Expungement Does Not Extend to Executive Branch Records

City of Crystal v. N.G.K., Minn.Ct.App., 7/28/2009.  A court convicted N.G.K. of gross misdemeanor theft eleven years or so ago.  Potential employers kept turning him down for jobs, and N.G.K. worried that he would not be able to get a loan to buy a house.  So, he petitioned to expunge the conviction, serving everyone imaginable with a copy of the petition, including the City of Crystal.  After a hearing, the district court exercised its inherent authority and ordered that judicial records be sealed.  The court also ordered that executive branch offices seal documents that were “generated as part of judicial proceedings,” language that the court lifted from State v. V.A.J., 744 N.W.2d 674 (Minn. App. 2008), review denied (Minn. Oct. 1, 2008).

Unfortunately, after V.A.J., the Supreme Court weighed in with State v. S.L.H., 755 N.W.2d 271 (Minn. 2008), which enunciated a different standard by which courts were to exercise its inherent authority to seal executive branch records.  S.L.H. said that the exercise of inherent authority is limited to “that which is essential to the existence, dignity, and function of a court because it is a court.”  Adverse experiences job hunting don’t pass the test.