A criminal record can be a bar to certain types of employment, licensing, holding public office, and even the right to vote. Most states allow for a process called expungement that will remove certain arrests or criminal convictions from the offender’s record.

Depending upon the laws of the state in which you live and the nature of the crime, you may be able to get an arrest or conviction sealed or erased from your legal record. After the expungement process is complete, you will not need to disclose the conviction on a job or school application, and in most instances no record of the arrest or conviction will show up during a public records inspection or background check commonly done by potential employers, landlords, and educational institutions.

An expunged arrest or conviction may not be completely erased, however, and ordinarily will remain an accessible part of a person's criminal record, accessible to certain government agencies, including law enforcement and the criminal courts. This limited accessibility is also known as a criminal record being "under seal." In some legal proceedings, an expunged conviction that is under seal may still be considered as proof of a prior conviction.

In California, section 432.7 of the Labor Code does not allow an employer to ask an applicant for employment to disclose information concerning an arrest or detention that did not result in a conviction, although they are permitted to ask about an arrest for which the employee or applicant is out on bail or on his own recognizance pending trial. Residents of the state who meet certain requirements may file a CR-180 Petition and Order for Expungement under PC 1203.4, or PC 1204.4a. In California, these individuals include those who were:

• convicted of a misdemeanor and have successfully completed all the terms of their probation


• convicted of a misdemeanor and were never given any probation


• convicted of a felony, completed probation and county jail time, and have filed a PC 17(b) petition to get the felony reduced


• convicted of a felony, never given any probation, were sentenced to county jail, and have filed a PC 17(b) petition to get the felony reduced

Only one conviction can be expunged at a time. If an individual has more than one criminal conviction that they would like expunged in California, they will need to fill out a separate CR-180 for each one, although they can all be filed at the same time. The petitions need to be filed in the California Superior Court in which the individual was convicted. For more information on obtaining an expungement in California, see the California Courts Self-Help Center website.