Legal Question in Administrative Law in California

Re: expungment of court records

If you can't afford an attorney, ask your local public defender to handle your expungement application.

For ex-felons, the procedure is to petition for a certificate of rehabilitation under Penal Code sections 4852.01 through 4852.21.

For persons convicted of misdemeanors, there are two procedures: Penal Code section 1203.4 describes the process for misdemeanants who got probation and lived up to its terms. Section 1203.4a describes a process for those who did time.

In general, the process results in setting aside your guilty plea or judgment of conviction and replacing it with an acquittal or not guilty plea. However, this only ADDS the new information to your criminal record; NOTHING is REMOVED from your record and anyone who looks will find both the former conviction AND the so-called expungement.

After expungement, you do not have to disclose the now-reversed conviction if applying for private employment, but you must still disclose it if applying for a license, permit or certain government jobs. You still cannot own or possess firearms. There are other rules as well.