Can a DUI Be Expunged in California? What a Dismissal Changes

Say you pleaded to a misdemeanor DUI in Van Nuys a few years ago, finished every class, checked in on time, and haven't had so much as a parking ticket since. Now a job application asks about convictions, and you're wondering whether a DUI can be expunged in California at all.

Usually, yes, but for a DUI the judge has discretion. Once your probation is over, whether you finished it or a judge ended it early, a California court can dismiss a DUI conviction under Penal Code section 1203.4, which is what most people mean by "expungement." Even a spotless probation record doesn't guarantee it.

A dismissal also doesn't erase the DUI for driving purposes: it can still count as a prior (an earlier DUI that can raise a new one's penalties) if you're arrested again, and it doesn't undo anything the DMV did to your license. (California, it turns out, doesn't technically have expungement at all. It has a dismissal with a much less catchy name.) Our guide explains what a California dismissal under Penal Code 1203.4 actually does. If your DUI arrest never became a conviction, you need a different process: sealing an arrest that didn't lead to a conviction.

Is a DUI eligible for expungement in California?

Yes, though for a DUI the judge doesn't have to grant it. Penal Code section 1203.4 excludes only a short list of convictions, and neither ordinary DUI (Vehicle Code section 23152) nor DUI causing injury (section 23153) is on it. The list covers a misdemeanor under Vehicle Code section 42002.1, specified sex offenses (including one felony under Penal Code section 261.5(d)), and any infraction. What's different about a DUI is how the judge decides.

Does the judge have to grant a DUI dismissal?

No. For most offenses, the judge must grant a 1203.4 dismissal if you completed probation or were discharged from it early. For a DUI under section 23152 or 23153, the court instead may grant it "in its discretion and in the interest of justice," so even if you completed every condition of probation, the judge decides whether you get it.

That's because section 1203.4 says its must-grant rule doesn't apply to the offenses listed in subdivisions (a) through (e) of Vehicle Code section 12810, a list that includes "a violation of Section 23152 or 23153." For the Van Nuys reader, that clean probation record is still the strongest thing to point to. The California Courts self-help guide says that if you met your probation terms, "the court must grant your petition"; that's the general rule, not the DUI exception. If a probation violation was found, you can still ask; the judge weighs it as part of the same discretionary decision.

There's also a timing condition: relief is available only if you're not "serving a sentence for an offense, on probation for an offense, or charged with the commission of an offense." So if you've picked up a new DUI or any other new charge, the dismissal has to wait until that case is over, and if it ends in probation, until that probation is over too.

How your DUI case ended decides which route fits:

Most readers are in the first row, where the catch is how long DUI probation lasts.

Why DUI probation keeps you waiting longer than you expect

DUI probation runs three to five years. California generally caps misdemeanor probation at one year (Penal Code section 1203a), but that cap doesn't apply when an offense's own statute sets the probation length, and the DUI statute does. Vehicle Code section 23600 sets probation for a 23152 or 23153 conviction at "not less than three nor more than five years," and allows a longer period only when the offense's maximum prison sentence exceeds five years. So the one-year cap you read about online doesn't shorten DUI probation, and the dismissal waits until it's over or a judge ends it.

Can you end DUI probation early so you can file sooner?

You can ask, and if the judge grants it, you can petition for dismissal without waiting out the full term, though for a DUI the dismissal itself is still up to the judge. The court can end probation early when doing so serves justice and your "good conduct and reform" warrant it (Penal Code section 1203.3), and nothing in that statute excludes DUI cases. The judge has to hold a hearing in open court first, with two days' written notice to the prosecutor, who has to notify the victim if the victim asked to be told.

There's no statewide form: the self-help guide says you can write your own request and file it with the court, and that if you're still on probation when you want a dismissal, you must also ask for early termination. Early termination is discretionary too, so a judge can deny it even when you've done everything right, and then you wait out the term. Picture someone three years into five, program certificate in hand: asking for both at once means two discretionary decisions, so proof that they did what the court ordered matters for each.

What changes after a DUI is dismissed?

