Criminal Defense of Immigrants

(C)  Correcting State Criminal History Records.  The easiest way to ensure the state criminal history records are corrected is to ask the clerk of the criminal court issuing the order vacating the record to do so.  The clerk will have submitted a record of the conviction to the state department of criminal identification, or its equivalent, when the original conviction occurred.  Now that the court has vacated the conviction, the clerk can submit a corrected form to the same state agency in the same matter.  Counsel can also do so independently.  To do so, first obtain a certified copy of the court order vacating the conviction, and submit it to the state department of justice or bureau of criminal identification,[145] together with a completed form if one is required, or a letter, requesting the correction.  Once the state agency has corrected its record, counsel can send the corrected state record to the FBI, which will then correct its record.  If counsel does not receive satisfaction from the state agency informally, the client may be entitled to a hearing to determine the truth of the matter.[146]

[145] E.g., California Department of Justice, Record Review Unit, P.O. Box 903417, Sacramento, CA 94203‑4170. 

[146] See, e.g., California Penal Code § 11126(c).