California DUI Expungement – A Quick Legal Guide

You can expunge your California DUI conviction once you complete your term of probation. Unlike some states, there is no waiting period.

After your DUI conviction is expunged, it cannot be used against you by employers for:

• hiring or
• promotion purposes.

However, the conviction still counts as a DUI prior. If you pick up another DUI within a 10-year window, it will be treated as a second criminal offense, even though the first DUI was expunged.

To help you better understand how to clear DUI charges from your record, our California DUI expungement attorneys discuss:

• 1. Eligibility
• 2. How It Works
• 3. Effect on Job Hunting
• 4. Effect on Driver’s Licenses
• 5. Effect on Later DUIs
• 6. Early Expungement
• 7. Effect on Travel
• 8. Expungement v. Sealing
• 9. DUI Basics
• Additional Reading

1. Eligibility

In California, you should be able to get a misdemeanor or felony DUI expunged if two things are true.¹ The first condition is that you completed probation, which in drunk driving cases typically involves:

• Paying fines,
• DUI School,
• AA or NA counseling
• Alcohol or drug testing,
• A MADD program,
• Community service, and/or
• Caltrans work.

The second condition for expungement is that you either:

• Did not serve time for the offense in state prison, or
• Served time in state prison, but would have served it in county jail following the implementation of “realignment” under Proposition 47.²

Therefore, serious felony DUI cases may not be eligible for expungement if you served time in prison. This is typically the case if the incident caused a severe injury or death.

Note that if you instead have a wet reckless conviction (a typical DUI plea bargain), you should be eligible for expungement once you complete probation.

2. How It Works

As soon as you complete probation for a California DUI, you may petition the court to expunge your record of conviction. A judge will then review the petition to determine whether you are eligible for an expungement.

If the judge grants the petition, then either:

• You withdraw your plea of guilty or “nolo contendere” (no contest) and re-enter a “not guilty” plea, or
• If you were found guilty after a jury trial or a bench trial, the judge sets aside the verdict.

After that, the judge dismisses the case.² The entire process usually takes no more than four months, sometimes sooner.

Note that once your case is expunged, the DUI arrest may still show up on some background checks. However, there will be no record of a conviction, and (in most cases) you can deny having been convicted.

It is highly encouraged you hire an attorney to handle the record expungement process. It is a confusing, paperwork-heavy procedure, and a skilled lawyer knows how to get it right on the first try.

3. Effect on Job Hunting

One of the major benefits of expunging a California DUI conviction is an easier time securing employment. This is especially true with regard to jobs that involve driving, health care, or schools.

In California, a prospective employer may not use expunged drunk/drugged driving convictions as a basis for negative employment consequences, such as:

• not hiring you
• not retaining you, or
• not promoting you.

As it is, California’s “ban the box” law prohibits potential employers from asking about arrests or convictions before a conditional offer of employment has been made.³ If asked whether you have a criminal record, you can lawfully answer “no” as long as your case was expunged.

The benefits of expungements extend far beyond employment. Having a clean record:

• reduces social stigma and improves your reputation and
• increases your access to education, housing, security clearances, and loans.

When Expungements Do Not Help

An expungement does not affect your obligation to disclose a DUI conviction when applying for:

• state licenses or
• teaching credentials.⁴

A state licensing board may use the conviction against you in deciding whether to grant or renew your professional license or credential. However, it will probably look more favorably on your application if the drunk or drugged driving conviction has been expunged. (See our page on jobs you can’t get with a DUI).

4. Effect on Your Driver’s License

An expungement of your driving under the influence conviction will NOT overturn your driver’s license suspension or revocation.⁵

This does not really matter since in most cases, probation lasts longer than the period of mandatory driver’s license suspension for a California DUI. For example, for a first-time DUI, you are likely to have your license suspended for six months and be sentenced to probation for three to five years.

In rare cases, a license suspension may extend beyond probation (for instance if your license is permanently revoked). In such a case, an expungement will still not restore lost driving privileges.

