In a unanimous Jan. 8, 2019, decision written by Chief Justice Rabner, the New Jersey Supreme Court held out a lifeline to drug offenders who successfully complete the rigorous regimen implemented by the drug courts of this state. Matter of Expungement of Arrest/Charge Records of T.B., J.N.-T. and R.C. That lifeline could not be more important in the opportunity it offers drug court graduates to have their entire criminal histories expunged even when those histories are significant, thereby affording offenders a true fresh start to find employment and live a law-abiding life.

In reversing the Appellate Division, the court’s key holdings, based on a relatively new 2016 law commonly known as the drug court expungement statute, N.J.S.A. §2C:35-14(m), are: (1) the new law “favor[s] expungement for successful graduates;” (2) successful drug court participants are entitled to a rebuttable presumption that expungement of their third or fourth degree drug sale offenses “is consistent with the public interest,” shifting the burden to prosecutors to present proof of disqualifying convictions and other factors bearing on the public safety; (3) applications for expungement by drug court graduates may be heard only by drug court judges who are familiar with the participants and with drug court requirements; and (4) unlike other applicants for expungement, drug court graduates need not include with their expungement applications copies of all relevant transcripts and reports of prior convictions, documents that are often difficult and expensive to obtain especially when they relate to old convictions. On this last point, the court said that these documents can be required “on a cost-effective basis” if a judge hearing a specific expungement application thinks them necessary.