Driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol is a serious crime in California that can land you in jail or prison, depending on the severity of the offense. The repercussions could also dent your career and various opportunities due to the limitations that come with being convicted.

Limitations such as unemployment due to a criminal record can be devastating, and a DUI expungement could help you mitigate this adversity. You should know that a DUI conviction does not "drop off" when you serve time in jail; you must petition the court to remove it from your records.

Under California Penal Code 1203.4a, your criminal charges, including DUI convictions, could be expunged or removed from your records. Once the DUI conviction is successfully expunged from your criminal record, you can confidently answer "no" if asked whether you have any criminal record at an interview.

An employer cannot refuse to employ you after your DUI conviction is expunged. However, if you commit another DUI offense within the 10-year window, you will be convicted as a second-time offender, even with the expungement of the first DUI conviction.

How a DUI Conviction Affects your Life and Future

Under California law, it is illegal to operate a vehicle while having a BAC (blood alcohol content) of 0.08% or even higher. If you are driving a commercial vehicle, the legal limit falls to a BAC of 0.04%. A BAC of 0.01% could lead you into serious trouble if you are under 21. DUI convictions have hefty penalties, even for a first-time offender who has to face the following conditions following sentencing:

  • Up to 6 months of jail time.
  • Hefty fines.
  • A six-month driver’s license revocation.
  • One year of driver’s license suspension if you had refused to undergo BAC testing when you were found drunk driving.
  • Probation time sentencing lasts about 3 to 5 years. You must attend a DUI school for three months as part of your probation requirements. You could also have the period for attending the DUI school extended to 9 months if your BAC was 0.20% or higher.

Other terms of the probation could include the following:

  • Community service.
  • Drug testing.
  • Abstaining from any alcohol usage.
  • Substance use treatment and counseling.
  • Attending alcoholic anonymous meetings.
  • Securing a continuous alcohol content-detecting device.

A repeat offender could face more severe sentencing, including suspension, probation time, and higher fines.

A DUI conviction is a black mark on your record and could ruin future employment opportunities. It could also form the basis on which you are judged in court for other crimes you may commit in the future, such as a ruling in favor of your spouse in divorce proceedings or child custody cases.

However, there are circumstances in which you could remove the black mark from your records by having the DUI conviction expunged.

An Overview of The DUI Conviction Expungement Process

Not all DUI conviction removal petitions are successful, especially if you were convicted as a DUI felon and served time in a state prison. If someone died due to drunken driving, you could be charged with a felony.

You must also complete all your probationary conditions before seeking a DUI expungement. You could terminate your probation early if the court grants your motion.

This early termination would mean that you could apply for the DUI conviction expungement early as well, and if the judge rules in your favor, you could have your records clean in less than a year after being convicted. You should, however, serve six months of your probation time and pay court costs and accrued fines before asking for it to be terminated.

However, early probation termination is not common, and you may be required to address through documentation why your motion must be granted in court.

Why You Need Legal Representation

You want to seek the services of a criminal defense attorney to undertake the DUI expungement process. This is essential because the legal proceedings for expunging a drunken or drugged driving conviction have been set higher than any other criminal offense expungement.

You have to prove that the DUI conviction expunction from your records is an action that is interested in seeking justice. The court and prosecution both have the power to dismiss your petition and deny the expungement if you do not have a solid claim as to why the conviction should be removed from your records. This means that seeking legal counsel is critical.

If you decide to undertake the process on your own, you could make a mistake and later pay a hefty amount of money to seek the services of a lawyer to undo the mistake and take you through the expungement process.

How a DUI Conviction Expungement Works

In California, probation time is usually a minimum of 3 years. After successfully serving probation by attending a DUI school, paying all the required fines, and completing community service, you will become eligible to petition for your DUI conviction to be expunged in court. This means that you could have a DUI conviction removed from public court files and records and only kept internally for reference by the prosecutors and the police.

