Austin, TX asked in Criminal Law and Federal Crimes for California

Q: How do I sue a city court who had misfiled two of my misdemeanors as felonies?

In 2011 I was charged with a misdemeanor trespassing and a misdemeanor trespassing. In May 2016 I was offered a job with a company who ran a background check. The background check came back that these two felonies were misdemeanors. I checked the courts webpage and they appeared as felonies. My job offer was withdrawn. Since May 2016 to Oct 19th I have been applying for jobs and letting potential employers know that I have two felonies.

I hired a lawyer to look into the case and he found that the court had misfiled my case as a felony and the court has admitted to their wrong doing in writing. They changed the disposition back to a misdemeanor and apologized.

I lost 5 months of work, have not been employable, needed to hire an attorney and could not register to vote for the upcoming presidential election. It ha been very stressful thinking of my social injustices as a felon.

Is this something I will be able to sue them for? How do I determine how much to sue for?

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1 Lawyer Answer
Andy Chen
Andy Chen
Answered
  • Modesto, CA
  • Licensed in California

A: I doubt you could sue the court. Courts have tremendous immunity from being sued. Otherwise, they would be sued by everyone and anyone who lost in a case. I am unclear as to what you were ultimately convicted of. What you are charged with and what you are ultimately convicted of can be very different. If you lost your right to vote, then it sounds like the court records show you were convicted of felonies. If this is what actually happened, then you need to show why this was wrong. That's fairly hard as best I know. If you were actually convicted of misdemeanors but the court had you down as convicted of felonies, that's easier to sort out, but I still don't think that'd be enough to overcome the court's immunity.

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