The Akron Legal News

Bill to mandate notification to private entities in sealing criminal records

TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News
Published: February 8, 2016

The sponsor of a new House bill has pitched the proposed legislation as a measure that would benefit both employers and job seekers across the state.

“House Bill 427 would create a system to ensure the people receive the full benefit of a sealed or expunged record by having the attorney general work with a third party to identify and remove sealed or expunged criminal records from data repositories and websites that receive those records,” Rep. Niraj Antani, R-Miamisburg, recently told members of the House Judiciary Committee.

Under current standards, when a record is sealed or expunged, there is no mechanism for providing notification to private entities.

“The public entities, such as courts, law enforcement agencies and the state, communicate with each other when a record is sealed or expunged. However, private databases and repositories have no way of knowing,” Antani said.

“Thus, a person may think their record is sealed or expunged, when in reality the record still lives in private databases and repositories.”

According to a bill summary, HB 427 would require the attorney general to select a private entity as a qualified third party in order to receive notices of court orders of sealed or expunged records.

Private entities must demonstrate specific knowledge and expertise regarding the operation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and prior experience in interacting and cooperating with consumer reporting agencies regarding their obligations for accuracy and reinvestigations of disputed information.

Entities also must have relationships with data aggregators, public record vendors and other companies that collect and compile data or information in conviction records to ensure their cooperation in maintaining the legitimacy, accuracy, completeness, and security of that data or information; at least two years of experience in processing and sending notices of sealed or expunged conviction records to identified data repositories; and meet all security clearances and requirements imposed by the attorney general to ensure that the entity does not misuse any information received from the courts under the bill and that other persons do not have unauthorized access to that information.

Entities can not be an identified data repository or an entity that is owned or controlled by an identified data repository.

If the bill is signed into law, upon receiving a notice of a court order sealing or expunging records subject to the order, a qualified third party would have to send a notice of that order to identified data repositories and to websites and publications that the qualified third party knows utilize, display, publish or disseminate any information from those records.

Immediately upon receipt of such notice, an identified data repository would have to remove all applicable records from its system.

“There have been instances where people who have thought their record was truly sealed applied for jobs and left their criminal history blank,” Antani said, adding that later background checks uncovered criminal histories.

“The person is then disqualified for employment for lying on their application, even though they thought their criminal history had been expunged or sealed.”

Antani said HB 427 would provide a solution to such problems that would not burden the court system or private entities.

“It will offer a non-mandatory service to the person seeking a sealed or expunged record,” he said.

“This legislation is necessary for the people of Ohio because they are not afforded the true benefits they deserve, or are entitled, through the expungement and sealing of records.”

Selected qualified third parties must serve for at least three years.

The bill summary says the attorney general may either select another qualified third party at the end of any three-year period or retain the existing qualified third party for another three-year period.

HB 427 is co-sponsored by Reps. Nathan Manning, John Becker, Martin Sweeney, Teresa Fedor and Michael Sheehy.

The bill has not been scheduled for additional hearings.

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