Many clients have asked me whether they can or should seal a criminal record that they have. While people who have a criminal record might think that sealing that record (if possible) is a no-brainer, it’s not so cut-and-dried. This question is becoming especially popular now that legislation is being…
By now readers of this blog know that just a couple of days ago, the state of Massachusetts – through the Department of Public Utilities’ Transportation Division – pulled off the road more than 8,000 drivers for ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft. Reason: These people failed state background…
For some time now, there has been a lot of friction between the employer community in Massachusetts, and (generally speaking,) civil rights groups, over the issue of access to criminal records. Those records are maitained by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety under a system known as the Criminal…
Readers of this blog know that I’ve written previously about Massachusetts CORI reform, and that I’ve advocated a balanced approach to any reform measures, preserving the privacy rights of those convicted of certain (but not all) crimes, while preserving employers’ and other organizations’ rights to legitimate criminal history data. I…
This past Wednesday night, the Massachusetts House voted, 138-17, to approve legislation that would both reduce the waiting periods now required for sealing criminal records from public view, and prohibit employers from asking job applicants about prior criminal records on initial job application forms. As my readers know, I’ve blogged…
Recently in Massachusetts, there’s been a lot of discussion and activity surrounding reform of the current CORI (Criminal Offender Record Information) law. The law was originally designed to make it much easier for employers and private citizens to obtain information about whether a given person had a criminal record. When…