Massachusetts CORI Law: Employers, Landlords, and Sealing

Massachusetts CORI law governs the Criminal Offender Record Information system, a state database run by the Department of Criminal Justice Information Services that tracks adult criminal court activity and controls who can see it. The rules sit mainly in Chapter 6, Sections 167 through 178B, and they do three things at once: they tier access so different requesters see different slices of your record, they impose duties on employers and landlords who pull that record, and they give you a path to check, correct, seal, or in some cases erase what is there.

What Shows Up on Your CORI

What appears on a CORI report depends entirely on who is asking. Massachusetts uses tiered access, and the same person’s record can look very different from one requester to the next.

When you pull your own record through iCORI (called personal access), you see the fullest version available to a private citizen: all adult and youthful offender convictions, non-convictions, pending cases, and civil and non-incarcerable offenses. Sealed and juvenile offenses do not appear.¹

Most employers, landlords, and licensing agencies receive standard access, which is narrower. Standard access shows felony convictions for ten years after the disposition (including any incarceration), misdemeanor convictions for five years, and pending charges. Murder, manslaughter, and sex offense convictions remain visible indefinitely when the disposition was a conviction. Violations of abuse prevention and harassment prevention orders are treated as felonies for these timing rules and stay visible for the full ten years.²

Criminal justice agencies, firearms licensing authorities, and the Criminal Record Review Board sit at the top of the hierarchy. They see everything, including sealed records.²

How to Pull Your Own Record

You request your own CORI through the iCORI system, using a valid Massachusetts driver’s license or state ID. The fee is $25, waived for anyone who qualifies for an affidavit of indigency.³ After you create an iCORI account, results are viewable online.⁴

Pulling it before you apply for a job or an apartment is worth doing. Errors happen, and if you find one you can go to DCJIS or the court that handled the case to get it corrected before it costs you an opportunity.

You can also find out who has been checking your record. A CORI self-audit lists every request made on you through iCORI, other than requests from criminal justice agencies. One self-audit is free every 90 days, either through your iCORI account or by mailing a notarized request form to DCJIS.⁵

Limits on What Employers Can Do

Ban the Box

Massachusetts prohibits most employers from asking about criminal history on the initial written job application. The rule comes from Chapter 151B, Section 4, subsection 9½. A narrow exception applies where federal or state law creates a mandatory or presumptive disqualification for the position based on certain convictions.⁶

What Employers Can Never Ask About

Even after the initial application, Section 4(9) permanently bars employers from asking about, or making decisions based on, several categories:

Arrests that did not lead to conviction, including dismissals and not-guilty findings.
First convictions for drunkenness, simple assault, speeding, minor traffic violations, affray, or disturbing the peace.
Misdemeanor convictions where the conviction or release from incarceration was three or more years ago, unless you had another conviction inside that three-year window.
Sealed or expunged records. You cannot be charged with perjury for not disclosing them.

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What Has to Happen Before a Rejection

Chapter 6, Section 171A requires anyone holding your CORI to give you a copy before questioning you about your criminal history. If the employer then makes an adverse decision based on that history, they must give you the record again along with information about how to correct errors, unless you already received a copy before the questioning.⁷

Any organization that runs five or more criminal background checks per year must maintain a written CORI policy covering these obligations. The Criminal Record Review Board can investigate violations, hold hearings, and impose sanctions.⁷

Before actually disqualifying an applicant, employers are expected to conduct an individualized assessment: the circumstances of the offense, how long ago it happened, the applicant’s age at the time, work history since, and any evidence of rehabilitation. Blanket policies rejecting anyone with a record invite discrimination claims, and federal EEOC guidance points the same way, since criminal records disproportionately affect certain racial and ethnic groups.⁸

How Landlords Can Use CORI

Landlords and property managers can request CORI to evaluate applicants, subject to the same core protections that apply to employers. A landlord must obtain your signed CORI Acknowledgment Form before running the check.⁹ If your application is denied because of the results, the landlord has to give you a copy of the report and a chance to dispute or explain it.

Landlords receive standard access, so the ten-year, five-year, and pending-charge windows apply the same way they do in employment.² HUD guidance treats blanket denials based on criminal history, or denials based solely on an arrest without conviction, as likely to violate fair housing principles because of their disparate impact.

If you believe a landlord discriminated against you based on your record, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination accepts complaints in person at its Boston, Springfield, or Worcester offices, or online.¹⁰

Sealing Your Record

Sealing removes a record from public view and from the standard CORI report that most employers and landlords receive. It does not destroy the record; law enforcement, firearms licensing authorities, and the Criminal Record Review Board still see it.

