California Criminal Records

California is the state where the difference between a criminal record and a background check matters most, because the state's own record is closed and everything sold as a "California criminal record" was built without it. The Department of Justice holds the fingerprint-based history and releases it only to the person and to agencies the statute names. The 58 superior courts hold the case files, and most of them can be searched online by name, never by date of birth. The sheriffs post their jails. And the private databases hold a hand-collected copy of whichever court indexes they reached. This page gives the California rule and the California search for each of those, court by court, with government sources only.

The Department of Justice says it in one paragraph on its record review page: "Access to criminal history summary records maintained by the DOJ is restricted by law to legitimate law enforcement purposes and authorized applicant agencies. However, individuals have the right to request a copy of their own criminal history record from the Department to review for accuracy and completeness. Requests from third parties are not authorized and will not be processed." To get your own, "individuals must submit fingerprint images, pay a $25 processing fee to the DOJ," through a Live Scan operator, and "you may be eligible to apply for a fee waiver," which Penal Code section 11123 provides for people who cannot pay.

Employers and licensing bodies that the law authorizes get the record through the Department's fingerprint background check program, by Live Scan, and the statute gives the applicant a right in return: "pursuant to Penal Code section 11105(t), if an adverse employment, licensing, or certification decision is made based on the results of the criminal history background check, the applicant agency must provide a copy of those results to the" applicant. No employer, landlord, private investigator or background check company can buy a California rap sheet, and no online search of the state repository exists for the public. That is the fact every commercial "California criminal records" search is working around.

A California criminal case lives in the superior court of the county where it was filed, and each of the 58 courts runs its own system. We checked every one. As of this writing 47 of them run a public portal where criminal cases can be looked up by name, Calaveras posts case information without saying which case types, and ten do not offer a public criminal name search online at all. Every one of the 47 is a name search and nothing more: Rule 2.507 of the California Rules of Court lists what "must be excluded from a court's electronic calendar, index, and register of actions," and in All of Us or None v. Hamrick, decided in 2021, the Court of Appeal held that the rule "prohibits the Riverside Superior Court from allowing searches of its electronic criminal index by use of an individual's date of birth or driver's license number." So no California court index, online or at the terminal, confirms that the John Smith in the file is your John Smith; how a researcher pins a record to the right person is on the criminal records page. What each court offers, from its own pages:

Alameda has a criminal case portal, and its eCourt portal sells unlimited name searches at $300 per 30 days.

Alpine has no online access and no public terminal: its court says it "does not currently offer online access to court records via a public portal, nor is there a public access terminal located at the Markleeville courthouse," and takes records requests in writing.

Amador runs an online case search with cases from 2002, by party name, behind a free account, and reminds users not to "assume a person listed as a defendant in a criminal or traffic case was convicted."

Butte's case information covers "all non-confidential, non-sealed, case types (Civil, Criminal, Family Law, Probate, Small Claims, Traffic, etc.) for cases after 1988."

Calaveras offers case information and calendars online.

Colusa runs an online case index for civil, criminal, traffic and family cases.

Contra Costa's online lookup covers civil, small claims and probate; criminal records are requested from the criminal clerk's office.

Del Norte's case inquiry requires a sign-in.

El Dorado's case index covers civil, criminal, family law, probate and traffic by name, case number or filing date; requests of more than three names are left at the court for processing.

Fresno has a public portal that "only shows information that can be viewed by the public."

Glenn has an online case index with the register of actions.

Humboldt has no public case portal; criminal records go through the criminal division.

Imperial's case lookup is by case number only; a search "by name and DOB or DL" is a criminal records request to the clerk.

Inyo has no online search; a name search request form is emailed to the clerk, with no fee.

Kern runs a case information search; case files themselves are not available online.

Kings runs a public portal, and the clerk will research for $15.

Lake runs a public portal.

Lassen's case index portal covers "all non-confidential and non-sealed Civil, Criminal, Family Law, Probate, Small Claims, Traffic, etc. cases filed after 1994."

