Requires the office of court administration, clerks, and all other records custodians to develop policies and procedures to ensure no identifying information or documentation relating to name change actions or sex designation change actions is visible or retrievable in any electronic database maintained by the state of New York or a subdivision thereof.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A3925
SPONSOR: Lavine TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the civil rights law, in relation to ensuring the priva-
cy of name change actions and of sex designation change actions; and to
repeal certain provisions of such law relating thereto
PURPOSE::
To ensure the privacy of legal documents relating to name changes.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 repeals section 64-a of the civil rights law and adds a new
section 64-a governing the name change actions.
Section 2 repeals section 67-b of the civil rights law and adds a new
section 67-b governing the privacy of sex designation change actions.
JUSTIFICATION::
With the passage of the Gender Recognition Act of 2021, New York stream-
lined the process for changing one's name under state law. The GRA
outlined an accessible and private means of ensuring New Yorkers' iden-
tity documents reflect their gender identities and chosen names.
However, a person seeking a name or sex designation in court must still
file paperwork with private and legally sensitive information. With the
steep rise of e-filing in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of
these sensitive court documents are uploaded to state electronic filing
systems where they can be "scraped" by court data aggregator services
--- making their personal information searchable online and available to
anyone with access to such databases.
This level of disclosure places anyone seeking - and sometimes required
to seek - the court's help at direct risk of identity theft, harassment,
discrimination, and violence. For survivors of domestic violence, stalk-
ing, sexual assault, or other crimes, who are using the name change
process as a part of a comprehensive safety plan, ready access to this
information places them squarely in the sights of the very people from
whom they are seeking the court's protection.
Though applicants may currently petition for their records to be sealed,
the speed with which such documents are uploaded to the internet means
that one's birth certificate, driver's license, immigration documents,
medical records, orders of protection, and other private information may
be "leaked" to the internet before petitions to seal can be granted
--making their publication irrevocable. For survivors of domestic
violence, stalking, sexual assault, or other crimes, who are using the
name change process as a part of a comprehensive safety plan, ready
access to this information places them squarely in the sights of the
very people from whom they are seeking the court's protection. Further-
more, such disclosure places transgender and gender non-conforming
people, who are already subject to documented high levels of animus and
hate violence, at risk of further public humiliation, threats, or
discrimination from people both in and outside their communities.
This bill will extend to name change legal documents the same privacy
courts apply to other deeply personal court matters such as adoption,
marriage, and divorce proceedings, as New Jersey has already done state-
wide. In doing so, it will align the privacy provided by the GRA with
all other name change and sex designation change mechanisms in the state
and provide less opportunity for accidental disclosure of or malicious
access to private information. Furthermore, by making these proceedings
categorically unavailable to the general public, it will relieve already
over-burdened courts and clerks from having to determine on a labor-in-
tensive, case-by-case basis what name change court records should or
should not be subject to seal.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY::
S2431 CODES
LOCAL
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS::
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE::
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3925
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 30, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. LAVINE -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Judiciary
AN ACT to amend the civil rights law, in relation to ensuring the priva-
cy of name change actions and of sex designation change actions; and
to repeal certain provisions of such law relating thereto
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 64-a of the civil rights law is REPEALED and a new
2 section 64-a is added to read as follows:
3 § 64-a. Ensuring privacy of name change actions. 1. At no time shall
4 any paper or document filed by electronic or paper means in a name
5 change action be available for public inspection in-person, online, or
6 at any computer terminal in the courthouse or the office of the county
7 clerk, except for access by the petitioner, the person changing their
8 name if different from the petitioner, the attorney of record, or upon a
9 finding of good cause. No order of the court shall be required for a
10 petitioner, or a person whose name change a filing pertains to, to
11 access their own file.
12 2. Any entity responsible for processing and maintaining court records
13 shall ensure matters filed under this article are inaccessible to the
14 public immediately upon filing, regardless of whether a petitioner makes
15 a showing of risk and regardless of the reason for the name change. This
16 section applies to all matters filed under this article regardless of
17 whether a petitioner has made a specific request for their information
18 to be kept private and regardless of whether a court has ordered seal-
19 ing.
20 3. The office of court administration, clerks, and all other records
21 custodians shall develop policies and procedures to ensure no identify-
22 ing information or documentation relating to a matter filed under this
23 article is visible or retrievable in any electronic database maintained
24 by the state of New York or a subdivision thereof. Non-identifying
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06096-01-5
A. 3925 2
1 administrative information including but not limited to index numbers,
2 judges, courts, attorney names, information about the nature and status
3 of the action, and initialized or anonymized captions may be visible.
4 All custodial agencies and individuals shall ensure any platforms or
5 systems used to file or maintain court records allow for custodians to
6 input and maintain matters filed under this article consistent with this
7 section.
8 4. Within ninety days of the effective date of this section, all
9 custodial agencies and individuals maintaining existing name change
10 records shall ensure all matters filed under this article prior to the
11 effective date of this section are removed from public view in-person
12 and in online databases consistent with this section.
13 5. If a person whose name was changed by court order prior to the
14 effective date of this section discovers that information deemed private
15 under this section is publicly accessible, such person may move ex parte
16 at any time to request that information deemed private under this
17 section be removed from public view consistent with this section,
18 regardless of whether a request to seal was made at the time of the
19 original petition or the matter was previously ordered sealed.
20 6. Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit the discretion
21 of the court to order notice of a name change pursuant to this article.
22 § 2. Section 67-b of the civil rights law is REPEALED and a new
23 section 67-b is added to read as follows:
24 § 67-b. Ensuring the privacy of sex designation change actions. 1. At
25 no time shall any paper or document filed by electronic or paper means
26 in a sex designation change action be available for public inspection
27 in-person, online, or at any computer terminal in the courthouse or the
28 office of the county clerk, except for access by the petitioner, the
29 person changing their sex designation if different from the petitioner,
30 the attorney of record, or upon a finding of good cause. No order of the
31 court shall be required for a petitioner, or a person whose sex desig-
32 nation change a filing pertains to, to access their own file.
33 2. Any entity responsible for processing and maintaining court records
34 shall ensure matters filed under this article are inaccessible to the
35 public immediately upon filing, regardless of whether a petitioner makes
36 a showing of risk and regardless of the reason for the sex designation
37 change. This section applies to all matters filed under this article
38 regardless of whether a petitioner has made a specific request for their
39 information to be kept private and regardless of whether a court has
40 ordered sealing.
41 3. The office of court administration, clerks, and all other records
42 custodians shall develop policies and procedures to ensure no identify-
43 ing information or documentation relating to a matter filed under this
44 article is visible or retrievable in any electronic database maintained
45 by the state of New York or a subdivision thereof. Non-identifying
46 administrative information including but not limited to index numbers,
47 judges, courts, attorney names, information about the nature and status
48 of the action, and initialized or anonymized captions may be visible.
49 All custodial agencies and individuals shall ensure any platforms or
50 systems used to file or maintain court records allow for custodians to
51 input and maintain matters filed under this article consistent with this
52 section.
53 4. Within ninety days of the effective date of this section, all
54 custodial agencies and individuals maintaining existing sex designation
55 change records shall ensure all matters filed under this article prior
A. 3925 3
1 to the effective date of this section are removed from public view
2 in-person and in online databases consistent with this section.
3 5. If a person whose sex designation was changed by court order prior
4 to the effective date of this section discovers that information deemed
5 private under this section is publicly accessible, such person may move
6 ex parte at any time to request that information deemed private under
7 this section be removed from public view consistent with this section,
8 regardless of whether a request to seal was made at the time of the
9 original petition or the matter was previously ordered sealed.
10 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
