certificates of rehabilitation and early termination of probation
What is a Certificates of Rehabilitation? Who is eligible? How can you recieve an Early Termination of Probation?
If you are sentenced to prison you are not eligible to later expunge the conviction. However, you may be eligible to obtain a certificate of rehabilitation which can help you gain employment, a license or other needs.
To receive a certification of rehabilitation from the superior court, you must show the following: (1) you have lived in California for at least three years immediately prior to filing the petition (Penal Code § 4852.01(a)) and (2) seven years have passed since your most recent conviction or since you were released on parole or probation, whichever is later (Penal Code § 4852.03(a)(3). The rehabilitation time is nine or ten years if you were convicted of certain serious or violent offenses such as murder, offenses that carry a life sentence, or those that require § 290 registration. (Penal Code § 4852.03 (a)(1)-(2).)
Additionally, certificate of rehabilitation are not available for people convicted of a misdemeanor, serving mandatory life parole, convicted of 286(c), 288, 288a(c), 288.5, 289(j), or persons in the military service. (Penal Code § 4852.01(d).)
A certification of rehabilitation that is granted by the Superior Court judge it is automatically forwarded to the Governor’s office as an application for a pardon. (Penal Code § 4852.06.)
Early Termination of Probation
You may bring a motion in superior court to obtain early termination of your misdemeanor or felony probation. To obtain this relief, you must provide evidence of your good conduct and reform and show that the ends of justice will be served by granting you early termination of probation. (Penal Code § 1203.3(a).) This means that you must show the judge that there is good reason to terminate your probation early. A job requiring a clear criminal record is an example of good reason to grant such a motion. If you are granted early termination of probation, you can then move forward with having your records sealed under 1203.4.
Note that the trial court does not have authority to terminate your probation early when a specific probationary period is a term of your plea agreement. (People v. Segura (2008) 44 Cal.4th 921.)
If maintaining your criminal record is important to you feel free to give me a call. I enjoy helping my client’s avoid convictions whenever possible, and when that is not possible to minimize the adverse effects of a criminal conviction by negotiating and carefully structuring the disposition so that you can earn back your clean record.
~ Dan Koukol, California Criminal Defense Attorney
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