The biggest change is at work: California employers generally can't ask you to disclose, look for, or use a dismissed conviction when they hire, promote, or fire (Labor Code section 432.7). The exceptions cover employers required by law to get conviction information, jobs that involve carrying a firearm, positions a person with that conviction is legally barred from holding, and employers legally barred from hiring someone with it. Three of those, all but the firearm one, apply even if the conviction was "judicially dismissed following probation." If the job involves driving or a legally required background check, read those exceptions before you answer.

Licenses are trickier. A dismissal doesn't remove your duty to disclose the conviction "in response to any direct question" on a state or local license application, but Business and Professions Code section 480 says most boards can't require you to disclose criminal history at all, and that you "shall not be denied a license on the basis of any conviction" dismissed under 1203.4. If the Department of Justice report doesn't show the dismissal, you have to provide the proof. The 1203.4 guide linked above lists the boards outside that framework.

What doesn't change: priors, the DMV, and commercial licenses

Does an expunged DUI still count as a prior?

Yes. In any later prosecution, a dismissed DUI "may be pleaded and proved," meaning charged and used against you as a prior, with the same effect as if probation had never been granted or the case dismissed (Penal Code section 1203.4), and automatic relief carries the same rule. A dismissed DUI still "resulted in a conviction," so a dismissal doesn't restart the 10-year clock or take a new DUI out of the second-offense tier.

The penalties climb when a new DUI happens within 10 years of an earlier DUI (or an alcohol-related reckless driving offense under Vehicle Code section 23103.5) that resulted in a conviction. Today, one prior raises them (section 23540), two raise them further (section 23546), and three or more make the new DUI punishable either by a felony term under Penal Code section 1170(h) or by county jail (section 23550). Those tiers change for a new DUI committed on or after January 1, 2027, under Assembly Bill 1546 (Statutes of 2026, chapter 444). Then a DUI with two priors within 10 years can be charged as either a felony or a misdemeanor, a DUI with three priors can still be charged either way, and a DUI with four or more priors within 10 years becomes a felony only. The 10-year window itself doesn't change.

The 10 years run between the offenses, not from the dismissal. If your first DUI happened in 2020 and was dismissed in 2024, a new DUI in 2028 is eight years after the 2020 offense, so the dismissed DUI is still your prior. Separate rules apply when the new DUI causes injury (section 23560), when the earlier DUI was punished as a felony, and when you have a prior conviction for certain intoxicated vehicular or boating manslaughter offenses, which counts with no time limit stated (section 23550.5). What changes after a second DUI covers those tiers in detail.

Does expungement remove a DUI from your DMV record?

No. A 1203.4 dismissal, a 1203.41 dismissal, and automatic relief all make an exception for Vehicle Code section 13555, which says a dismissal "does not affect any revocation or suspension" of your driving privilege. The dismissed DUI also still counts as a conviction when the DMV decides the license consequences of a second one under Vehicle Code section 13352.

The DMV record runs on its own clock, too. Vehicle Code section 1808 lets the DMV disclose a DUI conviction for 10 years from the date of the violation, and separately keeps it available to courts and law enforcement for 10 years from the date of the offense. Nothing in those sections tells the DMV to drop a conviction because a criminal court dismissed it, so expect the DUI to stay on your driving record for that period. Our comparison of the DMV hearing and the criminal DUI case explains why the two run separately.

What about a commercial driver's license?

A dismissal won't undo a CDL disqualification. Vehicle Code section 15300 bars you from driving a commercial vehicle for one year after a first conviction under the main subdivisions of section 23152 or 23153 committed "while operating a motor vehicle," or for three years if you were hauling hazardous material. By its wording, that rule isn't limited to DUIs in a commercial vehicle. Federal rules also say states "must not mask" a CDL holder's traffic conviction, in any type of vehicle, from the national CDL driver record (49 C.F.R. section 384.226). Our commercial DUI and CDL disqualification article covers repeat offenses.

Felony DUI: probation, jail, or prison makes the difference

A first DUI causing injury can be punished by state prison or by 90 days to a year in county jail (Vehicle Code section 23554), so it's a wobbler: it can end as either a felony or a misdemeanor. If you were convicted of a felony DUI and granted probation, the same 1203.4 process applies once probation ends, and you can also ask the court to reduce the felony to a misdemeanor under Penal Code section 17(b), which the self-help guide confirms is available for wobblers.

