Expungement Under Penal Code 1203.4: What a California Dismissal Actually Does

California does not have expungement. Here is what Penal Code 1203.4 actually does.

Someone has probably told you that you can get your record expunged. The word gets used by employers, by court staff, by people in your family, and by half the websites you've read this week. It does not describe anything California law offers. The Judicial Council's own self-help guide says so in one sentence: true expungement does not exist in California.

What does exist is Penal Code section 1203.4. Under that statute the court permits you to withdraw your guilty or no-contest plea and enter a plea of not guilty, or sets aside a guilty verdict, and then dismisses the accusation or information. You are afterward "released from all penalties and disabilities resulting from the offense," except as the statute itself states and except as provided in Vehicle Code section 13555.

Read the operative language again and notice what is not in it. Nothing is erased. Nothing is sealed. Nothing is destroyed.

The Court of Appeal said it directly in People v. Frawley: section 1203.4 "does not, properly speaking, 'expunge' the prior conviction," and "does not purport to render the conviction a legal nullity."

That is not a technicality, and it's the reason so many people are blindsided a year later. Your conviction still exists after a dismissal. What changes is which government custodian is allowed to hand it out, and which person asking about it is allowed to use it against you. Those are two different questions with two different sets of exceptions, and this article walks through both.

One piece of good news before the complications. On the two most common routes, relief is mandatory rather than discretionary — the statute says the court "shall" permit you to withdraw your plea if you fulfilled the conditions of probation for the entire period, or if you were discharged from probation before the period ended. A third route exists for everyone else, and that one is discretionary: the court may grant relief "in its discretion and the interest of justice." Judicial Council form CR-180 lays out all three as checkboxes in item 2, which is a fair map of how the judge will think about your petition.

Your conviction lives in two places, and a dismissal treats them differently

There's a state record and there's a county court record. They're kept by different agencies, they're governed by different statutes, and a dismissal does something different to each one. Almost every confusing thing you've been told about expungement comes from someone collapsing the two.

Start with the state record, the one the Department of Justice keeps and the one a fingerprint background check reads. The conviction entry stays. When automatic relief is granted, Penal Code section 1203.425(a)(2)(B) requires the Department to add, directly next to or below the entry, a note stating "relief granted," with the date and the section. The Department is blunt about what that is not: automatic record relief "is not a dismissal, sealing or expungement" of the state summary criminal history record.

That sounds worse than it is, and the second half matters as much as the first. The Department also explains that the notation is what it uses to decide whether the record gets disseminated at all, and that a relieved conviction "will only be disclosed to employers or other agencies in response to a fingerprint background check if permitted under Penal Code section 11105, subdivisions (k)-(p)." The entry persists. Its release is restricted. Both statements are true at the same time, and any page that gives you only one of them has misled you.

Now the court record, which is the half that actually reaches most job applicants. Penal Code section 1203.425(a)(3)(B) provides that commencing January 1, 2023, for any record the court retains under Government Code section 68152, and except as provided in paragraph (4), the court "shall not disclose information concerning a conviction granted relief" under section 1203.425, 1203.4, 1203.4a, 1203.41, or 1203.42 "to any person or entity, in any format," except to the person whose conviction was relieved or to a criminal justice agency. Judicial Council form CR-181 (opens in a new window) prints that notice on the face of the order in paragraph 11.

The paragraph (4) carve-outs are real and you should not read the duty as absolute. Section 1203.425(a)(4)(C) preserves criminal-justice-agency access to relieved records to the same extent the agency would have had without relief. Police, prosecutors, and probation are not shut out by any of this.

Here is why the court half is the practical half. Commercial background-check companies do not read Department of Justice records; they depend on court records. A rule that closes the court file to "any person or entity, in any format" is aimed squarely at the vendor your prospective employer actually hires.

One honest caveat on the court side. The statutory duty is current law, but whether a particular county court has implemented it for a particular old case is a question about that clerk's office, not a question about the statute. Contact the court in the county where you were convicted and ask what its record shows.

Has your conviction already been dismissed without you doing anything?

This is the first thing to check, before you fill out any form or pay anyone. California now runs an automatic record relief process, and a large category of convictions is supposed to be relieved by the Department of Justice without a petition, without a hearing, and without a lawyer.

Get the date right, because a lot of what is written about this is describing an older version of the statute. Penal Code section 1203.425 became operative on October 1, 2024 by its own terms; subdivision (d) says exactly that. The current version came from AB 168, effective July 2, 2024. Dates of 2023 or "July 2024" that you may have read belong to a superseded version of the law.

