54-142a, commonly referred to as the Connecticut Erasure Statute. The primary effects of the amendments are to remove the category of transcripts of criminal trials from the types of records that are subject to erasure, and to delay the actual physical destruction of erased records. As a general rule, the law disfavors the retroactive application of a statute effecting substantive, as opposed to procedural, changes. Conn. Gen. Stat. Statutes are applied retroactively in a very narrow category of cases.
Retroactive application is the rule for amending statutes that are procedural in their impact. . . .
An act that has been passed to clarify an existing statute, that is, one that was passed shortly after controversies arose as to the judicial interpretation of the original act, is also to be applied retroactively. All other statutes are applied prospectively unless the legislature expressly specifies the contrary. These aids to legislative interpretation apply with equal force to amendatory acts which effectuate changes in existing statutes. Thus, a statute affecting vested rights or imposing new obligations is construed to apply prospectively unless the legislature clearly and unequivocally expresses its intent that the legislation shall apply retrospectively. Endnote 2 to have all records of his arrest and prosecution erased, including any transcripts of proceedings before the court.