An arrest is not a conviction. Your record should say so.

Penal Code section 851.91 applies when an arrest did not result in a conviction: charges were never filed and no longer can be, charges were dismissed and cannot be refiled, or you were acquitted. For most people that sealing is a matter of right. Where the statute requires more — principally where the record shows a pattern of domestic violence, child abuse, or elder abuse allegations — sealing must serve the interests of justice, and that showing is built from declarations and evidence: your hardship, your character, your facts.

Penal Code section 851.8 is the stronger remedy: a finding of factual innocence, after which the records are sealed and then destroyed. The standard is demanding — no reasonable cause to believe the offense was committed by you — the petition generally must be brought within two years (late filings on good cause), and when charges were never filed it goes first to the arresting agency. Where the facts support it, it is worth pursuing, and contested hearings are included.

Honesty about the limits: a sealed arrest is deemed not to have occurred for most questions, but it must still be disclosed on applications for public office, peace-officer employment, state licensure, and Lottery contracting, and it can still be used in a later prosecution. The Department of Justice also grants automatic relief on many arrests without telling anyone — we check whether yours already qualifies before you pay for anything. Note the gap that catches people: a felony arrest that was charged and then dismissed receives no automatic relief, and still needs a petition.

Attorney Gaurav Bali identifies the correct statute for your arrest, prepares and files the petition with its supporting declarations, serves the prosecutor and the arresting agency as the statute requires, and appears at the hearing — including a contested one — all within the flat fee.

1. 1

   Pinning down the arrest

   Sealing petitions live and die on precision, so the intake gathers the exact details: the date of arrest, the city and county, the agency, the report or case number if you have it, and what happened afterward — never charged, dismissed, or acquitted. We verify against available records and check whether the Department of Justice has already granted automatic relief on the arrest — relief that is a notation on your state record, not a sealing, and that the Department never notifies you about.

2. 2

   Choosing the right statute

   Attorney Gaurav Bali determines whether your case is a matter-of-right sealing under section 851.91, an interests-of-justice showing (where the law requires one), or a candidate for the stronger remedy — a finding of factual innocence under section 851.8, where records are sealed and then destroyed. Where charges were never filed, the 851.8 route begins with a petition to the arresting agency itself.

3. 3

   The petition and declarations

   The petition is prepared in the form each statute prescribes, with the declarations that carry it: your account of the arrest, the hardship it has caused — the job, the apartment, the license, each with dates — and supporting evidence where the interests of justice must be shown. You confirm everything is accurate before it is finalized.

4. 4

   Filing and service

   Filed in the proper court — where charges were filed, or where the arrest occurred — and served on the prosecuting attorney and the arresting agency at least 15 days before the hearing, exactly as the statute commands.

5. 5

   The hearing

   Many sealing petitions are decided on declarations and reports. When the petition is contested — and factual-innocence petitions often are — attorney Gaurav Bali appears and argues it. Contested hearings are included in the fee.

6. 6

   The order, and after

   When granted, the arrest is sealed and deemed not to have occurred for most purposes; agencies are notified as the statute requires, and under 851.8 the records are destroyed on schedule. We send you the order and explain, in writing, both what you may now answer and the narrow disclosures that remain.

A sealed arrest is deemed by statute not to have occurred: for nearly every question on nearly every application, you may answer accordingly. The narrow statutory exceptions — public office, peace-officer employment, state licensure, Lottery contracting — are spelled out for you in writing with the order, so you always know exactly where you stand.

California employment law adds a second lock: employers may not ask about or use an arrest that never became a conviction, and the state's background-check statutes keep non-conviction arrests out of commercial employment reports. Sealing turns those paper rights into a record that actually matches them.

After the order, the court's ruling reaches the prosecuting attorney, the arresting agency, and the state's records — and where the stronger factual-innocence remedy is granted, the records are not just sealed but destroyed on the statute's schedule, with the agencies directed to say so.

Sealing petitions are commonly heard within about two to three months of filing — county calendars control the pace — and the order then moves through the agencies within weeks. Factual-innocence petitions take longer — they are contested more often — and the contested hearing is included in the fee.