Los Angeles sells its criminal name search, $1.00 a search for the first ten in a month, with document images at $1.00 a page for the first five pages and $40 at most per document, or free at the public terminals in any courthouse.

Madera's portal covers criminal, civil, traffic, probate and family law.

Marin's ePortal covers civil, criminal, traffic and family cases.

Mariposa runs a case portal.

Mendocino's case index is free, and saves the $15 clerk search fee under Government Code 70627.

Merced runs a public portal and keeps a public computer in the criminal office.

Modoc's public portal covers criminal, civil, traffic and family law.

Mono has no online search: its court "does not have an online search engine," and name searches are done by staff on request.

Monterey's portal covers cases back to 2008 with no registration.

Napa's case lookup is online; clerk searches are limited to ten names a day.

Nevada County's web portal requires an account; family, probate, civil and criminal cases are searchable.

Orange's case access includes criminal and traffic; the name search requires a free account.

Placer's online portal covers criminal, civil, traffic and family law.

Plumas has no public portal; the court "maintains an index of filings and a record of dispositions" and takes record searches by request.

Riverside's public access system is reached from its online services page and is the index the Hamrick decision was about.

Sacramento's criminal search by name is free, the court having "discontinued all fees associated with online searches and document downloads," and covers cases from 1989.

San Benito runs a public portal.

San Bernardino runs a court access portal.

San Diego's online case search covers civil, criminal, family, mental health and probate, with older cases on microfilm at each courthouse.

San Francisco's case information page searches civil and criminal cases by name through its criminal case information portal.

San Joaquin's party search is names only: "party searches may not include date of birth or driver's license information."

San Luis Obispo's online case lookup is public, and from July 1, 2026 the court "will no longer provide case summaries in response to third-party case information requests."

San Mateo's records index covers appeals, civil, criminal, family law, probate and small claims; criminal cases filed before 1993 go through the criminal clerk.

Santa Barbara's public portal shows the register of actions for civil, criminal, family, probate, small claims and traffic cases, and states that "the Public Index shall not be re-copied or re-distributed without expressed consent from the Superior Court."

Santa Clara's portal covers civil, criminal, family, probate and other case types.

Santa Cruz runs an online case lookup by party name.

Shasta's case index is online, and the criminal clerk will run a name search on written request.

Sierra has no online case search; criminal records go through the criminal division.

Siskiyou runs a case portal.

Solano runs a public portal and takes criminal record searches at the clerk's counter for a fee.

Sonoma's new case portal has separate instructions for civil, family and criminal cases.

Stanislaus runs a case search portal.

Sutter's online case access covers cases back to 2008; archive cases before 1994 cost $15 a name to search.

Tehama has no public case search; its online services are payments and information.

Trinity has no public case search; its online services are calendars, payments and self-help.

Tulare's online portal requires a login.

Tuolumne runs a criminal division search.

Ventura's case inquiry requires a first and last name for a criminal search and warns that older cases may be partially entered or not entered at all.

Yolo runs a public portal on the state's cloud system.

Yuba's online case access covers cases from 1999; written record searches to the criminal division cost $15.

Two rules sit behind all of that. Rule 2.503 opens "registers of actions, calendars, and indexes in all cases" to remote access and lists "records in a criminal proceeding" among the documents seen only at the courthouse, and its subdivision (h) says that when a record is later sealed "the court is not required to take action with respect to any copy of the record that was made by the public before the record became inaccessible." The court index is the loophole the commercial databases are built through, and the copies they made are, by the rule's own words, nobody's problem but the copier's.

California dismisses and seals rather than expunges, and the arrest side has three routes. A person "who has suffered an arrest that did not result in a conviction may petition the court to have his or her arrest and related records sealed" under Penal Code section 851.91, on Judicial Council form CR-409, and the form's instructions note that "a petition to seal may be unnecessary if the DOJ has granted automatic relief" under section 851.93, which requires the Department of Justice, "on a monthly basis," to review the state databases and grant arrest record relief without a petition for arrests that never led to a charge. A person who can show factual innocence, where "no accusatory pleading has been filed," petitions under section 851.8 to have the records destroyed. On the conviction side, section 1203.4 dismisses a case after probation without erasing it, and the automatic relief statutes added since 2021 apply the dismissal to many convictions without a petition.

