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HOUSE BILL 253
57
TH LEGISLATURE
-
STATE
OF
NEW
MEXICO
-
FIRST SESSION
,
2025
INTRODUCED BY
Andrea Romero and Angelica Rubio and Kristina Ortez
AN ACT
RELATING TO COURT RECORDS; REQUIRING THE SEALING OF CERTAIN
COURT RECORDS PERTAINING TO AN EVICTION; PROVIDING PROCEDURES
FOR A PETITION TO SEAL A COURT RECORD; PROVIDING A PROCESS FOR
PETITIONING FOR THE UNSEALING OF A COURT RECORD.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:
SECTION 1. A new Section 47-8B-1 NMSA 1978 is enacted to
read:
"47-8B-1. [NEW MATERIAL ] EVICTION RECORDS--SEALED COURT
RECORDS--PROCEDURES--PETITION TO UNSEAL COURT RECORDS.--
A. As used in this section:
(1) "authorized attorney" means an attorney
who has access to sealed eviction court records as determined
by a policy adopted by the administrative office of the courts;
(2) "court record" means any information
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contained in a docket, including the court docket, pleadings
and orders;
(3) "eviction" means an action initiated by an
owner to regain possession of a dwelling unit and use of the
premises from a resident pursuant to the Uniform Owner-Resident
Relations Act and includes actions by the owner or management
of a mobile home park, trailer park or park to regain
possession and use of a mobile home, mobile home space, space,
mobile home lot or lot pursuant to the Mobile Home Park Act;
(4) "owner" means one or more persons, jointly
or severally, in whom is vested all or part of the legal title
to property or all or part of the beneficial ownership and a
right to present use and enjoyment of the premises and agents
thereof; "owner" includes a mortgagee in possession and the
lessors and landlords or managers of a mobile home park
pursuant to the Mobile Home Park Act, but does not include a
person or persons, jointly or severally, who as owner leases
the entire premises to a lessee of vacant land for apartment
use;
(5) "resident" means a person entitled under a
rental agreement to occupy a dwelling unit in peaceful
possession to the exclusion of others and includes the owner of
a mobile home renting premises, lot or parcel in a mobile home
park for use as a site for the location of the mobile home; and
(6) "seal" means to limit access of a court
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record to:
(a) judges;
(b) court staff;
(c) authorized staff of the judicial
department of the state;
(d) a party to the case and, if
represented, the party's attorney;
(e) authorized attorneys; and
(f) a person with a valid court order or
directive from the judicial technology council authorizing
access to the court record.
B. Upon the commencement of an eviction, the court
record shall be sealed.
C. When an order granting an owner possession of
the premises is entered in an eviction, the court record shall
be:
(1) unsealed no less than fifteen days after
the date of the order, unless:
(a) the parties agree and the court
orders that the court record should remain sealed;
(b) the resident files an appeal,
wherein the court record shall remain sealed through the
pendency of the appeal; or
(c) the order is later set aside by the
court, wherein the court shall as soon as practicable seal the
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court record; and
(2) available to the public; provided that the
court shall seal the court record no less than and as close to
three years as possible after the date on which the court
record was made available to the public.
D. The names of the parties included in a sealed
court record pursuant to this section may be used by the court
for administrative purposes, but the court shall not publish
the names of the parties online or sell or release a sealed
court record as part of a bulk or individual records transfer
to a third party; such bulk record request shall be subject to
the provisions of Subsection G of this section.
E. A resident who is a party to an eviction in
which a court record is sealed pursuant to this section shall
not be liable for failing to disclose the eviction in response
to any inquiry from a third party.
F. If a sealed court record is made available to
the public pursuant to Paragraph (2) of Subsection C of this
section, the court record shall be sealed again upon a
resident's petition indicating that:
(1) sealing the court record would be in the
interests of justice; and
(2) those interests are not outweighed by the
public's interest in access to the records.
G. A court record sealed pursuant to this section
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shall be unsealed on order of the court upon a showing of
compelling need, which may include scholarly, educational,
journalistic or governmental purposes. In determining whether
there is a compelling need, the court shall balance the
interests of the resident for nondisclosure against the
interests of the requesting party. For bulk record requests, a
court record sealed pursuant to this section shall be unsealed
only upon a directive from the judicial technology council.
H. Residents shall not be charged a filing fee for
a petition pursuant to Subsection F of this section.
I. A sealed court record shall be released to an
authorized attorney and maintain its status as a sealed court
record without being made available to the public and without a
showing of compelling need.
J. The provisions of this section shall apply to
all evictions provided pursuant to the Uniform Owner-Resident
Relations Act and the Mobile Home Park Act filed on or after
the effective date of this 2025 act."
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