Legal Aid sees break for 600,000

THE LEGAL AID Society has 20 applicants trying to get old convictions sealed under a new state law that aims to give New Yorkers a clean slate — and court officials believe as many as 600,000 people could be eligible.

The nonprofit’s Conviction Sealing Project just launched with the goal of serving indigent clients who could get the lifechanging housing and employment benefits of a clean record through the law that went into effect Oct. 7.

To date, Legal Aid filed one sealing motion in the Bronx for a 44-year-old domestic violence survivor who has a 16-year-old misdemeanor assault conviction, related to incidents with her abuser. Prosecutors are consenting to the sealing, her lawyers said.

Legal Aid’s other clients have applications in the works and around the state, public defenders and private lawyers alike have begun to seize the opportunity.

Yet there are potentially hundreds of thousands who don’t know they are candidates.

Under the statute, convictions must be at least 10 years old and applicants cannot have more than two misdemeanors or one felony. Certain types of convictions are automatic disqualifications.

Office of Court Administration officials determined recently there were 300,000 people with a single misdemeanor conviction over a decade old.

There are no statistics known to the court to reflect the number of people with two misdemeanors, one felony or a combination.

“A lot of people are eligible or know people who are eligible but just didn’t know the law existed,” said Emma Goodman, who is spearheading Legal Aid’s initiative.

Goodman said Legal Aid is pushing to get the word out and to “take on as many cases as there are.”

“We don’t know what the numbers are going to be like,” she said. Her organization identified an additional 10 candidates at an outreach event in Staten Island recently.