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How Does One Seal a Juvenile Arrest or Court Record?

There is no question that if one is in college and seeking a summer internship or a part time job during school, having a criminal history may cause such an application to be denied. Having a criminal record may also render a college degree worthless, even if it is earned from a respected university. Such a record may also prevent one from renting an apartment or getting a loan.
Consequently, those with a juvenile arrest record (or the parents of the arrestee) often call our office asking whether such an arrest record can be erased, deleted or removed from one’s record.
It merits mention that a criminal conviction as a juvenile, technically termed an “adjudication” (not a conviction) is supposed to be confidential and not visible to the public.
Our answer to the question of deleting, erasing or removing an arrest record as a juvenile is “yes, if the person is qualified and no exceptions apply.” To qualify for “sealing” under California Welfare & Institutions Code § 781 and California Rules of Court, Rule 5.830, one must:
  1. be at least 18 years old; or
  2. Five years or more must pass since dismissal or termination of one’s juvenile case; or
  3. It must be at least five years since one was cited to appear before a juvenile probation officer (if no petition or case was filed in court); or
  4. One must be at least 21 years old after being released from the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) and completion of subsequent juvenile supervision.
It merits mention at this point that one may request sealing of an arrest and adjudication of a Welfare & Institutions Code § 707(b) offense, except as noted below, as long as one meets one of the four above requirements and no exception applies.
There are four main exceptions to sealing a juvenile record:
  1. One has an adult conviction for any felony;
  2. One has an adult conviction for a misdemeanor involving a charge of moral turpitude;
  3. One has an active juvenile or adult bench warrant; or
  4. One has a juvenile adjudication for a sex offense listed under Welfare & Institutions Code § 707(b) that took place when one was age 14 or older and for which one must register as a sex offender under Penal Code § 290.008. The offenses listed under § 707(b) include: “. . .(4) Rape with force, violence, or threat of great bodily harm; (5) Sodomy by force, violence, duress, menace, or threat of great bodily harm; (6) A lewd or lascivious act as provided in subdivision (b) of Section 288 of the Penal Code.
(7) Oral copulation by force, violence, duress, menace, or threat of great bodily harm.
(8) An offense specified in subdivision (a) of Section 289 [forcible penetration with a foreign object] of the Penal Code; . . . (26) Kidnapping for purposes of sexual assault, as punishable in subdivision (b) of Section 209 of the Penal Code.”
In Los Angeles County, one must then complete Probation Form 1641, titled “Juvenile Court – Application to Seal Records” which is available in any probation office in Los Angeles County or by requesting a blank form from County of Los Angeles Juvenile Sealing.
It merits mention that in Los Angeles County, one does not need to submit a JV-595 form (“Request to Seal Juvenile Records”) as one must in other counties.
The applicant or his attorney fills out this form and submits it with a photo identification card (driver’s license) for the juvenile at any probation office in Los Angeles County with a juvenile probation department. One can also mail it to the Juvenile Sealing Unit at 9150 East Imperial Hwy., Downey, CA 90242, Attention: Juvenile Sealings Unit SDPO.
Once the application is received in Los Angeles County, the juvenile probation department will process the request and prepare a report for the Los Angeles County Superior Court nearest where the arrest took place. The report will describe one’s juvenile and adult criminal record (if any). The Los Angeles County Superior then notifies the applicant and/or his attorney by mail of the hearing date,
which is typically a non-appearance hearing. On that date, the judge will either grant or deny the request and the judge’s clerk will then notify the applicant or the applicant’s attorney by mail of the ruling.
The Los Angeles County Juvenile Probation Department cautions that it can take four to six months from submitting the application to the judge’s ruling due to the time required by the probation department to process such an application, depending upon the length of one’s juvenile and / or adult record.
This article would not have been possible without the helpful advice from William Sears of the Los Angele County Juvenile Probation Department, Sealing Unit. Thank you, Officer Sears!
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