Jack Tuckner here, the employment lawyer. New York State and New York City's human rights laws prohibit discrimination based on arrest history or criminal conviction history. And there's only two narrow exceptions to this prohibition. One is, if your conviction, your prior criminal conviction, bears a direct relationship to the job that you're seeking such as - you're applying to be a commercial truck driver, but you have prior DWI convictions for driving a commercial truck, your employer or prospective employer may have a reason for not hiring you.
Or, two, if hiring you may pose an unreasonable risk to the public, then that may be an exception as well. And an example of that, which is similar to the first is if you have prior convictions for sexual assault against children, you may understand that they may not hire you to work in an elementary school with kids. But other than that, if you've paid your debt to society, New York prohibits discrimination based on that history and those convictions.
If you have a question about your own challenges with regard to an arrest history and employment in New York, give me a call. Again, this is Jack Tuckner. The firm is Tuckner, Sipser, Weinstock and Sipser based in New York City. The consultation is free of charge and in complete and total confidence.