If the felony ended in jail or prison instead of probation, the route is Penal Code section 1203.41. There, too, the court may grant relief "in its discretion and in the interest of justice," and you can ask one year after you complete a county jail sentence that included mandatory supervision (the last stretch, supervised outside jail), or two years after a straight county jail term or a state prison sentence. The prison route has been available since January 1, 2023, and only for convictions that didn't require sex offender registration. You can't be on parole or supervision, serving a sentence, on probation, or charged with another offense when you ask, and the same DMV exception and plead-and-prove rule apply.

Can California's Clean Slate law clear a DUI automatically?

It can. The automatic record relief statute (Penal Code section 1203.425) doesn't exclude DUI. The conviction has to be from January 1, 1973 or later, and you can't be required to register as a sex offender. The Department of Justice's records also can't show active local, state, or federal supervision, and you can't appear to be serving a sentence or facing pending charges. A DUI that the records show was completed on probation without revocation, like the Van Nuys reader's, qualifies with no added wait. If probation was revoked, even if later reinstated, a misdemeanor DUI can still qualify once the records show the sentence complete and at least one calendar year has passed since judgment. A felony DUI that doesn't fit the probation track needs four years after the sentence is completed with no new felony conviction, and can't be a serious or violent felony or one that requires sex offender registration.

There are catches. The monthly review is "subject to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act," meaning it depends on state funding. The prosecutor or probation department can ask the court to block it by petitioning "no later than 90 calendar days before the date of a person's eligibility" and showing that relief "would pose a substantial threat to the public safety." The Department of Justice says it "is not a dismissal, sealing or expungement" and doesn't notify you when it happens. If it hasn't happened, you can still file a 1203.4 petition. Our guide to checking whether California's Clean Slate law cleared your record shows how to request your record.

How to expunge a DUI in California: what to do first

1. Pull your sentencing papers to see whether you got probation, how long it runs, and whether a violation was found.
2. If probation is still running, decide whether to ask for early termination under Penal Code section 1203.3 along with the dismissal.
3. Request your Department of Justice record to see whether automatic relief has been noted, and check your DMV record separately; a change in one tells you nothing about the other.
4. File with the court that handled your case, usually on Judicial Council forms CR-180 and CR-181; for a DUI, granting it is up to the judge. Fees and costs vary, so ask the court or the firm what applies.
5. If you hold a CDL, drive for work, or need a professional license, check the rules a dismissal doesn't fix before you answer those applications.

Boyadzhyan Legal Shield handles record clearing, including 1203.4 petitions, and Knarik Boyadzhyan is a former Deputy Public Defender. Because a DUI dismissal is the judge's call, how the petition presents your probation matters, and if you're not sure whether to file now or ask for early termination first, the firm can look at your case with you: request a consultation and bring your case number, sentencing minute order, and proof of the probation conditions you've completed.

Official sources

• Penal Code § 1203.4 (opens in a new window), § 1203.3 (opens in a new window), § 1203.41 (opens in a new window), § 1203.425 (opens in a new window), and § 1203a (opens in a new window) (official code text)
• Vehicle Code § 12810 (opens in a new window) (official code text)
• Vehicle Code § 13555 (opens in a new window), § 13352 (opens in a new window), § 1808 (opens in a new window), and § 15300 (opens in a new window) (official code text)
• Vehicle Code § 23540 (opens in a new window), § 23546 (opens in a new window), § 23550 (opens in a new window), § 23550.5 (opens in a new window), § 23554 (opens in a new window), § 23560 (opens in a new window), and § 23600 (opens in a new window) (official code text)
• Assembly Bill 1546 (Statutes of 2026, chapter 444), DUI repeat-offense tiers from January 1, 2027 (opens in a new window) (official bill text)
• Labor Code § 432.7 (opens in a new window) and Business and Professions Code § 480 (opens in a new window) (official code text)
• 49 C.F.R. § 384.226 (prohibition on masking CDL holder convictions) (opens in a new window) (eCFR)
• California Attorney General: Automatic Record Relief (Penal Code §§ 851.93 and 1203.425) (opens in a new window)
• California Courts Self-Help Guide: record cleaning for misdemeanors (opens in a new window) and for felony convictions (opens in a new window)