New Jersey Criminal Records

New Jersey keeps its criminal records where most states do, but with two rules of its own. The State Police name check cannot be run on a person without that person's approval, given online within seven days, so no stranger can buy a New Jersey rap sheet. And the court system's public criminal search shows only people who were convicted and sentenced in Superior Court, so a dismissed charge, a pending case or a municipal court conviction is not in it. This page gives the New Jersey rule and the New Jersey search for each record, with government sources only.

The New Jersey State Police sell a name-based check of the State Bureau of Identification's file through the 212B form, "for conducting name checks only for non-criminal justice purposes only," to governmental entities, to "a person or non-governmental entity of any state for employment, volunteer work or other performance of services," and to "private detectives, licensed by the Division of State Police." The fee, per the State Police's questions page, is "$20.00 for submitting the online Criminal History Record Information request for a Name Check (212B), except for those submitted for volunteer work, in which case the charge is $12.00." The approval rule is the New Jersey difference: "To grant approval, the Subject will need to validate their information," and "without approval and payment of the application fee, the application can't be processed by the State Bureau of Identification"; "the Subject has 7 days from the submission date to approve the application," and "if an application is declined by the Subject, it can't be processed." The fingerprint check, form 212A, is for the licensing and employment purposes the statutes name. A New Jersey background check that the person did not approve did not come from the state.

Indictable offenses, New Jersey's felonies, are tried in the Superior Court in each of the 21 counties, and the court system's PROMIS/Gavel public access search covers them, "from arrest through appellate review," as the judiciary's electronic access page describes it. Its own notice states the limit: "Only defendants with a case(s) on which he or she was convicted and sentenced in Superior Court, will display in your search results," and "confidential records and information will not be returned in your search results." Disorderly persons offenses, the state's misdemeanors, and traffic are heard in the municipal courts, whose records are searched through the judiciary's municipal case search or at the court, and the judiciary's find a case page gathers the searches for civil, criminal, tax and municipal matters. A New Jersey court search that shows nothing therefore means no Superior Court conviction and sentence, and nothing more; the pending case, the dismissed indictment and the municipal conviction are found elsewhere, and the criminal records page explains why a database copy of the same index has the same hole.

New Jersey expunges under N.J.S.A. 2C:52, and the judiciary's expungement guide sets out the routes: an arrest that did not end in a conviction may be expunged at once; a disorderly persons conviction after five years; an indictable conviction after five years with clean conduct, or six under the ordinary rule; and the Clean Slate expungement under N.J.S.A. 2C:52-5.3, where "at least ten years must have passed since your last conviction," which clears the whole record at once except for the offenses the statute bars. The petition goes to the Superior Court in the county of the most recent conviction, and the order reaches the State Police, the prosecutor, the courts and the arresting agencies. An expunged New Jersey record is treated as if it never occurred, and a copy that left before the order is reached through the federal rule on complete and up to date public records.

New Jersey's Open Public Records Act, OPRA, "was enacted to give the public greater access to government records maintained by public agencies," and its criminal investigatory exemption has a list attached: the Government Records Council's custodian handbook notes that "N.J.S.A. 47:1A-3(b) lists specific criminal investigatory information which must be" disclosed within 24 hours of a request, including the arrestee's name, age, residence, occupation and marital status, the charge, the time and place of the arrest, the arresting agency and the bail. So the fact and details of a New Jersey arrest are public the next day, while the investigative file is not. Who is in custody is in the Department of Corrections' offender search, which exists "to promote public safety and welfare while providing community access to selected offender information, consistent with the spirit and intent of" OPRA, and removes a person "one year after the completion of their custodial term"; county jail lookups, Middlesex County's among them, are linked from the county pages. The arrest records page covers the rest.

A New Jersey judgment docketed with the Clerk of the Superior Court in Trenton is a lien on the debtor's real property anywhere in the state and can be enforced for twenty years, under N.J.S.A. 2A:14-5, and revived by motion before it expires. The statewide judgment index is the reason a New Jersey asset search starts at the Superior Court Clerk rather than the county, and the court records page covers where it is searched.

New Jersey is a single federal judicial district, the District of New Jersey, under 28 U.S.C. 110, and court is held at Camden, Newark and Trenton. A federal criminal case from any New Jersey county is on that court's docket and on PACER, whose prices and gaps are on the criminal records page.

Whether a person has a New Jersey record: the State Police's $20 name check answers it, once the person approves it online, and not otherwise.

Whether a person was convicted in Superior Court: PROMIS/Gavel answers it, free, by name, convictions and sentences only.

Whether a person was arrested: the arresting agency must release the arrest details within 24 hours under OPRA.

Whether a person is in custody now: the county jail lookup answers it, and the Department of Corrections for state prison.

Whether an old case can still be found: an expunged case is treated as if it never happened, a docketed judgment is live for twenty years, and a copy that predates an expungement is reached through the federal rule.