Post-Conviction Relief
(Expungement)
Helping Clients Move Beyond Their Convictions
Our criminal record expungement practice focuses on post-conviction relief for individuals seeking to establish meaningful reintegration after contact with the criminal justice system. The fallout of criminal convictions can result in severe collateral consequences in various contexts including employment, housing, and student loans. Important civil and political rights are implicated for people with convictions. For example, some states permanently disenfranchise people with conviction histories, further pushing people to the margins of society.
California’s record expungement statutes allow people to petition the court for dismissal of their past convictions. Once a person has successfully dismissed their record, they are generally released from “all penalties and disabilities” associated with their convictions, and they can answer “no” on most job applications inquiring about conviction history.
CLC students handle a variety of post-conviction motions including expungements, felony and misdemeanor reductions, and early terminations of probation. CLC students represent clients in the Criminal Division of the Superior Court in San Mateo county. Students develop a case plan, research their client’s eligibility for various expungement remedies, draft motions, client and attorney declarations, and file their motions with the court. If the San Mateo county Deputy District Attorney opposes their motions, the students go to court and argue their case. Students report feeling rewarded and fulfilled working to expunge their clients’ convictions because of the stakes involved. Expungements have the potential to provide CLC clients with a fresh start, a clean slate, and a meaningful opportunity to improve work and professional licensing prospects. Several clients have also commented on the psychological liberation that flows from expunging their record. People have described having “a cloud lifted” or “a heavy burden” alleviated after working with CLC to clear up their record.
Our hope is to help ameliorate the collateral consequences of convictions so that people can fully engage in their communities and have a fair chance of reentering society.
Students in Action
At the beginning of every full-time quarter, law students participate in an intensive training session for expungement cases. As part of their training, students work collaboratively to analyze their clients’ RAP sheets and to explore the legal remedies that might be available to their clients like expungement, felony reduction, early termination of probation, or some combination of these. Collective effort and a shared sense of purpose is a common part of the CLC experience. The students pictured here were student attorneys at CLC during the spring 2017 term.