Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: sealing past conviction

Adults generally can't get records sealed. But, if you qualify, you may be able to get it reduced and expunged by motion to the court. That is available to you if there was no prison time served or ordered on a felony, it wasn't a domestic abuse or physical assault case or some others that prohibit expungement, all terms of probation were completed, you have no new convictions. Expungement is to give people a fresh start. If you think you qualify, feel free to contact me for help in doing this.

Re: sealing past conviction

In order to seal and destroy a record you have to be able to show that there was no probable cause to have been arrested in the first place or that you were factually innocent. Both of those are hard to do if you plead to an offense or if you were found guilty by a jury.

However, for most offenses, you can get the conviction removed from your public record. This is called a 1203.4 Motion. If the conviction were a felony you could also ask the court to reduce the felony to a misdemeanor.

The way a 1203.4 Motion works is this: You petition the court under Penal Code section 1203.4 and if it's granted the Court withdraws your plea of guilty, enters a plea of not guilty and dismisses the case. So, you no longer have a conviction. If you have successfully completed probation the court has no discretion to deny the motion. If you had one or more probation violations, you don't automatically get the petition granted but the court will hold a hearing on the matter. When you file the petition, you have to not be on probation in any other matter and not have a matter pending.

Many people do these on their own without a lawyer and some courts charge a filing fee and some do not.

There are offenses that prohibit this kind of relief.

If you have additional questions, or would like to talk about your matter, please feel free to call.

Good luck,

Elena Condes

Re: sealing past conviction

The were and what you do depends on the nature of the prior, juvenile, misdemeanor felony, and as to adult convictions, especially feloneys, what sentence was imposed...good news is that most procedures are "routine" and can enpunge prior convictions.

DJM