2006 New York Code - 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.