California Expungements Legal Questions

Under Labor Code section 432.7, an arrest which does not result in convictions cannot be considered for employment purposes. However, there are two big caveats to that rule. First, Macy's obviously can continue to refuse to employ you. Second, institutions insured by the FDIC (banks) may not employ anyone charged with theft or fraud, even if the charges were dropped. You may ask the FDIC for consideration under the de minimis rule, but that would be something you'd have to do on your own. ... Read More

It can help you secure employment. In CA, an employer cannot discriminate against you for having a conviction expunged. Your prior conviction will be set aside. You will enter a plea of not guilty and the case will be dismissed. So you can legally answer no prior conviction on your job applications. If a background check is done, the conviction may appear as an expungement. Showing a fresh start. The only area of concern is that if you want to be a police office or work for the state lottery, an expungement may not help you. Also if you want to obtain a state license, you will need to do more than an expungement.... Read More

California has a law which allows reduction if the case was what is called a wobbler, can be charged as a felony or misdemeanor, and you did not go to prison. There are other crimes which never reduce to a misdemeanor. There is also the clean slate program in CA. Check that out on the internet.... Read More

You can apply for expungement of the PC 459 (Burglary) and PC 211 (Robbery) convictions by applying to the local District Attorney's office in the County where the conviction occurred. As these are not sex crimes or crimes against children, and if you have no later felony convictions in California or any other state, you should be able to get the expungements granted. I believe most local D.A.s office have a form application you can fill out and send back in. Depending upon how the local D.A. views the matter, you may be able to appear at the court hearing by phone or they may require you to attend in person. I believe you will also have to get a set of fingerprints from your local police department to send in with the application. A good approach would be to contact the local bar association in the county where the convictions occurred to get a referral to an attorney who does criminal defense in that county. The attorney should be able to explain how that county handles these applications.... Read More

Possibly, but counties are limited and they may not be able to consider a dismissed charge. Usually they can only ask for felony convictions and convictions for certain misdemeanors. Sounds like no conviction so you will not be disqualified. I can't tell you if someone will choose you over someone who has never been charged with anything.... Read More

In order to properly answer your question, I would need to know whether your DUI was charged as a misdemeanor or felony. If it was merely a misdemeanor, you can simply fill out a form requesting the court to dismiss your prior conviction, so long as you are not now serving a sentence for any offense, not now on probation for any offense, and are not now charged with committing any offense. However, if you were charged with a felony DUI, then you will need to determine whether it is considered as a “wobbler” offense and reduce the felony charge to a misdemeanor pursuant to CA Penal Code § 17(b). Once it is reduced, then you can proceed to request the dismissal of your prior conviction. I hope this has answered your question. If not, please feel free to contact me and we can discuss this issue in more detail. ... Read More