California Post-Conviction Relief Attorney in Pasadena

Serving Los Angeles County, San Gabriel Valley & Beyond

How our Post-Conviction Relief Attorneys Can Help You

If you are still suffering the consequences of a prior conviction, such as immigration, employment, or reputational consequences, we may be able to vacate, eliminate, or reduce the conviction to remedy the negative impact you are presently suffering.

What is Post-Conviction Relief?

Post-Conviction Relief is the process of filing a motion in court and seeking to vacate (eliminate), modify, or reduce a conviction in order to improve or “clean” your record.

What is the Process for Post-Conviction Relief?

First, you hire our office to evaluate your likelihood of success in winning the motion to vacate or modify the conviction. We gather the available relevant court records, we conduct a 40 point legal assessment, we interview you to determine the facts of the case, the circumstances of the plea agreement, and how well you have lived your life since the conviction.

If you are an immigrant we also consult with your post conviction relief immigration attorney to identify your needs and goals.

Second, if we determine that you have a strong likelihood of winning the “Post-conviction Motion”, you then hire our office to prepare, file and litigate the motion in court. In many instances, you personally do not even need to appear in court.

Third, if we are successful in fighting the conviction, we obtain and provide you a certified court order stating that your conviction is now vacated (eliminated), modified or reduced!

What are Post-Conviction Motions?

There are two kinds of Post-conviction Motions. One type is, in essence, mandatory relief motions where, if you qualify, the court must grant the motion, such as Proposition 47, Proposition 64, and many Expungements under Penal Code section 1203.4 or declarations of legal invalidity under Penal Code section 1203.43.

The other kind of Post-conviction Motions are, in essence, discretionary, where the judge decides if you have met your burden of proving you are legally entitled to vacate or modify your conviction or sentence. Having a motion granted under this second type of motion is more difficult to achieve, but it is a more effective form of relief for your criminal history and reputation.

These motions are often the following:

A Penal Code section 1473.7 Motion

In litigating a Penal Code section 1473.7 motion, we must establish that a “prejudicial error” existed that caused you to “fail to meaningfully understand, or knowing accept” the immigration consequences or your plea.

This could be done by presenting persuasive evidence that you were not properly advised of the immigration consequences of your plea agreement, or that you were not aware of or pursue an alternative immigration safe plea agreement, or that your sentence was inadvertently and needlessly one day too long. These among other basis for relief can justify vacating your conviction or sentence.

A Penal Code section 1016.5 Motion

In litigating a Penal Code section 1016.5 motion, among other points of investigation, we assess the court file, the transcript of the plea, we evaluate any waiver form that you may have signed and we interview you to determine your recollection of the plea process. If it appears that the record does not establish that you were properly advised that “as a result of a conviction for the offense for which you are charged, you may be deported, excluded or denied naturalization”, then we can file a motion to vacate the conviction because of the illegality of the absent, incomplete or incorrect advisement.

An Equitable Resolution in California

In other instances, after the filing of an appropriate motion, we can simply renegotiate the plea agreement to obtain an immigration safe charge, conviction or sentence. This may be done by a variety of motions including Penal Code section 1203.3 to modify the terms of probation, Penal Code section 1018 (a motion to withdraw a plea) or by properly litigating the Penal Code section 1473.7 and 1016.5 motions.

You are best served by hiring and retaining an attorney that knows what they are doing and that has the experience and reputation to achieve the results you need. At Escovar Law, APC you have found the solution to your legal needs.