BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
337 (Torres)
Hearing Date: 07/23/2009 Amended: 06/01/2009
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Public Safety
6-1
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BILL SUMMARY: AB 337 requires that, beginning January 1, 2011,
each court and probation department "ensure that information
regarding the eligibility for and the procedures to request the
sealing and destruction of records pursuant to this section
shall be provided to any person for whom a petition has been
filed, on or after January 1, 2011, to adjudge the person a ward
of the juvenile court, or any person who is brought before a
probation officer pursuant to Penal Code Section 626. This bill
would require Judicial Council to develop informational
materials for this purpose, and a form to petition the court for
the sealing and destruction of records. This bill would require
that these informational materials and the form shall be
provided to the specified individuals "when jurisdiction is
terminated or when the case is dismissed."
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund
Develop new forms/materials Minor and absorbable, one-time
cost General*
New requirement Very minor, unlikely to be
reimbursable General
on County Probation
*Trial Courts Trust Fund
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill would require Judicial Council to
create informational materials that inform eligible individuals
or their right to petition the court to have their juvenile
criminal record sealed. It would also require Judicial Council
to create a specific form that an individual can use to petition
the court. This one-time administrative cost could be absorbed
by Judicial Council, within existing resources, since the
council employs people specifically to create new forms and
materials for court proceedings.
This bill would also require each court and probation department
to ensure that information regarding the eligibility for, and
the procedures to request the sealing and destruction of
records, be given to the specified wards of the juvenile court.
This requirement creates a new mandate on county probation
officers. That mandate is very minor and unlikely to result in a
mandate claim, however, because it amounts to distributing
additional materials to a juvenile ward during interactions in
which other materials are being distributed and processes
explained. Advising wards of their right to petition the court
to have their records sealed, or even petitioning on a ward's
behalf, is common for probation officers to do. This bill could
streamline the process by providing probation officers with
prepared, self-explanatory, materials that put the onus on the
ward to petition the court. The probation officer would no
longer spend time, to the degree he or she was, explaining the
process to each ward.
Page 2
AB 337 (Torres)
Existing law prohibits the sealing or destruction of juvenile
records "in any case in which the person has been found by the
juvenile court to have committed an offense listed in
subdivision (b) of Section 707 when he or she had attained 14
years of age or older." <1> (Welfare and Institutions Code
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<1> WIC Section 707 (b) offenses are the following: (1)
murder; (2) arson, as specified; (3) robbery; (4) rape with
force or violence or threat of great bodily harm; (5) sodomy by
force, violence, duress, menace, or threat of great bodily harm;
(6) lewd or lascivious act with a child under 14, as specified;
(7) oral copulation by force, violence, duress, menace, or
threat of great bodily harm; (8) forcible sexual penetration, as
specified; (9) kidnapping for ransom; (10) kidnapping for
purpose of robbery; (11) kidnapping with bodily harm; (12)
attempted murder; (13) assault with a firearm or destructive
device; (14) assault by any means of force likely to produce
great bodily injury; (15) discharge of a firearm into an
inhabited or occupied building; (16) specified crimes against
older or physically disabled persons, as specified; (17)
specified firearm offenses; (18) any felony offense in which the
minor personally used a weapon, as specified; (19) specified
felonies involving victim intimidation; (20) manufacturing,
compounding, or selling one-half ounce or more of any salt or
solution of a controlled substance, as specified; (21) any
violent felony, as specified; (22) escape, by the use of force
or violence, from any county juvenile hall, home, ranch, camp,
or forestry camp, as specified, where great bodily injury is
intentionally inflicted upon an employee of the juvenile
facility during the commission of the escape; (23) torture, as
specified; (24) aggravated mayhem, as specified; (25)
carjacking, as specified, while armed with a dangerous or deadly
weapon; (26) kidnapping, as specified; (27) kidnapping relating
to carjacking, as specified; (28) specified offenses involving
firearms in vehicles; (29) specified crimes involving explosive
devices; and (30) voluntary manslaughter, as specified.
("WIC") 781(a); (d)<2>.)
Other juvenile offenses, not prohibited in Section 707, can be
sealed by the court. To seal a juvenile court record, a petition
must be filed by either the subject or the probation department.
(WIC 781.) Juvenile court jurisdiction must have lapsed five
years previously or the person must be age 18. The records are
not sealed if the person of record has been convicted of a
felony or a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude.
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<2> Section 781(d) specifically provides: "Unless for good
cause the court determines that the juvenile court record shall
be retained, the court shall order the destruction of a person's
juvenile court records that are sealed pursuant to this section
as follows: five years after the record was ordered sealed, if
the person who is the subject of the record was alleged or
adjudged to be a person described by Section 601; or when the
person who is the subject of the record reaches the age of 38 if
the person was alleged or adjudged to be a person described by
Section 602,
except that if the subject of the record was found to be a
person described in Section 602 because of the commission of an
offense listed in subdivision (b), of Section 707, when he or
she was 14 years of age or older, the record shall not be
destroyed. Any other agency in possession of sealed records may
destroy its records five years after the record was ordered
sealed." See also WIC 826.