Expungements

Expungement

After reading these instructions you may visit our office or call us at 562-570-5600 if you still have questions. The Office of the City Prosecutor does not give legal advice, but may direct you to public information regarding expungements.

Background
An expungement is a process by which a conviction or plea (either Guilty or No Contest) in a criminal action is set aside and the case is dismissed. It relieves the defendant of certain penalties and disabilities that result from a criminal action. If you have an arrest and conviction for which you have completed all the sentencing conditions, then you may be eligible to have that case expunged. For more details, refer to this website:
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/other/crimlawclean.htm.

You can petition to have certain criminal, misdemeanor, or felony cases expunged. You cannot expunge traffic cases. Before you apply be sure you have completed all the sentencing conditions of the Court, including all terms of probation. If you have not completed all the sentencing conditions your petition will be denied.

Long Beach Cases
We handle expungements for cases prosecuted by this office. We do not handle any cases that originated with the Los Angeles District Attorney or the Los Angeles/San Pedro City Attorney. If you want to file a Petition for any cases in other offices, you must contact those offices.

Filing a Petition
A petition for expungement may be downloaded from the following Internet site:
Petition for Dismissal (pdf)

You may bring your completed Petition for Dismissal form to the City Prosecutor Office on the 2nd Floor of City Hall. We will verify that your Petition is one of our cases. You may be asked to pay a fee of $60 or $150 depending on the type of petition, or the Court may ask you to prove you are unable to pay at a hearing. For more information, read Penal Code Section 1203.4, which you will find at the following website:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery?codesection=pen&codebody=&hits=20

If you have more than one conviction, you can submit multiple petitions simultaneously. If you have several petitions, be sure to submit them all together. If you submit them separately you may be required to pay additional fees.

The Court will make its decision after it receives your petition. The City Prosecutor’s Office will file a response to your petition. The final determination of the Court’s decision will be sent directly to you.

Questions?
If you have any questions about expungements, you may come to our office, or telephone us at 562-570-5600. The City Prosecutor’s Office does not give legal advice, but may direct you to public information regarding expungements. If you need legal advice, you must contact your own attorney.