Prior to the new law, judges were only able to seal the records of acquittals and dismissals held by the court system – not records on file at the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the primary source of information for employment background checks. The new law will seal both sets of records, although law enforcement authorities will still have the ability to access expunged records.
Similarly to Minnesota’s recently enacted “Ban the Box” law, provisions in the expungement law provide protections to employers who hire an employee with an expunged record. Under the new law, records that were expunged cannot be used as evidence in civil litigation, such as negligent hiring, against a private employer based on the conduct of an employee.
Source: Inforum.com, 1/3/2015 and Lawandtheworkplace.com, 1/5/2014
Posted: January 16, 2015