reaches the driving side. Operating while intoxicated is unusual because it is a criminal charge under the Michigan Vehicle Code, so it goes on both records at the same time.
That distinction is important. When someone tells you they ran a background check, they usually mean one of these files, not both. An employer hiring for an office role is generally pulling a criminal history search.
A trucking company, a delivery platform, or an insurance carrier is generally pulling your driving record. What they see depends on which file they requested. In that regard, it can also matter a lot if you’ve had your conviction expunged.
What a Michigan Criminal History Search Shows
The Michigan State Police runs the state’s public criminal history search, a name-based tool that reaches the statewide repository. Felony and misdemeanor convictions are reported to that repository by law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and courts throughout Michigan.
Several categories are not in that search at all. Before you assume the worst, it helps to know what the public tool leaves out:
- Suppressed records and outstanding warrant information
- Federal records and tribal records
- Traffic records, meaning civil infractions and ordinary tickets rather than criminal convictions such as OWI, and juvenile records
- Local ordinance misdemeanors
- Criminal history from any other state
Where an OWI lands is not a close call. Michigan requires fingerprinting and reporting to the state repository for felonies and for misdemeanors punishable by more than 92 days. A standard first offense is a 93-day misdemeanor, so it clears that threshold and is reported.
A High BAC first offense carries up to 180 days in jail, a second offense within 7 years carries up to 1 year, and a third offense is a felony, so those are all reported as well. You should expect an OWI conviction at any level to appear on a Michigan criminal history search unless and until it is set aside through an expungement.
What the Secretary of State Keeps, and What a Court Cannot Erase
The Secretary of State is clear about what the state keeps on your driving record. Most convictions stay at least 7 years. Certain convictions and licensing actions stay at least 10. A conviction for a fatality or for impaired driving remains on your driving record permanently.
Whatever the retention period turns out to be in your case, Michigan law is explicit about the part that matters most. An order setting aside a conviction for a DUI simply will NOT remove it from the driving record maintained by the Secretary of State.
A court can clear (expunge) the criminal side of your record. It cannot do that to your driving record.
Points are a separate system, and the confusion between the two causes real problems. Points remain on your record for 2 years from the date of conviction, and an OWI carries 6 of them while impaired driving carries 4. When those points fall off, people often assume the conviction falls off with them. It does NOT. The points are gone, but the conviction is still there.
Therefore, if the “background check” that matters to you is a driving record pull, expungement is not your answer.
When a Michigan OWI Can Be Set Aside
Michigan law changed here, and much of what is still online is out of date. Since February 19, 2022, a first-and-only operating while intoxicated conviction can be set aside (expunged) on application. Several conditions apply at once:
- It must be a first violation operating while intoxicated offense, and you cannot have had one set aside before
- An offense that caused injury or death is never eligible
- You must wait 5 years from whichever happens last: imposition of sentence, completion of probation, discharge from parole, or completion of any term of imprisonment
- A traffic offense committed by a commercial driver’s license holder while operating a commercial vehicle is permanently excluded, whatever the offense
- You cannot have criminal charges pending, and you cannot have been convicted of any criminal offense during the waiting period
- The court may deny the petition if it is not convinced you have benefited from rehabilitative or educational programming
- This relief is never automatic, and the statute calls a set aside a privilege rather than a right
The point about rehabilitation and education is key, because the judge is looking for genuine progress rather than paperwork. Attorney Jeffrey Randa completed a formal post-graduate program in addiction studies, focusing on the development, diagnosis, treatment of and recovery from alcohol and substance use disorders. This knowledge shapes how the firm presents the evidence to the judge.
It is also why we handle the set aside process for a first OWI with a critical level of attention to detail.
What a Granted Set Aside Actually Clears
Here is the part that rarely makes it into an article. A granted set aside (expungement) does not completely delete anything. It changes who is allowed to see it, and it changes that on one side of your record only.
After a set aside, the Michigan State Police retains a nonpublic record of the order and of the arrest, fingerprints, conviction, and sentence. That record is available only to a short list of requesters, including courts, the Department of Corrections, law enforcement, prosecutors, the attorney general, and the governor, and only for a short list of purposes such as a subsequent criminal or DUI charge, sentencing on a later felony or a later application to set aside another conviction.
It is also exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. Anyone other than you or a victim of the offense who knows or should have known your conviction was set aside, and who then divulges, uses, or publishes information about it, commits a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail, a fine of up to $500, or both.
Call Now to Discuss Your Situation
A background check question is usually a bigger question wearing a smaller one, about a job, a promotion, a lease, or a license. For more than 30 years my team and I have concentrated exclusively on Michigan OWI defense, criminal defense, and driver’s license restoration, and we can tell you which record is likely in play and what can still be done about it.
Call our office at 586-465-1980 for a free, confidential phone consultation. We are available Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with an after-hours answering service when the office is closed. You can also reach us through the contact form or the chat box here on our website.
Contact our office today, or learn more about our Michigan DUI and OWI defense work.