Once you file the petition, the judge will listen to your case in a hearing and review your petition to determine whether you are eligible to expunge your DUI conviction from your criminal records. Once they determine your eligibility and grant the petitions, you could withdraw your "guilty" plea and re-enter a "not guilty" plea instead.

The judge could dismiss the verdict if you had been found guilty during a hearing and your case was ultimately removed from your records. This, however, will be the case unless you commit another DUI offense within ten years of your last conviction. You will be charged as a second-time offender if you commit another DUI offense within ten years.

The DUI Conviction Removal Process

Some of the steps you have to undertake while seeking a DUI expungement are:

  • Your lawyer will first file a petition in court for the dismissal of the DUI conviction from your records.
  • Your attorney could help you ask the court to file a motion to grant you early termination of your probation sentence.
  • Your lawyer will then submit a supporting document or attachment to your petition. In that attachment, they should clearly state that you have been a law-abiding citizen and have not committed any other criminal offense. They must also state how the expunction will benefit you and your family.
  • You should ensure the documents are also served to the probation and prosecution departments on time. Notifying them of your petition on time will enable them to contest it in time as required in California statutes.
  • If the court grants your petition, you will receive an order to dismiss the DUI conviction from your records.

How Long Does It Take to Overturn a DUI Conviction?

The process of a DUI expunction varies from one county to the next; however, in California, the expungement proceedings from the time you file a petition until the court grants your petition take an average of 6 to 12 weeks. Therefore, the sooner you file a petition, the sooner you will have this offense removed from your criminal record.

Eligibility Factors to Obtain a DUI Conviction Expungement

You are eligible for the expungement of your driving under the influence conviction, whether the charges were a misdemeanor or a felony according to California crime classification. This is possible, provided that:

  • You have successfully served your probation time.
  • You did not serve time in a state prison.
  • You did serve time in a state prison but would have served time in jail instead due to your qualification following the law's enactment under proposition 47, ‘realignment.’
  • You have not been involved in any other criminal offense.
  • You have waited one year since your conviction if you were not sentenced to serve probation time.
  • You are not currently facing any other criminal offense charges in court. However, if you are, that case must be resolved before petitioning for a DUI expungement.

Benefits of Having your DUI Conviction Expunged

A DUI conviction on your record could be frustrating if you are a college student in California. You could miss out on financial aid from the state, and you could also miss out on a job opportunity, for example, as a driver in a trucking company, if the employer finds a drunken or drugged driving conviction in your records.

All these obstacles could cease and not affect you if you seek legal services and have the conviction expunged. Some of the benefits you could garner from having your DUI conviction removed from all public records include the following:

  • Your potential employers will not withhold your employment based on an expunged DUI conviction.
  • You will not have to worry about a DUI offense record popping up in most public databases.
  • When seeking residence, the landlord of the building you wish to stay at will not refuse you since they will not find any records when they search for your criminal record.
  • Your eligibility for employment in the military or teaching departments will increase significantly, unlike if you still have a DUI conviction in your records.

Having a DUI conviction legally removed from your record means no one will hold the offense against you. However, conviction records will still be available for the police and prosecutors.

Will the Expungement of a DUI Conviction Aid in Regaining My Driver's License?

Under PC 1203.4, the expungement of a DUI conviction will not automatically overturn the decision of your driver’s license suspension or revocation. Especially where the verdict was a permanent revocation of your driver’s license, the expungement will not help you retrieve your license.

However, if your case is a first-time DUI offender and your conviction is expunged from your records after successfully serving probation time, which is usually 3 to 5 years, you could retrieve your driver’s license. This is because the suspension usually lasts for a maximum of 6 months.

Will  Expungement Have Any Effect On Or Reduce The Severity Of Your Penalties If You Are Convicted Of Another DUI Offense?