There is a condition inside the operative sentence that most summaries drop. Section 1203.425(a)(1)(A) directs the Department to review the statewide criminal justice databases monthly "commencing October 1, 2024, and subject to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act." A review that the Legislature has to fund is not the same thing as an assurance that your record has been processed.

Three gates apply before any track is reached. You must not be required to register under the Sex Offender Registration Act, you must have no active local, state, or federal supervision record in the Supervised Release File, and you must not appear to be serving a sentence or to have charges pending. The conviction also has to have occurred on or after January 1, 1973.

The four-year felony track has hard exclusions. It does not apply to a serious felony as defined in Penal Code section 1192.7(c), a violent felony as defined in section 667.5, or a felony offense requiring registration under section 290 and following.

Relief can also be blocked before it happens. Under section 1203.425(b), the prosecuting attorney or the probation department may file a petition no later than 90 calendar days before your date of eligibility, on a showing that relief "would pose a substantial threat to the public safety." The court gives notice and holds a hearing within 45 days. The prosecutor or probation department carries the initial burden, and if they meet it the burden shifts to you to show that the hardship of not getting relief outweighs the threat.

Now the part that catches people. Nobody tells you. Neither the Department nor the court sends a notice when automatic relief is granted, so the only way to find out is to look. Section 1203.425(a)(7) provides that on request from the subject of the record, the Department shall furnish a copy of the state summary criminal history information record — that is your RAP sheet, and pulling it is the single most useful thing you can do this week.

Being denied automatic relief does not close the door either. Section 1203.425(a)(5) states that automatic relief does not limit petitions or motions authorized by any other law, including sections 1016.5, 1203.4, 1203.4a, 1203.4b, 1203.41, 1203.42, 1203.49, and 1473.7, and subdivision (b)(7) confirms that a person denied automatic relief may still petition under 1203.4, 1203.4a, 1203.4b, or 1203.41.

Can an employer still ask about it? Can they still hold it against you?

The general rule is strong and most people have never heard it. Labor Code section 432.7(a)(1) prohibits an employer, "whether a public agency or private individual or corporation," from asking you to disclose, from seeking from any source whatsoever, and from using as a factor in any condition of employment — hiring, promotion, or termination — "a conviction that has been judicially dismissed or ordered sealed pursuant to law," and the statute names sections 1203.4, 1203.4a, 1203.425, 1203.45, and 1210.1 as examples.

It has teeth. Under Labor Code section 432.7(c) (opens in a new window), you can recover actual damages or $200, whichever is greater, plus costs and reasonable attorney's fees. If the violation was intentional, that becomes treble actual damages or $500, whichever is greater, plus costs and fees, and an intentional violation is also a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not to exceed $500.

Then come the exceptions, and you need to read them before you decide how to answer any application. Section 432.7(m) lets an employer ask about and seek information regarding a particular conviction in four situations:

• Required by law. The employer is required by law to obtain that conviction information.
• Firearm in the job. You would be required to possess or use a firearm in the course of the employment.
• Barred from the position. A person with that conviction is prohibited by law from holding the position sought.
• Barred from hiring. The employer is prohibited by law from hiring an applicant with that conviction.

The first and fourth of those say expressly that they apply regardless of whether the conviction has been expunged, judicially ordered sealed, statutorily eradicated, or judicially dismissed following probation. A dismissal does not switch them off.

Three more exceptions reach a lot of ordinary workplaces. Section 432.7(n) lets an employer that is required by state, federal, or local law to conduct criminal background checks comply with those requirements, and it expressly includes rules made by a self-regulatory organization under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which is how a dismissed conviction still surfaces in brokerage and financial-services hiring. Section 432.7(f)(1) lets health-facility employers ask applicants who would have regular patient access about arrests under the sections specified in Penal Code section 290. And section 432.7(e)(1) removes an entire class of applicants from the protection of the statute altogether: people seeking or already holding employment as peace officers, and people applying to the Department of Justice or another criminal justice agency as defined in Penal Code section 13101.

The peace-officer point is reinforced on the relief side. Penal Code section 1203.425(a)(4)(A) provides that relief does not relieve you of the duty to disclose a conviction in response to a direct question on an application for employment as a peace officer as defined in section 830.

