Are you facing felony charges that you believe are unwarranted? Being charged with a felony can seem like the end of the road. However, there is a way out. A potential reduction to a misdemeanor can give you hope. A felony conviction carries serious consequences. It affects not only your punishment but also your employment, housing opportunities, and firearm rights. This distinction has significant consequences that can impact the rest of your life.

A felony conviction carries many serious and long-lasting consequences. Fortunately, California law allows certain offenses to be reclassified or reduced. You can set the stage for your legal future by negotiating early on, completing your probation, filing a motion years later, or using specific legislative changes. These four legal strategies can help you pursue a reduction from a “wobbler” felony to a misdemeanor and get a clean slate.

Strategy 1: Negotiating a Plea to a Lesser Charge

When you face a felony charge, the best and most common way to mitigate it is through plea bargaining or having your charge reduced to a misdemeanor. The plea bargaining process is a strategic negotiation between your defense attorney and the prosecuting attorney (District Attorney) designed to resolve your case without the uncertainty, expense, and delay of a jury trial.

A plea bargain is a deal where you agree to give up your constitutional right to a trial. As a result, the prosecutor will make a specific and predictable concession. If the goal is to reduce the felony level, this is a charge bargain where you plead guilty or “no contest” to a less serious (misdemeanor) offense instead of the felony.

The process involves these steps:

  • Preparation and evaluation — Your defence lawyer starts working straight after charges are filed and after they receive the prosecutor’s evidence (disclosure). Your lawyer will first scrutinize the prosecutor’s case. They analyze it to identify weaknesses. Then they must challenge the way the evidence was obtained. They will also scrutinize the prosecutor’s witnesses to determine their credibility.
  • The negotiation — During negotiations, your attorney uses these weaknesses as leverage. The goal of the defense is to convince the District Attorney that there is a costly and lengthy risk of going to trial and that the defendant will not be convicted or may be convicted of a lesser crime. Typically, in this sort of bargain, the ultimate goal is to plead to a “wobbler” felony that is then reduced to a misdemeanor under § 17(b) of the California Penal Code, or to plead straight to a lower-level misdemeanor.
  • The agreement and formal plea — If you reach an agreement, the terms of the arrangement, including the specific charge that will be pleaded as a misdemeanor, the penalty to be imposed (like probation, fines, community service), and that you will drop the felony counts, are formalized. Afterwards, you go in front of a judge to formally plead guilty or no contest to the negotiated misdemeanor charge. The judge reviews the terms to ensure your plea is made voluntarily, knowingly, and intelligently. When approved, you will receive an official dismissal of the felony charge, and you will be immediately sentenced based on the misdemeanor plea.

Prosecutors aim to ensure justice is served and are often receptive to well-founded, fact-based arguments. In evaluating whether to offer a reduction from felony to misdemeanor, the prosecutor typically considers several key factors and gives your defense attorney leverage.

  • Strength of the evidence — The strongest factor that is considered quite often is the strength of evidence. If the prosecutor believes their evidence is weak, suspect, or rotten, they are unlikely to win a felony conviction at trial. They are highly motivated to trade a possible acquittal for a certain misdemeanor conviction.
  • Your criminal history — Your record is a significant consideration. If you were a first-time offender or had one in the distant past, the prosecutor will be more likely to believe a misdemeanor resolution is appropriate. However, if you have serious or violent felonies in your history, it is much harder to secure a reduction.
  • Seriousness and classification of the crime — Felonies are often classified as “wobblers” (crimes that can be charged as either a felony or a misdemeanor) or “straight felonies” (only chargeable as a felony). Specifically, a “straight felony” means that the charge cannot be a regular misdemeanor. If you are charged with a wobbler (like grand theft or criminal threats), the prosecutor already has the legal mechanism (PC 17(b)) to reduce it. This makes the negotiation easier. Straight felonies offer less flexibility.
  • Victim input and public interest — According to Marsy’s Law, the prosecutor always has the final say but must consider the victim’s wishes (and the public interest). When the victim expresses a strong interest in a quick and quiet resolution of the case, or when the case poses little public safety concern, a misdemeanor plea is more acceptable. On the other hand, high-status or violent crimes do not usually see a downgrading to a misdemeanor.
  • Judicial economy — Justice trials are costly and take time. Court dockets move faster with plea bargains, resolving cases in minutes instead of weeks. This systemic pressure is a background factor that motivates a prosecutor to make a reasonable offer.

