Last reviewed: Checked against the current California code on this date.
This checker runs entirely on your own device. Nothing you tap is saved, stored, or sent anywhere. It gives general information to help you find the right starting point, not legal advice.
This is general information about California record relief, not legal advice, and using it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Eligibility turns on the exact code section you were convicted under and on your full record, which this tool cannot see. Before you rely on any of it, check with your court’s self-help center or a California attorney.
What your result is pointing you to
The checker above ends by naming a statute, and that is on purpose. California does not have one “expungement” law. It has several separate laws for clearing a record.
Which law fits you depends on your sentence, not on the charge. Each question in the checker is one fork in that map. Your result makes more sense once you see the forks, and you can catch it if you answered something wrong.
(About the word itself. “Expungement” is not quite right, because what the court actually does is dismiss the case. The word stuck anyway.)
Our expungement guide explains what that dismissal changes and what it leaves alone. Read it before you file anything.
Probation or no probation, the biggest fork
Everything turns on one split: probation, or no probation.
If you got probation. The main law is Penal Code 1203.4, and it has 3 doors in:
- You finished your full probation term.
- The judge ended your probation early.
- In any other case, the judge decides that dismissal serves “the interest of justice.”
For the first 2 doors, the statute says the court “shall” grant relief. Shall means must. Finish probation clean, stay out of new trouble, and the dismissal is close to automatic.
The third door is the judge’s choice, so the time that has passed and the reasons you give actually matter.
If you got a misdemeanor or an infraction with no probation. The route is Penal Code 1203.4a. You can ask for the same dismissal 1 year after the judgment (the day you were sentenced).
Your sentence has to be done and nothing new can be pending. The law also expects you to have stayed out of trouble since.
There is even a backup. Fall short on the stayed-out-of-trouble part and the judge may still choose to grant it. Then it is a choice, not a right.
If a felony put you in county jail. Some felonies are served in county jail instead of prison. If yours was, look at Penal Code 1203.41.
The wait is 1 year after a straight jail term. It is 2 years if the term came with mandatory supervision (a stretch of probation-style supervision after the jail part). Either way, this one is the judge’s call, not automatic.
That 2-year track now reaches some state prison sentences too. That surprises people. For years the advice was that prison closed this door for good.
If you served prison time. When 1203.41 does not fit, a different path exists for prison cases, called a Certificate of Rehabilitation. It works differently and takes years longer, so the checker points you there instead of pretending it is the same tool.
Why the checker asks the rest
- Where the case was. This tool only covers California cases. Federal cases and other states have their own systems.
- How the case ended. If you were arrested but never convicted, dismissal is the wrong tool entirely. The checker reroutes you toward sealing, a different remedy built for arrests that never became convictions. Our guide to the days after an arrest covers where sealing fits.
- Whether anything is open right now. You cannot get this relief while you are serving a sentence or facing a new charge. An open case of any kind gets in the way, and this blocks more people than the offense rules do.
- Old warrants count here too. A case with a warrant sitting in it is still an open case. Handle the warrant first.
- What the conviction was for. A short list of offenses is shut out of the main dismissal law by name. Most convictions are nowhere near that list, but the checker has to rule it out.
- Sex offender registration. Registration changes which relief is available. Automatic relief, for one, does not cover anyone required to register.
The relief you may already have
Under the Clean Slate law, Penal Code 1203.425, the state now clears some records on its own. No paperwork from you, no fee. The Department of Justice reviews records every month.
In broad strokes, misdemeanors and completed-probation cases can clear 1 year after judgment. Felonies can clear 4 years after the whole sentence is done. The felony side excludes serious felonies, violent felonies, and anything requiring registration.
The only way to know whether this already happened to your case is to look at your own record. If you have never seen yours, that is the first thing to fix.
The checker cannot see your record, so get the record
Every answer you gave the tool came from memory, and memory is the weak link here. People misremember whether they got probation and how it ended. Some misremember whether a case ended in a conviction at all.
Two fixes, both cheap:
- Ask the DOJ for your record. California lets you request your own criminal history for review. That printout shows every conviction the state has on you, and whether any of them already shows as dismissed. It is also how you find out whether Clean Slate relief reached you.
- Pull the court file. Your sentencing paperwork says exactly what your sentence was, which settles the biggest fork above. Checking a case online is more reliable than calling.
- If you have to call, ask for the business office. Not the clerk’s line. The business office can actually work through a question like “is anything still outstanding on this case.” The clerk’s counter is too slammed to try.
California courts also run free self-help centers, and record clearance is squarely the kind of thing they help with.
And what the dismissal will and will not change, once you get it, is in our expungement guide. That part matters as much as eligibility.
Take the record seriously before you take the result seriously. The judge who reads your paperwork will have your actual history in front of them. File from memory, and you are the only person in the room who is guessing.