So do not treat "my case was dismissed, I can answer no" as a general rule you can apply on your own. It is the starting point, and whether one of these exceptions covers the specific job and the specific conviction is a question to put to a lawyer before you sign the application, not after.

Will a licensing board still turn you down?

The licensing answer is a three-step, and both of the flat answers you have probably been given — "a dismissal fixes it" and "a dismissal does nothing for licensing" — are wrong.

Step one is that most boards may not ask you at all. Business and Professions Code section 480(f)(2) provides that except for the boards listed in paragraph (1), "a board shall not require an applicant for licensure to disclose any information or documentation regarding the applicant's criminal history." A board may request mitigating information for the limited purpose of assessing substantial relation or rehabilitation, but only if you are told the disclosure is voluntary and that declining will not be a factor in the decision.

That interacts with section 1203.4 in a way almost nobody explains. The disclosure duty in Penal Code section 1203.4(a)(1) is triggered by a direct question on a questionnaire or application for public office, for licensure by a state or local agency, or for contracting with the California State Lottery Commission. If most boards are forbidden from asking the question, then for those boards the duty is never triggered: there is no direct question to answer.

Step two is the list of boards that may still ask. Section 480(f)(1) (opens in a new window) limits that to boards licensing under Chapter 3 (commencing with section 5500), Chapter 3.5 (commencing with section 5615), Chapter 10 (commencing with section 7301), Chapter 20 (commencing with section 9800), or Chapter 20.3 (commencing with section 9880) of Division 3, or Chapter 3 (commencing with section 19000) or Chapter 3.1 (commencing with section 19225) of Division 8. Where one of those boards asks — or where a state or local licensing agency outside the Business and Professions Code scheme asks — section 1203.4(a)(1) requires you to disclose.

Step three is the one that does the work. Section 480(c) provides that a person shall not be denied a license on the basis of a conviction, or on the basis of the acts underlying the conviction, that has been dismissed under Penal Code section 1203.4, 1203.4a, 1203.41, 1203.42, or 1203.425. The same subdivision puts a task on you: if the dismissal is not reflected on the report the Department of Justice furnishes, you have to provide proof of it.

Three entities sit outside that framework. Under section 480(i), the statute does not modify the existing licensure authority of the State Athletic Commission, the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education, or the California Horse Racing Board.

Caregiving clearances are their own world. Penal Code section 1203.41(h) provides that relief under that section does not affect the authority to receive, or take adverse action based on, criminal history information evaluated under Health and Safety Code sections 1522, 1568.09, 1569.17, or 1596.871 — the background-check statutes for community care, residential care, and child day care. Section 480 governs Business and Professions Code boards and does not reach those clearances.

One asymmetry is worth knowing before you decide whether to file anything. Automatic relief under section 1203.425(a)(4)(B) preserves a narrower disclosure duty than a petition does: public office, enrollment as a provider of in-home supportive services and waiver personal care services, and contracting with the State Lottery Commission. It conspicuously leaves out licensure by a state or local agency, which section 1203.4(a)(1) expressly keeps.

A petition is therefore not purely additive. It gets you a court order and, where the gate is met, a felony reduction, and it also attaches a licensure disclosure duty that automatic relief on its own does not carry.

What a dismissal does not touch, no matter what anyone told you

The prior still counts against you in a future case. Section 1203.4(a)(1) says that "in any subsequent prosecution of the defendant for any other offense, the prior conviction may be pleaded and proved and shall have the same effect as if probation had not been granted or the accusation or information dismissed." Form CR-181 repeats it in paragraph 7. Automatic relief works the same way under section 1203.425(a)(4)(J).

The Court of Appeal in Frawley said the plead-and-prove clause alone rules out calling this relief an expungement, and that is a fair way to hold the whole idea in your head. Whether the prior counts as a strike is a separate question governed by California's Three Strikes rules.

Firearms are not restored. Section 1203.4(a)(2) states that a dismissal "does not permit a person to own, possess, or have custody or control of a firearm or to prevent conviction under" the chapter beginning at Penal Code section 29800. Subdivision (a)(3) does not restore the right to hold public office. Form CR-181 paragraph 7 carries the same limits, releasing you from all penalties and disabilities "except as provided in Penal Code sections 29800 and 29900... and Vehicle Code section 13555."

