Los Angeles Criminal Record Expungements
Once your case has been legally disposed of, through fines, jail time, or successfully completing probation, you can now begin to clean up your criminal record. Penal Code Section 1203 governs expungements. A person who successfully completes probation can have the accusations against them dismissed and will be absolved from all of the penalties and disabilities that resulted from the offense, Except as law specifies for certain cases. Any person convicted of a misdemeanor or felony offense should immediately seek to erase their criminal record before the past affects the present.
What happens after my record is expunged?
When the criminal expungement case is terminated or dismissed, you are able to represent you were not convicted for a particular crime or offense. It's almost as though it never happened, except of course for the valuable lessons you should have learned. Although you will clean your record, several instances will require disclosure of a prior criminal record. For example, you still have the obligation to disclose the conviction in response to any direct question contained in a questionnaire or an application for a public office, for licensure by state or local agencies, or for contracting with the California State Lottery. Despite the few exceptions, an expungement can alleviate numerous problems caused by a lingering Criminal Record.
Juvenile records can be sealed as well. However, unlike an adult expungement, sealing a juvenile record is exactly as it sounds. A sealed juvenile record will act as a total shield to its disclosure. Without any exception, it will be as if it never occurred. As a result, it is important to seal any juvenile record before it arises in an adult case. A Juvenile record is admissible in Adult Criminal Court.
For many felony convictions, it is possible to have these reduced to a misdemeanor and then expunged. There are other methods of record cleaning, including obtaining a certificate of rehabilitation and pardons. Section 17 (b) of the Penal Code governs reductions of Felonies to Misdemeanors.
Why expunge your record?
If you or someone you know and care about is interested in cleaning up a criminal history, please contact our Los Angeles criminal defense law firm immediately. We will help. An expungement is a sealing of a criminal record. Governed by Penal Code Section 1203.4 , criminal convictions may be cleared from your record after an action or motion is filed with the court where the conviction occurred and a formal request is made to have the criminal conviction reversed, set aside or dismissed. Misdemeanor convictions and felony offenses may be expunged after first being reduced under Penal Code Section 17(b) if the felony offense is a “Wobbler”. Otherwise a felony can be expunged through a Certificate of Rehabilitation.
Expungement is the vehicle to clean a criminal conviction record for offenses committed either as adults or juveniles. The reason to obtain an expungement is to protect yourself from revealing the conviction, which may hamper employment, renting, purchasing real estate, obtaining loans, and a myriad of situations.
Misdemeanor Expungements
Expungements for misdemeanors typically take between 2 to 4 weeks to complete from the time the application is filed until the end. There may be additional time spent in preparing your application and/or paperwork to file with the appropriate court to begin the expungement process. Be prepared with the information you will need (conviction charge, court location, time of conviction, when probation ended etc.) so that the application can be completed and filed expeditiously. Our investigators can also obtain any court documents necessary to complete the application for you.
Felony Reductions and Expungements
Expungements of felony convictions typically take 4 to 6 weeks to complete once the application is filed. Felony expungements are also called Certificates of Rehabilitation. A felony that cannot be expunged can sometimes be reduced to a misdemeanor. In any event the application usually takes 4 to 6 weeks to process and finalize. This is based upon the expediency of gathering information to prepare the application properly. Court searches for records for information will take a longer period to accomplish.
Sealing Juvenile Records
In most cases our Los Angeles criminal lawyers can have the records of a juvenile sealed from start to finish in 2 to 6 weeks. The speed to proceed with this application is dependent on the information provided to us, the age of the old juvenile case and the location of the court.