The main benefit of a successful plea bargain is the immediate avoidance of the lengthy and very harmful effects of a felony conviction, namely:

  • Immediate mitigation of gravity — By pleading to a misdemeanor, the seriousness of your conviction is immediately reduced. Being convicted of a felony affects your life in many civil and professional ways:
    1. You will not have to check the felony conviction box on job applications
    2. Landlords prefer renting to those with misdemeanors over felons when it comes to housing and apartments
    3. Your civil rights remain safe when you vote and serve jury duty
    4. If you have a misdemeanor conviction, you generally still have the right to own and possess a gun, while if you have a felony conviction, you will be barred for life from owning firearms.
  • Predictable outcome — By avoiding a trial, you reduce the risk of being convicted of the greater original felony by a jury and facing possible state prison time and mandatory enhancements. A plea bargain provides a guaranteed, fixed penalty.
  • Rehabilitation and quicker resolution — Resolution of your case quickly means you start your sentence (usually probation or community service) and begin rehabilitation quickly. By settling this matter, you can put this chapter of your life behind you and not live with the stress of pending trial litigation for years.

Strategy 2: Pretrial Diversion Programs

The traditional criminal justice system applies punishment in a way that gives a person the heavy and lifelong burden of a felony conviction. More and more courts are realizing that some offenses, especially those caused by a person’s condition like addiction or mental illness, deserve a rehabilitative response rather than incarceration. California’s pretrial diversion programs challenge the permanence of having a felony record. Defense attorneys can show you how a diversion program, which the court supervises, will help you, if you qualify, dismiss your most serious charges and avoid the harmful social and economic consequences of a felony conviction.

The laws of various states codify this change from punishment to reform. The two key tools for felony diversion are PC 1000 for drug offenses through Deferred Entry of Judgment and PC 1001.36 for Mental Health Diversion. Individuals facing prosecution for non-violent drug possession may be eligible for PC 1000, which allows them to suspend any prosecution. In the same way, PC 1001.36 requires proving that your qualifying mental disorder resulted in you committing the charged felony offense. To successfully navigate these programs, you must prove that your way into felony court was caused by issues treatable by community resources and not just on purpose.

Success with diversion programs involves a commitment to regular, measurable behavior changes, not just being eligible to participate. You are very involved. You will be expected to fully comply with a treatment plan supervised by the court, usually for 12 to 24 months. Often, these plans involve drug tests, individual and group therapy, job skill training, and regular reports to the court. You work to earn your non-conviction status by consistently being stable and following strict program rules. This process ensures that the resolution is not a legal loophole, but a real and hard-won change that tackles the cause of criminality and not just the punishment.

The most important outcome of this sustained effort is a change in your legal fate. If you meet the conditions set by the court and treatment providers, the presiding judge will dismiss the original felony charges. Often, in drug court models, for example, the legal process requires you to plead guilty to a lesser, usually a placeholder misdemeanor charge, before entering diversion. If successful, the felony could be cleared, and the plea would be dismissed. As a result, you will be legally reinstated to the status you held before the arrest. Thus, you will not have a felony conviction. As a result of this outcome, the “seriousness” of the felony charge is lessened, so that it does not become a permanent obstruction to obtaining housing, employment, and voting.

In the end, these programs for pretrial diversion are a great way to reform the criminal justice system, as the primary aim should be to reduce recidivism. When the state shifts its resources away from trial and incarceration and towards treatment and monitoring, it is investing in your potential for rehabilitation. This approach avoids assigning the lifelong stigma and economic drain of a felony record to you if your offenses are inextricably linked to treatable health conditions. This approach validates that justice is best served through measured reform rather than uniform punishment.

Strategy 3: Filing a Penal Code 17(b) Motion (Reducing “Wobblers”)

Penal Code § 17(b) states that a felony can be reduced to a misdemeanor. This is a chance for you to lessen the lifelong effects of a felony. This code section allows a court to downgrade specified felony convictions to misdemeanors officially. You may only qualify for this process on “wobbler” offenses, which could have legally been charged as either a felony or a misdemeanor, for example, grand theft, certain assaults, or criminal threats.