5. Effect on Later DUIs

Driving under the influence is a “priorable” offense in California. This means that DUI penalties increase with each conviction accumulated within a ten-year window. It does not matter if the prior cases were expunged.⁶

Example: Lena is convicted of Vehicle Code 23152(b), driving with a BAC of .08% or higher. It is her first DUI offense. She is sentenced to and successfully completes probation. Her California drunk driving lawyer then gets her conviction expunged. Then a few years later Lena is convicted of DUI of drugs (“DUID”). Even though her prior conviction was expunged, Lena is still subject to the penalties for a second-time DUI.

6. Early Expungement

If the court is willing to grant you early termination of probation, you should be able to expunge your conviction earlier as well.

Misdemeanor (“summary”) probation for a drunk/drugged driving conviction typically lasts three years (but can be as many as five). Felony (“formal”) probation in California is equally long.

This is a long time to wait to gain the benefits of an expungement. California law offers a process for getting probation for driving under the influence terminated early — for example, after 18 months.

How do I get an early termination of DUI probation in California?

You must file a petition for early termination with the court.⁷ The court has the discretion to grant the petition if:

• You have successfully completed the terms of probation, and
• Some circumstances justify early termination of probation, such as you needing to:
  • Secure gainful employment,
  • Advance at work, or
  • Travel for work or to visit sick family members.

In reality, however, many judges are reluctant to grant early termination of probation in a drunk or drugged driving case. One of the terms of probation for a driving under the influence offense is that you may not drive with any measurable amount of alcohol in your system. Judges generally want to see you bound by this term for as long as possible.

Therefore, most judges require you to serve a complete term of probation before granting an expungement petition and dismissing the case.

7. Effect on Travel

Every country is different, though getting your California DUI case expunged can only reduce barriers to foreign travel and immigration visas. For example, Canada admits Americans who have had their DUI cases expunged.⁸

Contact an immigration attorney before attempting to travel internationally with a criminal record.

8. Expungement v. Sealing

Expunging criminal records and sealing criminal records are technically two different things, though they basically achieve the same thing: A background check with no convictions.

As of July 1, 2023, most misdemeanor convictions get automatically sealed one year after the case ends, and most felony convictions get automatically sealed four years after the case ends, even if you served prison. Learn more in our article on SB 731.

Note that if you have been convicted of a child sex offense, you may have barriers getting any part of your criminal record expunged or sealed, including drunk driving cases. Speak with an attorney to discuss your options.

9. DUI Basics

If you are arrested for drunk driving in California, you will likely face one or both of these misdemeanor charges:

1. Vehicle Code 23152(a) VC, which is driving while under the influence of alcohol. As long as you are impaired, you are considered “DUI” even if your blood alcohol content (BAC) is legal.
2. Vehicle Code 23152(b) VC, which is driving with an illegal BAC of at least 0.08%. As long as your BAC is above the legal limit, you are considered “DUI” even if you are sober and driving safely.

Drunk or drugged driving becomes a felony if you serious injured or killed someone. A fourth-time DUI (in 10 years) is also a felony even if no one got hurt.

There are many possible ways to fight charges for driving under the influence. Common defenses we rely on include:

1. The police lacked reasonable suspicion to pull you over.
2. The police did not administer the field sobriety tests correctly.
3. The breathalyzer was defective or not administered properly.
4. You had a medical condition (such as GERD) that caused an inaccurate breath test result.
5. Your blood test sample was contaminated.

Additional Reading

For more in-depth information on expungement laws and the expungement process, our criminal defense lawyers suggest you refer to these scholarly articles:

• Defining a Successful Completion of Probation under California’s Expungement Statute – Whittier Law Review.
• Sealing and Expungement of Criminal Records–The Big Lie – Journal of Criminal Law Criminology & Police Science.
• Expedited Expungement and Its Limits: AB 2147 as a Peak of Progress – UCLA Law Review.
• Beyond the eternal criminal record: Public support for expungement – Criminology & Public Policy.
• Sealing and Destruction of Criminal Records for the Factually Innocent: A Second Chance for California Penal Code Section 851.8 – San Diego Law Review.

---

Legal References: