Allows the unsealing of criminal records in any district court, city court or criminal court in the city of New York in certain instances

BILL NUMBER:S5640

Title of bill

An act to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to unsealing criminal records

This is one in a series of measures being introduced at the request of the Chief Administrative Judge upon the recommendation of her Advisory Committee on Criminal Law and Procedure.

This measure would amend section 160.50(1)(d)(ii) of the Criminal Procedure Law to authorize designated local courts to unseal records that the court has sealed in certain cases.

The Court of Appeals has recognized, somewhat obliquely, the inherent authority of a court to seal or unseal its own records where the interest of justice dictates, but it has rarely had occasion to define the full scope of this authority (see Hynes v. Karassik, 47 NY2d 659 (1979)). As a result, unsealing a court record usually occurs following an application to a court under one of the specifically enumerated circumstances set forth in section 160.50(1)(d) or 160.55(1)(d) of the Criminal Procedure Law. Those statutes have been strictly construed (see Katherine B. v. Cataldo, 5 NY3d 196 (2005)).

One of the enumerated circumstances permitting unsealing is the ex parte application by a law enforcement agency to a superior court, which then may unseal the record if the law enforcement agency demonstrates that justice requires the record to be made available (CPL 160.50(1)(d)(ii), 160 55(1)(d)(ii)). By their very language, this provision does not authorize a local criminal court to entertain the application for unsealing, even where the application is made to unseal a record that the local criminal court itself sealed.

We believe that the current statute is needlessly restrictive. The local criminal court, with knowledge of its own proceedings, is in a much better position to entertain an application for unsealing it. While it may be appropriate to require that all applications to unseal records other than those of the sealing court be made in superior court, many lower courts are fully capable of fairly determining whether adequate grounds exist for unsealing the records it sealed.

This measure amends CPL 160.50(1)(d)(ii) and 160.55(1)(d)(ii) to allow.an ex parte unsealing application of a law enforcement agency to be made to any District Court, City Court or the Criminal Court of the City of New York provided that such court sealed the record. The measure leaves unchanged the requirement that ex parte applications for records sealed by all other courts must be made to a superior court.

This measure, which would have no fiscal impact, would take effect immediately.

Legislative History: None, New proposal.