{"id":355,"date":"2014-08-22T05:12:45","date_gmt":"2014-08-22T05:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.massachusettscriminaldefenselawyerblog.com\/2014\/08\/sjc-rules-in-favor-of-defendan.html"},"modified":"2014-08-22T05:12:45","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T05:12:45","slug":"sjc-rules-in-favor-of-defendan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/sjc-rules-in-favor-of-defendan\/","title":{"rendered":"SJC lowers the burden for Sealing Criminal Records in Massachusetts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As a result of the increasing difficulties former defendants in criminal prosecutions are facing in obtaining employment and housing because of their criminal records, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently ruled to lessen the legal burden on former defendants who wish to have their criminal records sealed after an entry of nolle prosequi or dismissal.  This decision effectively opens the door for more individuals to seal their past criminal records, thereby preventing most employers and landlords from accessing their criminal information, and creating more opportunity for obtaining gainful employment and comfortable housing. <\/p>\n<p>In the matter of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;ved=0CB8QFjAA&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mass.gov%2Fcourts%2Fdocs%2Fsjc%2Freporter-of-decisions%2Fnew-opinions%2F11542.pdf&amp;ei=KSvxU9qaG4-RyASmpYCABA&amp;usg=AFQjCNFiCIA_KYifjRV1NpJ-DpJ9dADtDA&amp;sig2=TeAhq_baacdSY0ju8_M12g&amp;bvm=bv.73231344,d.aWw\">Commonwealth v. Peter Pon<\/a>, the defendant was charged with an OUI and leaving the scene of property damage following an accident. After admitting to the facts alleged by the Commonwealth, a Boston Municipal Court judge ordered that the case be continued without a finding for one year and a 45-day license suspension. Since the defendant complied with the conditions of the continuance, his case was subsequently dismissed but a judge denied the defendant&#8217;s petition that his records be sealed in order to prevent any employment or housing discrimination resulting from his criminal history. Although the Commissioner of Probation ultimately sealed the records before the Supreme Judicial Court issued its ruling on appeal, the Court nonetheless used this case to reconsider the current law on criminal record sealing and impoundment. <\/p>\n<p><big>The OLD Standard for determining whether to seal records<\/big><\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/sjc-rules-in-favor-of-defendan\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading SJC lowers the burden for Sealing Criminal Records in Massachusetts\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a result of the increasing difficulties former defendants in criminal prosecutions are facing in obtaining employment and housing because of their criminal records, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court recently ruled to lessen the legal burden on former defendants who wish to have their criminal records sealed after an entry of nolle prosequi or dismissal. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misdemeanor-offenses"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>SJC lowers the burden for Sealing Criminal Records in Massachusetts &#8212; Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog &#8212; August 22, 2014<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As a result of the increasing difficulties former defendants in criminal prosecutions are facing in obtaining employment and housing because of their &#8212; August 22, 2014\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/sjc-rules-in-favor-of-defendan\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"SJC lowers the burden for Sealing Criminal Records in Massachusetts &#8212; Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog &#8212; August 22, 2014\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"As a result of the increasing difficulties former defendants in criminal prosecutions are facing in obtaining employment and housing because of their &#8212; August 22, 2014\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael DelSignore\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"SJC lowers the burden for Sealing Criminal Records in Massachusetts &#8212; Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog &#8212; August 22, 2014","description":"As a result of the increasing difficulties former defendants in criminal prosecutions are facing in obtaining employment and housing because of their &#8212; August 22, 2014","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/sjc-rules-in-favor-of-defendan\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"SJC lowers the burden for Sealing Criminal Records in Massachusetts &#8212; Massachusetts Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog &#8212; August 22, 2014","twitter_description":"As a result of the increasing difficulties former defendants in criminal prosecutions are facing in obtaining employment and housing because of their &#8212; August 22, 2014","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Michael DelSignore","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/sjc-rules-in-favor-of-defendan\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/sjc-rules-in-favor-of-defendan\/"},"author":{"name":"Michael DelSignore","@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f0bc58f94b3abb11fcd52cf8961c0a6e"},"headline":"SJC lowers the burden for Sealing Criminal Records in Massachusetts","datePublished":"2014-08-22T05:12:45+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/sjc-rules-in-favor-of-defendan\/"},"wordCount":915,"articleSection":["misdemeanor offenses"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/sjc-rules-in-favor-of-defendan\/","url":"https:\/\/www.delsignoredefense.com\/blog\/sjc-rules-in-favor-of-defendan\/","name":"SJC lowers the burden for Sealing Criminal Records in Massachusetts &#8212; 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