AB 331

Under current law, a court may order a person's criminal record expunged of

certain crimes that the person committed before the age of 25. Current law specifies

that the expungement order must be made only at sentencing and then the record

is expunged when the person completes his or her sentence. Under this bill, the same

crimes are eligible for expungement but, if the sentencing court did not order the

record expunged, the person may file a petition with the sentencing court after he or

she completes his or her sentence. Upon receipt of the petition, the court must review

the petition at a hearing or, if the victim of the crime waives a hearing, without a

hearing, and then may order the record expunged or may deny the petition. If the

court denies the petition, the person may not file another petition for two years. This

bill also requires the sentencing court to inform an eligible person of the process to

petition for an expungement order and allows the sentencing court to order that a

person's record not be eligible for expungement.

This bill provides that, if a person's record is expunged of a crime, the

Department of Justice must redact any record of that crime when DOJ responds to

a public records request. This bill also provides that, if a record is expunged of a

crime, that crime is not considered a conviction for employment purposes and

specifies that employment discrimination because of a conviction record includes

requesting a person to supply information regarding a crime if the record has been

expunged of the crime.