Pasadenans Among Hundreds of Thousands Affected as Decades of Unreported LA County Convictions Come to Light

Many Pasadena- and Altadena-area residents are among nearly 330,000 people in Los Angeles County now facing potential job loss, licensing consequences, and firearm prohibitions after the LA County Superior Court revealed that criminal convictions dating back more than 40 years inadvertently were never reported to the state.

The court confirmed the failure in a Feb. 24, 2026 annoucement, saying the error allowed many individuals to pass background checks that should have shown felony or misdemeanor convictions.

The court did not report approximately 464,005 arrest dispositions to the California Department of Justice between the early 1980s and 2023, including 147,631 felony convictions and 233,003 misdemeanor convictions, according to the court’s ADR Backlog Resource Page.

The problem stemmed from the court’s former case management system, the Trial Court Information System, which lacked programming to flag reporting errors.

As the DOJ updates the records, employers and state licensing boards that receive ongoing criminal history notifications will automatically be alerted to the newly reported convictions. About a quarter to a third of California jobs require a government-issued license.

“It could throw into question some people’s ability to hold those licenses or jobs,” David Schlussel of the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles told the Pasadena Star-News. He said the changes could create financial instability and new stresses for people already facing barriers as they try to reintegrate into society.

The consequences extend to firearm ownership. Individuals with newly revealed felony convictions will be required to surrender any firearms they possess, according to the DOJ.

One law professor said that someone who legally purchased a firearm based on an inaccurate background check could now face up to 10 years in prison if found in possession after their record is corrected.

Natalin Daldalian, communications director for the LA County Public Defender’s Office, said the decades-long delay “amplifies immigration risks, firearm eligibility issues, employment barriers, and professional licensing impacts for people who did not have the opportunity to properly address their records.”

The Public Defender’s Office said it is proactively identifying cases that may qualify for reduction, vacatur, sealing, or relief under laws that have changed since the original conviction.

The Pasadena Courthouse at 300 East Walnut Street is part of the affected system, meaning local residents with cases during the period may be among the 408,490 individuals impacted.

Major local employers—including school districts, hospitals, and government agencies—will likely receive updated notifications.

State law permanently bars individuals convicted of a “violent or serious” felony from working in schools, and a Los Angeles Unified School District spokesperson said other cases “may be reviewed for potential disciplinary action depending on a variety of factors consistent with state law and district protocols.”

Not all updates will be harmful. Approximately 83,000 case dismissals also were never reported, meaning some individuals will finally see old charges cleared that may have appeared pending for years.

The court discovered the backlog in June 2025 while decommissioning its old case management system. It took more than six months of investigation with the DOJ to identify the full scale of the problem, which was officially confirmed in January 2026.

Initial estimates placed the backlog at roughly 1 million records before duplicates were removed.

Executive Officer and Clerk David W. Slayton said in a public statement that the court “is committed to building public trust and confidence in the judicial system” and has implemented safeguards in its new case management system, launched in 2023.

The DOJ expects the bulk of the records to be processed through an automated system within six weeks, though about 10% of cases could take months to resolve manually. Employers and licensing agencies will be notified through the DOJ’s Applicant Agency Justice Connection portal. There are no plans to notify affected individuals directly.

California’s Fair Chance Act, or “Ban the Box” law, prevents employers from asking about conviction history before a job offer is made, and most commercial background checks are limited to a seven-year lookback period. However, these protections do not apply to many government and sensitive positions that require Live Scan fingerprinting. It remains unclear whether the newly discovered records will receive an automatic record-relief review before employer notifications; the DOJ did not respond to questions on this point.

Individuals concerned they may be affected can request a copy of their criminal record from the DOJ by submitting fingerprints through a Live Scan site and paying a $25 fee. Fee waivers may be available, and the DOJ’s Record Review Unit can be reached at (916) 227-3849 for more information.