New California Criminal Laws in 2018

We’ve already touched on four of them: Recreational pot. A ban-the-box law for employers. An overhauled sex-offender registry beginning in 2021. New rules for picking juries in civil and criminal cases.

Here are five more this week, with five more to come next week.

Lawyers can advise clients on cannabis. This is Assembly Bill 1159. It amended the Evidence Code to protect attorney-client privilege and confidentiality for legal services rendered in compliance with state and local law. The lawyer must also advise the client on the current conflict under federal law. Lawyers are already advising the cannabis industry, of course. But generally speaking, there’s no attorney-client privilege for legal services that are sought to help someone commit a crime or fraud. It’s the famous crime-fraud exception to the privilege. This law makes clear that, notwithstanding federal law, there’s no crime-fraud exception here just because it’s pot. The law also amended the Civil Code to support commercial cannabis activity that complies with state and local law.

You can seal your arrest record automatically if you weren’t charged or convicted. This is Senate Bill 393. It amended the Penal Code to permit most people who’ve been arrested but not charged or convicted (or whose convictions were overturned on appeal) to seal their arrest record. You may even be entitled to it as a matter of right in many cases; otherwise, you have to show that sealing your record would serve the interests of justice. Before this law, you couldn’t seal an arrest unless you proved your innocence, which is often difficult or impossible even when people did nothing wrong. But the law doesn’t apply if you could still be charged with something, so you must wait until the statute of limitations has run.

You don’t need to plead guilty to get drug treatment for simple possession. This is Assembly Bill 208. It amended the Penal Code to change a type of drug-treatment program we wrote about two weeks ago. The program used to be called deferred entry of judgment; now it’s called pretrial diversion. Before, you had to plead guilty and complete a program that ran 18 months to three years. If you completed the program, your case was dismissed, but if you didn’t, you’d be sentenced on your guilty plea. Now, you can plead not guilty, and the program runs only 12 to 18 months. But you have to waive your right to a jury trial, so if you don’t complete the program, you’ll go before a judge for trial.

The military diversion program includes misdemeanor DUI. Speaking of pretrial diversion, this is Senate Bill 725. It amended the Penal Code to extend a military diversion program to misdemeanor DUIs. This program enables a court to postpone a misdemeanor prosecution and place the defendant in a treatment program in which he may earn a dismissal if he is or was a member of the U.S. military and may be suffering from significant trauma or mental health problems as a result of his service. It wasn’t clear if the program included DUIs; two cases had decided it differently. This law resolves that it does. But it doesn’t guarantee diversion, and it doesn’t stop the DMV from taking your license.

It’s okay to enter a crosswalk during the countdown signal as long as you reach the other side before it ends. This is Assembly Bill 390. Before, you could only enter a crosswalk on a “walk” sign or symbol, and it was a crime (well, an infraction) to do it during the countdown. Who knew? So what if there’s no countdown, but the “don’t walk” sign or symbol is flashing? You’re not supposed to enter the crosswalk.