There is a second firearm track that has nothing to do with felonies at all. Penal Code section 29805 imposes a ten-year firearm prohibition after conviction of a long list of misdemeanors, including sections 240, 241, 242, 243, 243.4, 245, 246.3, 273.6, 417, 422, and 646.9. Section 29805(b) treats a misdemeanor violation of section 273.5 on or after January 1, 2019 differently again: a person so convicted who then owns, purchases, receives, or possesses a firearm is guilty of a public offense, with no ten-year limitation stated. Section 29805(h) adds a further set of qualifying misdemeanors — sections 24610, 27530, 29185, 29186, 30605, 30610, 32900, 33215, and 33600 — for convictions on or after January 1, 2026, and section 29805(i) points to sections 29855 and 29860 as the routes by which the prohibition may be reduced, eliminated, or conditioned.

Federal law is a third track and it does not follow California's lead. Under 18 U.S.C. section 921(a)(20), a conviction that has been expunged or set aside is not counted as a conviction for federal firearm purposes. The Ninth Circuit's answer is that a section 1203.4 order is not an expungement at all, because it does not erase or nullify the conviction — the reasoning in Jennings v. Mukasey (opens in a new window) (2007), which quotes Frawley (2000), cites United States v. Hayden (2001), and follows the Ninth Circuit's own much earlier decision in United States v. Andrino (1974).

Sex offender registration continues. Penal Code section 290.007 provides that a person required to register shall register "regardless of whether the person's conviction has been dismissed pursuant to Section 1203.4," unless they obtain a certificate of rehabilitation and relief from registration under section 290.5, or are exonerated under section 3007.05(e) of the conviction requiring registration and are not otherwise required to register. Section 17(e) adds that a wobbler reduction cannot relieve that duty either. Form CR-181 paragraph 6(b) says the same thing on the order itself.

The DNA duty survives too, and this is one almost no other page mentions. Penal Code section 299(f) provides that notwithstanding any other law, including sections 17, 1170.18, 1203.4, and 1203.4a, a judge is not authorized to relieve a person of the separate administrative duty to provide specimens, samples, or print impressions where the person was found guilty by a trier of fact, found not guilty by reason of insanity, or pleaded no contest to a qualifying offense as defined in section 296(a). Form CR-181 paragraph 9 prints the same notice and extends it to relief under sections 17(b), 17(d)(2), 1203.4, 1203.4a, 1203.41, 1203.42, and 1203.49.

A protective order does not evaporate with the case. Form CR-181 paragraph 8 states that a dismissal under section 1203.4 or 1203.4a "does not release petitioner from the terms and conditions of any unexpired criminal protective order issued under Penal Code section 136.2(i)(1), 273.5(j), 368(l), or 646.9(k)." If an order against you is still running, it is still enforceable, and violating it is independently chargeable.

Finally, some offenses are simply outside the statute. Section 1203.4(b) excludes a misdemeanor within Vehicle Code section 42002.1; violations of Penal Code sections 286(c), 288, 287(c) or former 288a(c), 288.5, 289(j), 311.1, 311.2, 311.3, and 311.11; a felony conviction under section 261.5(d); and any infraction. Section 1203.4(f) leaves the Governor's pardon power over several of those intact in extraordinary circumstances.

Which statute applies to you, and how long you have to wait

Penal Code section 1203.4 is one of several statutes, and the right one for you depends on what sentence you received, not on what you were charged with. Waiting periods are where published summaries go wrong most often, so here they are next to each other.

Section 1203.4a carries requirements the others do not. It reaches a defendant convicted of a misdemeanor who was not granted probation, and any defendant convicted of an infraction. You may ask after one year from pronouncement of judgment if you fully complied with the sentence, are not serving a sentence or under charge of a crime, and have "lived an honest and upright life" since judgment. Subdivision (b) lets the court grant the same relief in its discretion and in the interest of justice to someone who does not meet all of those requirements, and subdivision (d) excludes a misdemeanor violation of section 288(c), a misdemeanor within Vehicle Code section 42002.1, and an infraction within Vehicle Code section 42001.

There is also a specific route for people whose conviction came out of being trafficked. Penal Code section 1203.49 lets a person convicted under section 647(b) who has completed probation petition on evidence that the conviction resulted from their status as a victim of human trafficking; the court may so find, order any of the relief described in section 1203.4, and notify the Department of Justice. Form CR-181 paragraph 5 implements it.

If your conviction was a felony, the question you actually care about may be reduction rather than dismissal, and there is a gate in front of it. Penal Code section 17(b) reaches only offenses that can be charged either way. Post-judgment, reduction runs through subdivision (b)(1), available after a judgment imposing punishment other than state prison or county jail under section 1170(h), or through subdivision (b)(3), where the court granted probation and then declares the offense a misdemeanor. A wobbler that resulted in a state prison or a section 1170(h) sentence has no section 17(b) route at all; section 1203.41 is that person's remedy.

