STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8142
2021-2022 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
June 16, 2021
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ABBATE -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Judiciary
AN ACT to amend the civil rights law, in relation to establishing
requirements for the disclosure of personnel and disciplinary records
of certain expert witnesses
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The civil rights law is amended by adding a new section
2 50-a to read as follows:
3 § 50-a. Personnel and disciplinary records of government-employed
4 scientific expert witnesses. 1. As used in this section, the following
5 terms shall have the following meanings:
6 a. "personnel and disciplinary records of government-employed scien-
7 tific expert witnesses" means all personnel records of government-em-
8 ployed scientific experts, used to evaluate performance toward continued
9 employment or promotion, and under the control of the state or local
10 government personnel agency or its political subdivisions; and
11 b. "government employed" means any person holding a position by
12 appointment or employment in the service of a public employer, whether
13 provisionally, non-competitively, competitively or by contract.
14 2. Personnel and disciplinary records of government-employed scientif-
15 ic expert witnesses shall be disclosed in a court action pursuant to the
16 relevant provisions of the criminal procedure law, the civil practice
17 law and rules or any other provision of law governing such disclosure,
18 only after the party seeking disclosure has, at minimum, provided a good
19 faith offer of proof as to why the information is being sought, the
20 court has notified the subject of such records that such records may be
21 disclosed pursuant to court action or pursuant to a subpoena issued by a
22 court of competent jurisdiction, and the court has given the subject of
23 such records an opportunity to be heard on the questions of whether the
24 records sought: (a) are relevant to the scientific expert's character
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11673-01-1
A. 8142 2
1 for veracity; and (b) provide a legitimate basis to question the reli-
2 ability or accuracy of the expert's scientific conclusion. If, after
3 such hearing, the court determines that only a portion of such records
4 are relevant and material in the action before it, it shall make those
5 parts of the records found to be relevant and material available to the
6 persons so requesting.
7 3. The provisions of this section shall not apply to any agency of
8 government or its political subdivisions which require the records
9 described in subdivision one of this section in the furtherance of its
10 official duties.
11 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
