Posted by rl on October 17, 2002 at 19:05:08:
Hi Lisa. It's great to see you back on the board!
Yesterday I completed my civil obligation in serving as a juror for the supreme court of the boro of NYC in which I reside. I was excused from both a civil and lastly a criminal trial (really part of the "voir dire" process of selection for trial). I was excused from the criminal trial due to discussing my arrest/guilty plea to the violation(1996) with one of the attorneys. I voiced some anxieties about serving in a criminal trial due to my record and she excused me accordingly. When I went back to the jury waiting room the clerk gave me a receipt of proof of jury service for the 2 days and I don't have to serve for another 4 years.
I will show this to my employer for proof of jury service. No other details are on the receipt but I was just curious, could someone find out what I discussed with the lawyer.? Could my employer find out if they really wanted to? There were maybe 10 other people in the room when I spoke with the lawyer and the interaction may have been taped but I just don't remember. Would you know who was in the room with us? Was it the other attorneys or maybe defendants accused of the crimes? I'm just curious. Is my talk with the lawyer of a public or private nature?
Also in reading the court brochure I notice the courts are broken up into several sections. The court I was involved with in 1996 was the Criminal Court which it said handles misdemeanors and violations, whereas the County Courthouse handles felonies. So when a background check is done on the "county court" level, does this mean it skips the "criminal court" level(although I suppose everything gets recorded into the files of the OCA anyway?)?. It's so confusing, upper level courts, felony courts, metro-NY searches, felony and misdemeanor searches, etc.
Lastly, someone at the Legal Action Center in NY who personally looked at my OCA record said that my record was not a "criminal record" and should not turn up in a consumer credit report and cited the general Business Laws of NY that only an arrest with a corresponding "criminal conviction" can turn up in such a report. What's odd is that my OCA report does not list the arrest charge (sealed) and specifies the conviction as a violation. Yet there still is a conviction so I don't know what to make of it.
What type of attorney could i contact regarding information in consumer credit reports? Would it be a criminal lawyer or someone else? Could you advise me? I don't know what type of lawyer could help me.
Sincerely
RL