One recent amendment is circulating with the wrong description attached. AB 321 added section 17(b)(5)(A), which applies "when the court determines, prior to trial" that the offense is a misdemeanor. It is a pre-trial procedure and it is unavailable to anyone who already has a conviction. Subdivision (b)(5)(B) adds that after a denial, a further such motion may be made only on a showing of changed circumstances.

Why a reduction is worth asking for even when a dismissal is also on the table: form CR-181 paragraph 1 confirms that a section 17(b) reduction carries a maximum punishment of 364 days under Penal Code section 18.5. Section 18.5(a) sets that 364-day cap for offenses punishable by up to one year in county jail and applies retroactively whether or not the case was final as of January 1, 2015, though under subdivision (b) a person sentenced to a one-year term before that date has to apply to the trial court to have the term modified. The federal significance is that 18 U.S.C. section 921(a)(20)(B) excludes from "crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year" a state misdemeanor punishable by two years or less. The difference between the two labels is doing real work there. The federal firearm ban attaches to a conviction punishable by more than a year, so the felony version counts and a 364-day misdemeanor does not. The other firearm bars described earlier can still apply on their own terms.

Money is not supposed to be the obstacle. Section 17(f) provides that an unfulfilled order of restitution or a restitution fine is not grounds for denying a request for reduction, and section 1203.4(c)(3) says the same about a petition for dismissal: unpaid restitution is not grounds for denial, and it is not grounds for finding that you failed to fulfill the conditions of probation.

If you are not a U.S. citizen, this is probably not the remedy you need

Immigration law does not use California's definition of a conviction. Under 8 U.S.C. section 1101(a)(48)(A), a conviction exists where there is a formal judgment of guilt, or where adjudication was withheld but a judge or jury found you guilty, or you pleaded guilty or no contest or admitted facts sufficient to warrant a finding of guilt, and the judge ordered some form of punishment, penalty, or restraint on your liberty.

The Board of Immigration Appeals has drawn the line at why the relief was granted, not what it is called. Under Matter of Pickering, post-conviction relief eliminates a conviction for immigration purposes only where the court vacated it because of a procedural or substantive defect, not for reasons solely related to rehabilitation or immigration hardship. Matter of Roldan is to the same effect.

A section 1203.4 dismissal is rehabilitative relief. It generally will not remove the conviction from an immigration file.

There is one narrow exception and its boundary is a specific date. Certain minor drug convictions from pleas entered on or before July 14, 2011 may still be eliminated for immigration purposes by a section 1203.4 dismissal, and only in immigration proceedings within the Ninth Circuit — the Ninth Circuit's decision in Nunez-Reyes v. Holder overruled the earlier rule prospectively from that date.

If your goal is immigration relief, the remedies to ask about by name are Penal Code sections 1473.7, 1016.5, and 1203.43, and the Judicial Council form the courts point people to is CR-187. That is the naming, not the advice. Talk to an immigration attorney before you file anything, including before you file a petition for dismissal, and read more about how a conviction interacts with immigration status before you make a decision either way.

Where published sources disagree, and what is actually settled

You are going to find flat contradictions on this topic, and it is worth knowing where they are rather than picking whichever page sounded most confident.

• Sealing. Most published summaries describe automatic relief as sealing your record. The Department of Justice says on its own page that automatic record relief "is not a dismissal, sealing or expungement" of the state summary criminal history record. When the agency that keeps the record contradicts the summary, believe the agency.
• The date. Descriptions of automatic felony relief beginning in 2023 or in "July 2024" are describing a superseded version of the statute. Section 1203.425(d) sets the operative date at October 1, 2024, and the monthly review is expressly subject to an appropriation in the annual Budget Act.
• The court file. What is settled is that the non-disclosure duty in section 1203.425(a)(3)(B) is current statutory text carrying a January 1, 2023 date, that it is subject to the paragraph (4) carve-outs, and that it is printed on the order. What is not settled is how any given county clerk has implemented it, and case law from before 2023 describing open public access is not a reliable guide to how this works now.
• The fee. The current text of section 1203.4 authorizes no filing fee, application fee, or cost reimbursement, and neither does the current text of section 1203.4a. One county's published self-help packet, Ventura's, states flatly that there is no filing fee. Fee figures circulating online have no live statutory basis behind them, so check your own county's fee schedule instead.
• Firearms. There is no general answer, because three independent tracks apply: the felony bar, the misdemeanor bars in section 29805, and federal law. Whether you personally may possess a firearm depends on which offense it was and on federal law, not on whether relief was granted.
• Licensing. "It helps" and "it does not help" are both wrong, for the three-step reason set out above.