A DUI offense is "priorable" under California law, which means the penalties for a second conviction will be more severe than the first, even if the offense was expunged from your record the first time. This is true if you were caught driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol within ten years of your first conviction.

For example, in 2020, Joyce was found guilty of driving under the influence of alcohol with a BAC of 0.09% and sentenced to three years of probation. Then her DUI offense is successfully expunged after having served her probation, but in 2023 she is arrested due to drunk driving; if convicted, she will accrue penalties for a second-time DUI.

Does Expungement of a DUI Conviction Make It Easier to Find Work?

A DUI conviction record could negatively affect your employment search, especially in these jobs:

  • A Lyft or uber driver.
  • A truck driver.
  • Company driver.
  • Military personnel.
  • Teacher.
  • Medical personnel.

However, once you petition for a DUI conviction expungement and the criminal record is removed from your records, no employer can use the conviction against you to affect your employment negatively. Under California's "ban the box" law, employers are prohibited from asking about any previous criminal offenses you could have committed or arrests that could have been made on your end before offering you a job or at an interview level.

At times, past DUI conviction information could come to light, and your employer would learn of it after granting you employment. If the conviction has already been expunged from your record, the employer cannot use the information they have to decide whether to:

  • Give you a promotion.
  • Retain you.

When applying for a teaching position or a state license, you should disclose that you have a DUI conviction on your record for which you served probation and the offense has already been expunged. This will not affect your ability to obtain a teaching job or a state license.

If you had your drug and drunk driving convictions expunged before applying for a license, a state licensing authority or board may grant you a license. However, if you did not undertake the process to have your conviction removed from your records, the state licensing board could have a basis for denying your application.

Limitations of Having Your DUI Conviction Expunged

Even when your drunk or drugged driving offense is removed from your criminal record, certain entities still have a record of the DUI crime for which you were convicted. These entities include insurance companies, police departments, court systems, state licensing bodies, and governmental agencies.

These records are maintained to protect the public from repeat DUI offenders. Some of the instances in which a DUI expungement does not favor you include the following:

  • Insurance rates

A DUI conviction on your record means you must pay more for insurance. Having the offense expunged does not change anything; you continue to pay these high rates. In California, the DUI crime remains on your driving record for up to 10 years, even though you may have it expunged after you have served your probation, which is three to five years after your conviction. Your insurance provider could even cut the amount or completely decline coverage if you are convicted of multiple drunken or drugged driving offenses.

  • Employment in government departments

Some public jobs, such as working for the police department in California or the military, require you to open up about your DUI conviction in a job interview. You could be charged with perjury if you do not make your DUI come to light. 

An expungement could influence a decision in your employment in a public organization; however, an employer is left with the burden of knowingly employing a person convicted of a DUI offense.

  • Professional licenses

You must disclose information about being found drunk or drugged driving and convicted when applying for a professional license, such as a bar license for attorneys, a truck driver's license, or a real estate license, even if you had the crime removed from your records.

How Much Does It Cost to Have Your DUI Conviction Expunged?

As is expected, a DUI expungement has a fee attached to it in terms of court fees when you file the petition. The fee amount charged varies in different areas of California, and this information can be sourced from the government website.

You could seek the expungement on your own accord, but to have a smooth time and obtain advice from a legal point of view, you will have to seek the services of an attorney. A legal service fee will accrue once you associate yourself with a lawyer to help you expunge your DUI conviction. Different law firms have their charges, and while these services might be costly, you have something positive out of seeking legal services.

Find a Los Angeles Criminal Lawyer Near Me

Drunk and drugged driving in California is a prevalent offense that could have severe repercussions on your life, such as being barred from working in specific government departments if you are convicted. Having it expunged from your criminal record may give you a new lease on life and make it easier to find work.

At Los Angeles Criminal Lawyer, we have experience dealing with individuals convicted of DUI offenses and have helped them clean their records. Contact us today at 310-502-1314 so that we can help you have your DUI conviction expunged.