What to Know
- New Jersey's Supreme Court has made it easier for drug offenders who've completed a court-supervised program to have records expunged.
- Justices found that successful graduates are entitled to a rebuttable presumption that expungement is consistent with the public interest.
- Monitored drug court participants must be drug-free for a year to graduate.
A ruling by New Jersey's Supreme Court has made it easier for drug offenders who've completed a court-supervised program to have their criminal records expunged.
The court on Tuesday reversed a lower court decision that said drug court graduates had the burden of showing that expungement for certain drug sale offenses was in the public interest. The justices found that successful graduates are entitled to a rebuttable presumption that expungement is consistent with the public interest.
Drug court participants are monitored by a team of prosecutors, probation officers and treatment providers. They must be drug-free for a year to graduate.
First- and second-degree drug sale offenses are barred from expungement. But the law allows less-serious drug sale offenses to be expunged if the public-interest requirement is met.
