N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law § 33.14: Sealing of records pertaining to treatment for mental illness

§ 33.14 Sealing of records pertaining to treatment for mental illness.

(a) (1) Any person who has been admitted to receive inpatient or

outpatient services for mental illness may commence a special proceeding

in the supreme court for an order directing the sealing of those records

held by the office of mental health, a facility, or any other individual

or public or private entity which has been made a party to the

proceeding, which identify the petitioner as a recipient of services for

mental illness. The court may order that the petitioner's records be

sealed, subject to such limitations or exceptions as the court may

impose, upon a finding that:

a. the petitioner was illegally detained by a facility by reason of

fraud, error or falsified documents, and the records pertain to such

illegal detention; or

b. the petitioner has demonstrated by competent medical evidence that

he is not currently suffering from a mental illness, has not for a

period of three years received inpatient services for the treatment of a

mental illness, and the interests of the petitioner and society would

best be served by sealing the petitioner's records. It shall be presumed

that it would be in the best interests of the petitioner and society to

seal any record of a petitioner's receipt of services for the treatment

of mental illness prior to his sixteenth birthday.

(2) Except for such limitations as the court may impose, a court order

directing the office of mental health, a facility, or other individual

or entity to seal records shall require the office of mental health,

facility or other individual or entity to respond to any official or

unofficial inquiry concerning the petitioner's history of mental illness

as though the admission or receipt of services documented in the sealed

records had never occurred.

(3) A petitioner who has obtained an order directing that his or her

records be sealed may respond to any official or unofficial inquiry by

any person or agency concerning the petitioner's history of mental

illness as though the admission or receipt of services documented in the

sealed records had never occurred.

(b) Records sealed pursuant to this section may be unsealed and made

available only:

(1) upon request of the person who is the subject of the sealed

records;

(2) by order of a court upon a demonstration by the party seeking to

have the records unsealed that such unsealing is essential to the

interests of justice;

(3) upon the commencement of a suit by the person who is the subject

of the sealed records or his representative in which such person's

confinement or treatment during confinement as documented in the sealed

records is at issue; or

(4) seventy-five years after the record has been sealed.