Licensing agencies back S.12 but ask courts to notify regulators when records are sealed

Summary

Officials from the Office of Professional Regulation and the Vermont Department of Health told the Judiciary Committee they support S.12’s sealing and expungement goals but want statutory language requiring petitioners or courts to notify licensing agencies so regulators can remove sealed records from public databases and avoid disclosure errors.

Jennifer Cohen, general counsel for the Office of Professional Regulation, told the Judiciary Committee that OPR supports S.12 but needs clearer notice and process to comply with sealing and expungement orders.

"S12 is kind of really consistent with maintaining that balance," Cohen said, adding OPR "support[s] S-twelve" and proposed three specific language revisions to the bill to make sure regulatory agencies are notified when a court seals or expunges a record.

Why it matters: licensing agencies said they regularly receive criminal-history information as part of licensing and disciplinary processes and that some information about convictions can appear in publicly accessible disciplinary orders. If courts seal or expunge records, regulators said, they need reliable notice and an explicit mechanism to remove or redact references from public-facing databases so they do not inadvertently disclose sealed material.

What agencies said

Jennifer Cohen described how OPR evaluates criminal histories for roughly 84,000 regulated individual and business licensees across more than 50 professions with about 40 staff. OPR officials said they balance public-protection concerns against individuals' ability to work,…

Licensing agencies back S.12 but ask courts to notify regulators when records are sealed

Summary

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