Provides that certain court papers submitted on application for a name change shall be sealed

BILL NUMBER:A3468

Title of bill

An act to amend the civil rights law, in relation to sealing certain court papers upon applications for a change of name

Purpose or general idea of bill

To protect the contact and identifying information of applicants for unpublished identity changes during the pendency of their name change proceeding.

Summary of specific provisions

The bill amends the Civil Rights Law section 64-a, to exempt the publi- cation of a name change for victims of domestic violence, stalking, or other crimes to ensure their personal safety.

Effects of present law which this bill would alter

Add a new subsection to Civil Rights Law § 64-a

Justification

In 1994, the Civil Rights Law §64-a was amended to respond to the safety and confidentiality needs of name change applicants for whom publication would jeopardize their personal safety, such as victims of domestic violence, stalking, or other crimes. Under this law, court orders grant- ing exemption from publication requirements and sealing the case record has long provided significant protection to those victims forced to change their identities as an extreme safety planning measure.

Although applicants can obtain a court order sealing their pleadings and other records associated with their name which would jeopardize the applicant's personal safety, the statute does not currently provide for similar temporary relief that authorizes the sealing and non-disclosure of court records and identifying information while the case is pending. Failure to safeguard the information contained in these extremely sensi- tive records may seriously compromise the safety of sealed name change applicants. For example, if a pending case is not sealed, an applicant's information can be easily found by the offender, a person acting on the offender's behalf, or anyone accessing the Unified Court System's public E-Courts site simply by conducting a search by county, party name, judge, attorney of record, or any one index number in the webCiviSupreme databases. If the information is posted on this website or otherwise publicly available the very person from whom the victim is seeking anonymity can obtain potentially dangerous information related to the case name, case type, case status and dates for future court appear- ances. As a result, unless the name change applicant or judge is specif- ically aware of these hidden challenges, the applicant's safety can be inadvertently jeopardized during this critical and, potentially, lengthy

time period before a finding. This bill requires a court to order the sealing and safeguarding of an applicant's identifying information, pleadings and other court records after the case is commenced and until a final decision is rendered.

Recognizing the safety risks that disclosure of sensitive contact infor- mation can pose to domestic violence and child abuse survivors with pending litigation, the legislature has already enacted provisions allowing a party to obtain address confidentiality in various civil proceedings including Family Court (Family Court Act §154-b(2)(a); Fami- ly Court Act §580-312; Supreme Court (Domestic Relations Law § 254) custody and dissolution proceedings, as well as in all other civil proceedings (CPLR §2103-a) and to have this information temporarily safeguarded and sealed prior to a formal finding by the court. This bill falls within this increasing category of confidentiality-related protections for litigants.

Prior legislative history

2008: A10243 (Scarborough) passed Assembly and delivered to Senate

Fiscal implications for state and local governments

None.

Effective date

Immediately.