The PC 17(b) motion is a formal request that appeals directly to the judge’s sense of justice and your demonstrated capacity for rehabilitation. To be eligible for this unwind relief, two essential conditions must be fulfilled:

  • You must have committed a “wobbler” offense, which means that the felony for which you were convicted must be of the class of offenses that permits dual charges (felony and misdemeanor) under state law. Felonies like murder, rape, or serious sex offenses are not eligible.
  • The state should not have imprisoned you for that crime, and must not have a conviction in any state. Usually reserved for those cases where you received a grant of formal felony probation or were sentenced to county jail time under the relevant provisions.

The PC 17(b) motion is quite a powerful motion that you could file at different stages of the criminal process. It reflects the judge's broad powers to alter your case's severity.

  • At the preliminary hearing — At this early stage, the magistrate judge may, upon reviewing the evidence, declare the wobbler offense a misdemeanor, allowing the case to proceed on that lesser charge.
  • At sentencing — When you are convicted of a wobbler felony, your lawyer can ask the judge to impose the misdemeanor sentence at sentencing, often as an incentive to avoid a state prison commitment.
  • After successful completion of probation — Usually, the petition is made after the probation has been completed. If you meet all the requirements of your felony probation, you can ask the court to allow you to reduce the conviction to a misdemeanor. When you complete probation successfully, you show that you have rehabilitated yourself and that the crime is no longer a felony.

The court does not always grant the motion. The court has broad discretion in deciding whether to grant the motion and considers several factors (the Alvarez factors):

  • The nature and seriousness of the underlying offense
  • Your past criminal offenses, or if you have been free of criminal offenses for a long time
  • Your compliance with probation terms and conditions
  • Your personal background and proof of recovery since the conviction

A successful PC 17(b) motion changes the nature of the crime. When this happens, the conviction is treated as a misdemeanor “for all purposes.” On most employment and housing applications, you can state that you have never been convicted of a felony, legally and truthfully. If you have a felony conviction where you did not lose your firearm rights, then you may be able to get them restored. By getting this court downgrade, you reduce the “seriousness” of the original felony, and your prospects will be markedly enhanced compared to the continued existence of the original felony.

Strategy 4: Evidentiary Challenge – Proving that One or More Elements of the Felony are Missing

The method most directly challenges the legal underpinnings of the felony charge itself and takes issue with the evidence presented by the prosecution. The prosecution has to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that all the elements of a crime happened for any felony charge to stick.

An effective strategy for defense emphasizes the importance of confronting these weapons head-on. It is not an attempt to dispute the entire story. Instead, it is a challenge to its legally mandated component that the prosecution may find difficult to prove.

For example, if you are charged with burglary (which requires intent to commit a theft or felony when entering the building) and your attorney can prove that your intention to steal only formed after you were inside, it negates the key element of the offense.

If you successfully demonstrate that the prosecution cannot meet its burden on a key element, you could face two outcomes:

  • Charges can be reduced — The charge can be decreased to a lesser crime (often a misdemeanor) that requires fewer elements. In the burglary example above, if the intent to steal cannot be proven at entry, the charge might be reduced to simple trespass.
  • Dismissal — If an element is essential and no lesser charge applies, the felony case must be dismissed entirely.

This strategy goes straight to the heart of your situation. It challenges the legal definition of the offense you are being charged with. This means you can avoid the severe penalties and societal stigma associated with a felony conviction before it fully takes hold.

Find a Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney Near Me

A felony conviction in Los Angeles does not have to ruin your life. There is a way out under the law. From obtaining a vital plea bargain early in the criminal process to taking advantage of PC 17(b) for “wobbler” offenses after your probation, and more. Proposition 47 for particular drug and theft offenses can be vital for regaining your civil rights and increasing opportunities. The end goal of reducing a felony to a misdemeanor is a pivotal step toward complete life restoration.

Do not let the weight of a felony charge or conviction carry you down. If you are facing a felony charge or already living with a conviction, count on the experts to help. The law is complex, but an experienced criminal defense attorney can help navigate it. Contact The LA Criminal Defense Law Firm today at 310-935-1675 for a confidential consultation and find out how we can aggressively pursue every avenue to reduce your felony to a misdemeanor.