California Penal Code 851.93: Automatic Relief, Limits, and Gaps

California Penal Code 851.93 gives you automatic relief for an arrest that never turned into a conviction. The California Department of Justice runs a monthly review of its criminal history databases, identifies qualifying arrests, and grants relief on its own. No petition, no court hearing, no filing fee, no lawyer required. Once relief is granted, the arrest is legally treated as though it never happened, and you can answer questions about it accordingly.

What the Statute Actually Covers

PC 851.93 applies to arrest records only. If your arrest led to a conviction, this statute is not the one you want; a separate law, Penal Code 1203.425, handles automatic conviction relief. Section 851.93 is built for the situations where you were arrested but the case never produced a conviction, whether charges were dismissed, never filed, you were acquitted, or you completed a qualifying diversion program.¹

When the DOJ grants relief, the arrest is deemed not to have occurred. You are released from the penalties and disabilities that resulted from it, and in most situations you can deny the arrest when asked about it.²

Who Qualifies

Your arrest must have occurred on or after January 1, 1973. Beyond that, the statute lays out five objective paths to relief:¹

Arrested for a misdemeanor and the charge was dismissed.
Arrested for a misdemeanor, no charges filed, and at least one calendar year has passed since the arrest, with no conviction or an acquittal on any charge from that arrest.
Arrested for a standard felony, no charges filed, and at least three calendar years have passed, again with no conviction or an acquittal.
Arrested for a felony carrying a potential sentence of eight or more years in state prison, no charges filed, and at least six calendar years have passed.
Successfully completed a qualifying diversion program tied to the arrest, including prefiling diversion, drug diversion, deferred entry of judgment, and other pretrial diversion programs listed in the statute.

You don’t have to show rehabilitation, community service, or good behavior. You just have to fit one of the categories above. The waiting periods exist to give prosecutors a window to file charges; when that window closes without a filing, the DOJ grants relief on its own.

How the Automatic Process Runs

Each month, the DOJ reviews arrest records in the statewide criminal justice databases, identifies people who meet the eligibility criteria, adds a notation to the qualifying arrest records showing relief has been granted, and sends an electronic notification to the superior court that had jurisdiction.²

Here is the part that catches people off guard: the DOJ does not notify you. It notifies the court. If you want to confirm your status, request your own criminal history record — your RAP sheet — from the DOJ. Instructions live on the Attorney General’s website under “Criminal Records – Request Your Own.”²

What Relief Does Not Cover

Automatic relief is broad, but subdivision (d) of the statute carves out several situations where the arrest can still be accessed, disclosed, or used:¹

Peace officer employment. You must still disclose the arrest when directly asked on a peace officer application or questionnaire, and the DOJ will disseminate the arrest to agencies requesting records for peace officer employment or certification.³
Criminal justice agencies keep full access to the record.
A district attorney can still prosecute you for the underlying offense within the applicable statute of limitations.
Firearm restrictions triggered by the arrest are unaffected.
Disqualifications from holding public office are unaffected.
Certain licensing agencies — including those evaluating criminal history for community care facilities and foster family homes under specific Health and Safety Code provisions — can still receive and act on the arrest information.

The DOJ’s own guidance confirms that in some cases an arrest that received relief will still be shared with a prospective employer, with peace officer hiring the most common example.²

When the System Misses You

The automatic process depends on the DOJ’s electronic records being complete and accurate. If a disposition was never reported to the state database, or an entry contains an error, the monthly review can miss you. Older arrests are the most vulnerable to this, particularly those from the 1970s and 1980s when reporting practices were less standardized.

If you pull your RAP sheet and find an arrest that should have received relief but didn’t, PC 851.93 is not your only path. The statute explicitly preserves your ability to seek relief under other laws, including Penal Code sections 851.87, 851.90, and 851.91.¹

PC 851.91 is the petition-based route to sealing an arrest record. You file with the court using form CR-409. Sealing is available as a matter of right if the arrest didn’t result in a conviction, with narrower rules for certain arrests involving domestic violence, child abuse, or elder abuse where the record shows a pattern; in those situations, the court can still seal in the interests of justice, but it has discretion to deny.⁴

Before filing anything, request your RAP sheet. If 851.93 has already done the work, a petition is unnecessary effort and expense.

How This Differs From PC 1203.425

These two statutes are often confused because they were built together as California’s automatic record relief framework. The line between them is clean. PC 851.93 covers arrests without a conviction: dismissed charges, cases where charges were never filed, acquittals, and completed diversion. PC 1203.425 covers conviction records for people who completed probation or their sentence for certain eligible offenses, were not required to register as a sex offender, and are not currently serving a sentence or awaiting new charges.²

If you were arrested and convicted, 851.93 doesn’t apply. Look to 1203.425 or another remedy such as expungement under PC 1203.4.

Background Checks After Relief

Most standard background checks should come back clean on an arrest that received relief. Screening companies that comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act and California law are expected to filter out records that have been sealed or received relief, and the Federal Trade Commission has flagged the reporting of expunged or sealed records as a sign that a screening company’s procedures may not be reasonable under the FCRA.⁵

The gap between what the law requires and what happens in the real world is worth knowing about. Private background check companies pull from court records, news archives, and public databases, and they don’t always update promptly when relief is granted. If a report turns up an arrest that has received relief, you can dispute the report with the screening company, which is required to investigate and correct inaccuracies under federal law. California employment law adds another layer: employers generally cannot consider arrest records that did not result in a conviction when making hiring decisions, regardless of whether the record technically received relief under 851.93.

Pulling your own RAP sheet is the practical starting move for anyone relying on 851.93. It tells you whether relief was actually granted, and it gives you the documentation you need if a background check ever says otherwise.

1
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 851.93 – Arrest Record Relief
2
State of California – Department of Justice – Office of the Attorney General. Automatic Record Relief – Penal Code Sections 851.93 and 1203.425
3
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code Section 11105
4
Judicial Council of California. CR-409 Petition to Seal Arrest and Related Records
5
Federal Trade Commission. What Employment Background Screening Companies Need to Know About the Fair Credit Reporting Act