Clearing a Criminal Record in California: Dismissal, Prop 47 and Clean Slate

Dismissal under Penal Code 1203.4

If you were granted probation and completed it, or the court terminated it early, you can generally petition the court to withdraw your guilty or no contest plea, enter a not guilty plea and dismiss the case. You must not be serving a sentence, on probation for another offense or charged with a new one. Some offenses are excluded, including certain sex offenses. If you did not fully comply with probation, the court still has discretion to grant relief in the interest of justice.

A dismissal helps with most private employers: in general they may not ask about or consider a dismissed conviction. It does not erase the record, however. The conviction can still count as a prior offense if you are charged again, must be disclosed in some applications for government jobs and state licenses, and does not restore firearm rights that were lost because of a felony conviction.

Prop 47 and other reductions

Proposition 47, adopted in November 2014, turned certain drug possession and lower-value theft offenses into misdemeanors. Under Penal Code section 1170.18, people with older felony convictions for these offenses can ask the court to redesignate them as misdemeanors if they would be misdemeanors under current law, unless certain serious prior convictions apply. Separate rules allow some wobbler felonies to be reduced under Penal Code section 17(b), and cannabis convictions affected by Proposition 64 can be reduced or dismissed.

A reduction can be combined with a dismissal, which can make a significant difference for jobs and housing.

Automatic relief under Clean Slate

California's Clean Slate laws, including Penal Code sections 851.93 and 1203.425, direct the Department of Justice to grant automatic relief for many eligible arrests that did not lead to a conviction and for many eligible convictions once the waiting period has passed. Not every case qualifies, and relief depends on the records being complete. You can request a copy of your own criminal history record from the California Department of Justice to see what it shows.

If your case was not cleared automatically, you can still petition the court yourself or with an attorney.

• Request your record from the California DOJ before you file anything.
• List each case with its county, case number and year.
• Check whether probation, fines and restitution are fully completed.

If you are not a US citizen

Relief under state law does not always remove the immigration consequences of a conviction. If you are not a US citizen, talk to a criminal defense attorney and an immigration attorney before you file anything, and tell them about every arrest and conviction. The California courts also publish a separate guide on record cleaning for non-citizens.