Reducing Felonies to Misdemeanors

Certain felony convictions can be reduced to misdemeanors on your record. You can do this as part of getting the conviction expunged, or you may be able to do it separately, even if you DON’T get the conviction expunged.

Whether or not you get the conviction expunged, reducing your felony to a misdemeanor will help you to clean up your record, and has other benefits, including:

    making the conviction look less serious on your criminal record;
    allowing you to say that you’ve never been convicted of a felony on certain job, housing, and other applications; AND
    restoring some of the rights you may have lost due to your conviction—such as the right to possess a gun and the right to serve on a jury.

This section explains the benefits of having your felony conviction reduced to a misdemeanor, what penalties may still affect you afterward, and the steps for getting your felony conviction reduced to a misdemeanor.