Under both California statute and case law, clients have a right to a certificate declaring that an arrest was but a detention, if the client was released before seeing a magistrate or the district attorney declined to file charges. Such a certificate can be obtained from the arresting agency. Cal. Penal Code sections 849 and 851.6(a) (when police release an arrestee without taking him before a magistrate, the arrest shall not be deemed an arrest, but a detention only and the arresting agency shall issue a certificate with such a declaration); Cal. Penal Code sections 849.5 and 851.6(b) (when no accusatory pleading is filed charging [arrestee] with an offense, any record of arrest of the person shall include a record of release. Thereafter, the arrest shall not be deemed an arrest, but a detention only.); see Loder v. Municipal Court (1976) 17 Cal. 3d 859, 869 (The Legislature has provided in effect that a substantial proportion of arrests not resulting in conviction shall not be recorded as arrests but simply as detentions.); see Raphael Goldman, A Little-Known Entitlement for Suspects who are Detained but not Charged, California Attorneys for Criminal Justice Nuggets.