In California, a felony conviction stays on your record forever if you do not get it expunged. You may be eligible for an expungement if you did not serve time in state prison.
You can face serious obstacles until you get the conviction removed from your criminal history. The felony can be found on criminal background checks, causing problems.
Felony charges
A felony offense is a crime that carries more than one year in prison. They are more severe than misdemeanors, which carry less than a year in county jail, or non-criminal infractions, which do not carry jail time.
Some examples of felony charges in California include:
- murder (California Penal Code section 187 PC),
- robbery (Penal Code 211 PC),
- lewd acts with a child under 14 (Penal Code 288 PC), and
- sale of a controlled substance (Health and Safety Code 11352 HS).
California also has wobbler offenses. These can be charged as either a misdemeanor or as a felony. The prosecutor or district attorney has discretion over which type of charge to file. That discretion is based on:
- the specific facts of the case, and
- your criminal history.
You get convicted for a felony if you are charged with a felony offense and you:
- are found guilty after a trial,
- plead guilty to the felony offense, or
- plead “no contest.”
Felony convictions do not just carry prison time. They also carry:
- criminal fines,
- felony probation,
- court orders that you perform certain obligations, such as community service,
- sex offender registration, if the felony offense was for a severe sex crime, and
- the collateral consequences of having a felony offense on your criminal record.
Negative consequences of a criminal record
The collateral consequences of a criminal record can be serious. These are the negative consequences that you will suffer from people outside the criminal justice system, such as:
- landlords,
- family and friends,
- members of the public,
- employers and potential employers,
- professional organizations,
- other law enforcement agencies, and
- financial institutions, like banks.
You can be discriminated against because of your criminal background. For example:
- your landlord can evict you for failing to pay rent during your imprisonment for a felony,
- a potential landlord can refuse to let you rent their apartment because of your prior conviction,
- family and friends can avoid you because of your record,
- the public can stigmatize you,
- your employer can fire you for missing time while in confinement or on felony probation,
- potential employers can refuse to hire you because of your record, which you may be required to disclose on the job application,
- professional organizations can strip you of the certifications necessary to work in the field,
- you may lose eligibility to secure a professional license or certificate to enter an industry,
- other law enforcement agencies can use the conviction to impose other sanctions, such as deportation or administrative penalties, and
- banks may refuse to offer you a loan because of your felony conviction.
These and other collateral consequences can make life difficult after serving your time for the felony offense.
A felony stays on your record until removed
If you are convicted of a felony offense in California, your record will not disappear on its own. You must take affirmative steps to have it removed or sealed from public view.
California’s expungement process
If you are a convicted felon in California, you are eligible for expungement if you:
- have completed your term of probation for the offense,
- the felony crime was prosecuted in state court, rather than in federal court,
- are not currently charged with a crime or are serving probation or a jail or prison sentence for a different offense, and
- did not serve time in state prison for the offense that you want to get expunged.[1]
If you served time in state prison for your felony conviction, but would have served it in county jail after 2011’s Proposition 47 Realignment, then you can still seek an expungement.[2]
You can apply for an expungement by:
- filling out the appropriate expungement forms,
- filing these forms in the court where the felony conviction was imposed, and
- attending the expungement hearing in court.[3]
If successful, the prior conviction will be sealed from public view. It will no longer appear on criminal background checks. You can deny the conviction if you are ever asked about it.
The criminal defense attorneys at our law firm have prepared numerous people for their expungement hearing. This has helped them clear their felony record so they can move on with their lives.
Felonies that cannot be expunged
Certain felonies cannot be expunged under California law. These are:
- sodomy with a child (Penal Code 286(c) PC),
- oral copulation with a child (Penal Code 287(c) PC),
- lewd acts with a child (Penal Code 288 PC),
- continuous sexual abuse of a child (Penal Code 288.5 PC),
- sexual penetration of a child with a foreign object (Penal Code 289(j) PC),
- certain offenses of statutory rape, and
- certain offenses related to child pornography.[4]
These serious sex offenses stay on your record forever in the state of California.
What expungement does not do
Even if you do get a felony conviction expunged, it will not completely remove the blemish from your past. An expungement cannot:
- relieve you of your obligation to register as a sex offender,[5]
- restore any gun rights that you lost, often for a felony offense of domestic violence,[6] or
- overturn a suspension or revocation of your driver’s license, generally for a felony offense of driving under the influence (DUI).[7]
An expunged felony conviction will also remain a priorable offense. It can elevate the penalties of subsequent criminal convictions. For example, if you expunge a first-offense DUI and then get charged with another DUI, that expunged conviction will still make the new criminal charge a second-offense DUI.
The expungement also will not remove the arrest record. You are only eligible to seal and destroy arrest records if:
- you were arrested but the charges were never filed against you,
- the criminal case got dismissed,
- you completed a diversion program, though this is generally only an option for misdemeanor convictions,
- you were acquitted at trial, or
- you appealed the conviction and got it overturned.
Legal References:
[1] California Penal Code 1203.4 PC.
[2] California Assembly Bill 109 AB and California Penal Code 1203.42.
[3] California Penal Code 1203.4 PC.
[4] California Penal Code 1203.4(b) PC.
[5] California Penal Code 290.007 PC.
[6] Same.
[7] California Vehicle Code 13555 VC.
