Eligibility for Expungement
 Expungement law (any criminal expungement; whether a misdemeanor expungement or a felony expungement – also known as post conviction relief) sets forth basic eligibility requirements. It makes little sense to begin the expungement process, if there is no chance to clean the criminal record. Expunging a conviction is not easy and an expungement petition (or expungement form) is not cheap. So hiring a criminal expungement lawyer will not be of maximum benefit if these eligibility requirements are not met.
The expungement of a criminal record (sometimes referred to as sealing a record or clearing a criminal record) is only available to those who have not been sentenced to state prison. An expungement lawyer can get a criminal record expunged when up to one year in county jail was imposed. However, it is impossible to expunge a felony conviction (felony expungement) when a state prison term was imposed. (NOTE: it may be possible to obtain a Certificate of Rehabilitation or Governor's Pardon where a state prison sentence was imposed.)
To expunge a police record, expungement petitions will only be granted where the applicant is not on probation any longer. This status may be achieved where the probationary term naturally expires, or may be the result of an expungement lawyer bringing a motion to terminate probation.
Expungement (regardless of misdemeanor expungement, felony expungement or DUI expungement) will not be granted unless the applicant fulfilled the conditions of probation, including all fines, jail time, community service, Cal-Trans, alcohol education programs, or whatever other terms and conditions imposed by the court. An expungement attorney will know just how to deal with this issue.
In order to expunge a criminal record, there must be no pending criminal cases whatsoever. There are also various technical requirements the skilled expungement attorney will be aware of, such as providing proper notice to the prosecutor and or probation officer.
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