Who can get their juvenile records sealed?

Like everything else, it depends. You must meet 5 basic criteria to get your juvenile record sealed:[3234]

    You are over 18 years old, OR it has been 5 years since you were last arrested or completed your juvenile probation (whichever is later);
    You do NOT have any convictions as an adult for a felony OR for a misdemeanor involving “moral turpitude.” (“Moral turpitude” means the offense involved dishonest or immoral behavior,[3235] such as theft, fraud, certain sex and drug offenses, and offenses causing significant bodily injury);
    Your case started and ended in juvenile court (not in some other court, such as probate court or adult criminal court);
    You can demonstrate (and convince the judge) that you have been rehabilitated; AND
    There is NO open civil lawsuit based on your juvenile offense.

If you don’t meet ALL of the above requirements, you cannot get your juvenile record sealed.

  1. 3234

    Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code § 781.

  2. 3235

    See Nunez v. Holder, 594 F.3d 1124, 1124 (2010) (“Once again we face the question of what is moral turpitude [for purposes of criminal immigration law]: a nebulous question that we are required to answer on the basis of judicially established categories of criminal conduct.”); see also In re Craig, 12 Cal.2d 93, 97 (1938) (“Moral turpitude [a key concept in criminal immigration law] has been defined by many authorities as an act of baseness, vileness or depravity in the private and social duties which a man owes to his fellowmen, or to society in general, contrary to the accepted and customary rule of right and duty between man and man.”).