Finding Work After a New York DWI

New York State has no expungement statute therefore any criminal conviction is a permanent mark on your record. New York Courts offer a Certificate of Relief from Disabilities for misdemeanor crimes. You need one certificate for each conviction.

Certificates are an assumption or presumption of rehabilitation, and proof to a future employer and/or licensing agency (occupational) must consider when licensing you or hiring you for a job.

CRFs remove any legal bar or disability imposed on you as a result of having been convicted of a crime. DWI is a unclassified misdemeanor in New York, a criminal conviction. The Certificate proves to the future employer that the State or a court assumes you are now rehabilitated, and that the employer must take this into consideration.

Under New York State law, it is illegal for an employer to deny someone a job based on his or her DWI conviction, unless the employer can demonstrate it is job related.

New York law says that in deciding whether or not a conviction is job related, the employer must consider a number of factors including proof (evidence) of rehabilitation (your CRF). With the CRF, the burden of proof shifts to the employer to show that hiring you would be a risk (dangerous) to people or property, or that your conviction is directly related to the job for which you are applying.

Two specific DWI examples where my clients were denied employment were:

1. working in the liquor business as a traveling salesperson (selling alcoholic beverages directly related)

2. a position as a school bus driver (driving children directly related and potentially dangerous).

In making their decision as to whether to employ you they are required by New York Correction Law A�753 to give consideration to a Certificate of Relief from Disabilities, and the presumption of rehabilitation that is created by the Certificate.

It is the public policy of New York, set out in Correction Law A�753, to encourage the licensure and employment of people previously convicted of criminal offenses. Point out to future employers that hiring you (a proven rehabilitated person) helps them in complying with that policy as well.