PC 851.91
Sealing an arrest record (PC 851.91)
An arrest with no conviction is not supposed to follow you around, and yet it does. This is the statute that stops it.
What it does
The court orders the arrest record sealed and, for most purposes, treats the arrest as not having occurred.
What it does not do
It does not destroy the record entirely, and a sealed arrest is still disclosable in specific settings, including peace officer applications.
Being arrested is not being convicted, and most people assume an arrest that went nowhere disappears on its own. It does not. It sits on your record, background check companies report it, and you end up explaining something that never resulted in a finding against you.
Sealing as a matter of right
For most arrests with no conviction, sealing is a right rather than a favour. The court is required to grant it, and the order directs that the record be sealed and the arrest treated as not having occurred. That is stronger language than a dismissal gets.
Check the automatic route first
California also grants automatic arrest relief under Penal Code 851.93, on a schedule that depends on what happened. A misdemeanour arrest where the charge was dismissed qualifies immediately. A misdemeanour arrest with no proceedings qualifies after a year. A felony arrest generally takes three years, and six for the most serious. If that already happened, your Department of Justice record will say 'arrest relief granted'.
The exception worth knowing
Intentionally evading the proceedings is a bar. If there is an old failure to appear or an outstanding warrant on the case, that has to be dealt with before this works, and it is one of the situations where we route the case to an attorney rather than giving an answer from a questionnaire.
Who qualifies
- You were arrested in California
- No conviction resulted — charges were never filed, were dismissed, you were acquitted, or the conviction was vacated
- You did not intentionally evade the proceedings
Who does not
- Arrests that did lead to a conviction, which need a dismissal instead
- Cases where the person intentionally evaded arrest or prosecution
- A narrow set of circumstances where sealing is discretionary rather than a right, including some domestic violence, child abuse and elder abuse patterns
The forms and how long it takes
Filed on CR-409, CR-409-INFO, CR-410.
- CR-409 — Petition to Seal Arrest and Related Records
- CR-409-INFO — Information on How to File a Petition to Seal
- CR-410 — Order to Seal Arrest and Related Records
The prosecuting agency has a statutory window to respond, and in practice these resolve faster than conviction dismissals — often inside two months.
Our flat fee for this is $649, all in, with the court filing fee included. See what that covers.
Common questions
Charges were never even filed. Is there anything to seal?
Yes, and this is the most common version of this case. The arrest itself is a record even when no case followed, and it is reportable until it is sealed or relieved.
Does sealing mean it is destroyed?
Not entirely. The record is sealed rather than obliterated, it remains available to law enforcement, and it is still disclosable in a small number of specific settings such as peace officer applications. For ordinary purposes, it stops being visible.
What about a finding of factual innocence?
That is a different and harder motion under Penal Code 851.8, and it goes further — it leads to the record being destroyed. It requires showing no reasonable cause existed to believe you committed the offence, which is a real evidentiary burden. Sealing is the ordinary route; factual innocence is the exceptional one.
Related relief
Legal information on this page was last checked against primary sources in October 2026. California law changes; if you are reading this long after that date, confirm before you rely on it.