What follows a sealing is the same in every state and is spelled out on the criminal records page: the court's index drops the case, the Department marks it, and a database that copied the index before the order keeps it until the federal rule on complete and up to date public records forces the correction. California adds its own two limits on the copies: Civil Code section 1786.18 forbids a background check company to report arrests, indictments or convictions older than seven years or an arrest once it learns "a conviction did not result," and Labor Code section 432.7 forbids an employer to ask about or use "an arrest or detention that did not result in conviction" or a conviction "judicially dismissed or ordered sealed."

Government Code section 7923.610 requires every law enforcement agency to release, for every arrest, "the full name and occupation of every individual arrested," the physical description "including date of birth," the time and date of arrest and booking, the location, "the factual circumstances surrounding the arrest," the bail, and "all charges the individual is being held upon." That is why the county sheriffs post booking logs and inmate rosters, and why the Los Angeles County Sheriff's inmate locator and the other 57 sheriffs' searches are where a recent California arrest is found. A person already in state prison is in the Department of Corrections' CIRIS search, which shows "name, CDCR number, age, current location, commitment counties, admission date, Board of Parole Hearing dates and outcomes."

The photograph is limited by Penal Code section 13665, which, in the Attorney General's 2024 legal alert, "prohibits a police department or sheriff's office from sharing on social media 'booking photos' of an individual arrested on suspicion of committing a nonviolent crime," outside the exceptions the section lists, and requires posted photographs to come down on request. And no site may charge to remove one: Civil Code section 1798.91.1 makes it unlawful "to solicit, require, or accept the payment of a fee or other consideration from a subject individual to remove, correct, modify, or to refrain from publishing" a booking photograph, at $1,000 per violation in a civil action. The arrest records page covers the rest.

A California civil judgment is enforceable for ten years and renewable under Code of Civil Procedure sections 683.020 and 683.120, so a judgment older than ten years with no renewal on the docket has expired. Since January 1, 2024 an individual may sue in small claims for up to $12,500, a business for up to $6,250, and a case is a limited civil case up to $35,000, per the Judicial Council's self-help guide; the court records page covers where each of those is searched. Appeals are on the Appellate Courts Case Information system, searchable by party.

California is divided into four federal judicial districts under 28 U.S.C. 84. The Northern District covers Alameda, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Humboldt, Lake, Marin, Mendocino, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, San Mateo and Sonoma, with court at Eureka, Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose. The Eastern District covers Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, El Dorado, Fresno, Glenn, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Lassen, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Modoc, Mono, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tulare, Tuolumne, Yolo and Yuba, with court at Bakersfield, Fresno, Redding and Sacramento. The Central District's Western Division covers Los Angeles, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura with court at Los Angeles, its Southern Division covers Orange with court at Santa Ana, and its Eastern Division covers Riverside and San Bernardino with court at Riverside or San Bernardino. The Southern District covers Imperial and San Diego with court at San Diego. A federal case from any California county is on one of those four dockets and on PACER, whose prices and gaps are on the criminal records page.

Whether a person has a California conviction: only the person, with fingerprints and $25, or an agency the statute names, can get the state's answer. Everyone else gets a court index, county by county, by name.

Whether a person was charged in a county: the court's own portal above answers it for 47 counties, and the clerk's counter or an attorney service answers it for the other ten.

Whether a person is in custody now: the county sheriff's search answers it, and CIRIS answers it for state prison.

Whether an old case can still be found: a sealed arrest is gone from the court and the Department, a dismissed conviction stays on the docket as dismissed, and a copy that predates the order is reached through Civil Code 1786.18 and the federal rule.