Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has filed a class-action lawsuit against the state Office of Court Administration to seal the records of 366 people who have old low-level marijuana convictions.
The Manhattan Supreme court lawsuit — filed late Thursday by Vance and three anonymous individuals who are seeking to seal their own records — would expunge the records of those who have no other misdemeanor or felony convictions, no convictions in the past 10 years and no pending cases.
Normally, people seeking to seal their conviction records would be required to file a sworn affidavit but Vance wants to bypass that requirement because “there is no practical way to contact each of the class members individually and inform them of their eligibility for relief,” the court papers say.
Filing a class action instead “is far more efficient,” the court documents argue.
The three anonymous plaintiffs — who were charged for either smoking or possessing marijuana in public — have convictions from over 17 years ago and say their blemished records have hindered them from job opportunities in life, the suit claims.
Lucian Chalfen, a spokesperson with OCA said, “We have not yet had an opportunity to review the papers, but we follow the statue as was enacted by the legislature, however should the Court determine that we should modify our procedures regarding the sealing, we will comply.”
The lawsuit follows Vance’s move last September to vacate over 3,000 warrants on low-level marijuana offenses.