If anyone gave you a flat yes or no on any of these six, get a second opinion before you act on it.

What to do next, in order

Start with your probation status. If you are still on probation, you generally have to get the probation term ended first, which means asking the court to terminate it early under Penal Code section 1203.3. There is no statewide form for that request; the California Courts self-help guide (opens in a new window) explains how it is made.

Pull your RAP sheet before you file anything. Under section 1203.425(a)(7) the Department of Justice will furnish your state summary criminal history record on your request, and it is the only way to see whether automatic relief has already been granted and what the entry says. Form CR-180 tells petitioners the same thing.

Then handle the court's record as a separate errand. Call the criminal clerk in the county where you were convicted and ask what its file shows and how it treats requests for a relieved conviction. The state record and the court record are not the same file and confirming one tells you nothing about the other.

If you are filing, file form CR-180 in the county of conviction; CR-181 is the order the judge signs. Both were revised January 1, 2024. Ask for everything the form allows in one filing rather than one at a time — the form covers reduction of a wobbler under section 17(b) where the gate is met, reduction under section 17(d)(2), reduction of an offense listed in section 19.8 to an infraction, and the dismissal itself.

Give the prosecutor the notice the statute requires. Section 1203.4(d)(1) entitles the prosecuting attorney to 15 days' notice of your petition before relief may be granted, and section 1203.4(e) provides that a prosecutor who gets notice and does not appear and object cannot later move to set the order aside or appeal it.

Check your county's fee schedule for the filing, and gather what you will need afterward. When the order is signed, keep the signed copy somewhere you can find it in five years. Business and Professions Code section 480(c) puts the burden on you to produce proof of the dismissal if it is not reflected on the report the Department of Justice furnishes, and the person who needs that proof is usually you, in a hurry, on a licensing deadline.

If you want a second set of eyes on the record before you file, a California criminal defense lawyer can pull the docket, tell you which statute your sentence actually fits, and identify whether a wobbler reduction is available alongside the dismissal. Knarik Boyadzhyan is a former Los Angeles County Deputy Public Defender and the principal attorney at Boyadzhyan Legal Shield in Encino, and the firm offers a free consultation. Bring the RAP sheet, the case number, the sentencing minute order if you have it, and proof that probation ended.

Official Sources

• California Penal Code § 1203.4 (petition for dismissal after probation) (opens in a new window)
• California Penal Code § 1203.425 (automatic conviction record relief) (opens in a new window)
• California Attorney General — Automatic Record Relief (Penal Code §§ 851.93 and 1203.425) (opens in a new window)
• Judicial Council of California Form CR-180, Petition for Dismissal (Rev. Jan. 1, 2024) (opens in a new window)
• Judicial Council of California Form CR-181, Order for Dismissal (Rev. Jan. 1, 2024) (opens in a new window)
• California Courts Self-Help Guide — Clean your record (opens in a new window)
• California Labor Code § 432.7 (employer use of dismissed convictions) (opens in a new window)
• California Business and Professions Code § 480 (licensure and criminal history) (opens in a new window)
• California Penal Code § 17 (wobbler reduction) (opens in a new window)
• California Penal Code § 29805 (misdemeanor firearm prohibitions) (opens in a new window)
• California Penal Code § 290.007 (registration despite dismissal) (opens in a new window)
• California Penal Code § 299 (DNA specimen duty) (opens in a new window)
• California Penal Code § 18.5 (364-day maximum misdemeanor term) (opens in a new window)
• California Penal Code § 1203.41 (felony sentence dismissal) (opens in a new window)
• California Penal Code § 1203.4a (misdemeanor without probation) (opens in a new window)
• Jennings v. Mukasey, 511 F.3d 894 (9th Cir. 2007) (opens in a new window)
• 18 U.S.C. § 921 (definitions, including expungement exception) (opens in a new window)
• 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(48)(A) (immigration definition of conviction) (opens in a new window)
• Superior Court of California, County of Ventura — Misdemeanor Expungement Form Packet Info Sheet (opens in a new window)