Under Chapter 276, Section 100A, you can ask the Commissioner of Probation to seal your record if you meet all of these conditions:

For a misdemeanor, at least three years have passed since your court appearance, disposition, or release from any incarceration.
For a felony, at least seven years have passed since your court appearance, disposition, or release from any incarceration.
You have no new convictions during the applicable waiting period, other than motor vehicle offenses carrying a fine of $50 or less.
You attest under penalty of perjury that you have no out-of-state or federal convictions during the waiting period, with the same motor vehicle exception.

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The request goes on a form provided by the Commissioner, signed under penalty of perjury. If you meet the criteria, the Commissioner must comply. Once the record is sealed, you are not required to disclose it on job or housing applications and cannot be penalized for leaving it off.

Expungement

Expungement is stronger than sealing. It permanently removes the record from the CORI system. Because it cannot be undone, eligibility is much narrower. The time-based path is set out in Chapter 276, Sections 100E through 100U, and your record has to satisfy every one of these conditions:¹²

You have no more than two records; multiple offenses from a single incident count as one.
At least three years have passed after completing your full sentence for a misdemeanor, or seven years for a felony.
The offense did not cause death or serious bodily injury and was not committed with intent to cause either.
The offense was not committed while armed with a dangerous weapon.
The offense was not committed against an elderly or disabled person.
The offense is not a sex offense, sex offense involving a child, or sexually violent offense.
The offense is not operating under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
The offense does not involve a firearm or the illegal sale of a firearm.
The offense is not a violation of an abuse prevention or harassment prevention order.
The offense is not assault or assault and battery on a household member.
The offense is not a felony under Chapter 265, the crimes against the person statute.

Even when the criteria are met, a judge decides. The court weighs the benefit to you against any disadvantage to the public, looking at the nature of the offense, time elapsed, and your conduct since.

Sealing and Expungement Do Not Restore Firearm Rights

This trips people up regularly. Sealing your Massachusetts record does not give you back the right to possess a firearm. Firearms licensing authorities have full access to sealed records under Section 172 and will see the underlying conviction when they evaluate a license to carry or a firearms identification card application.²

Federal law imposes a separate barrier. Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison is prohibited from possessing a firearm, and a separate prohibition applies to anyone convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.¹³ Even a successful state expungement may not resolve a federal firearms disability, because the federal question is whether the conviction existed. If firearm rights matter to you, get advice from an attorney who works in both Massachusetts licensing law and federal firearms prohibitions before assuming any state action has restored eligibility.

What You Can Recover if the Rules Are Broken

Chapter 6, Section 177 gives anyone harmed by a violation of the CORI statutes (Sections 168 through 175) the right to file a civil action in Superior Court. If the court finds the violation was willful, the violator loses any claim of privilege and faces exemplary damages of $100 to $1,000 per violation, plus actual damages, attorney’s fees, and court costs.¹⁴

The per-violation structure matters. An employer or landlord who systematically mishandles CORI across many applicants can accumulate substantial liability. Organizations that violate the rules also risk losing iCORI access, which for employers in healthcare, education, and financial services can be operationally severe. The civil claim reaches individual violators as well, so an employee who pulls a record without a legitimate purpose or shares it outside proper channels can be named personally.

Professional Licenses and Travel

State and municipal licensing agencies can access your CORI under Section 172 when evaluating an application. Boards generally look at whether the conviction has a direct relationship to the profession, how serious it was, how long ago it happened, and any rehabilitation. The Section 171A adverse-decision protections apply: the agency has to give you the record it relied on and a chance to respond before denying you.⁷

On travel, a completed sentence with no outstanding restrictions generally does not affect U.S. passport eligibility. Passports can be denied or revoked for an active federal arrest warrant, a court order restricting travel, or a probation or parole condition against leaving the country or the court’s jurisdiction.¹⁵ Some countries, Canada among them, enforce their own entry rules against travelers with certain convictions; those are destination-country rules, separate from anything CORI controls.

1
Mass.gov. Levels of Name-Based Criminal Record Check Access
2
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 6, Section 172
3
Mass.gov. Request CORI As An Individual
4
Mass.gov. CORI Frequently Asked Questions
5
Cornell Law School. 803 CMR 2.25 – CORI Self-Audit
6
Mass.gov. Massachusetts General Laws c.151B Section 4 – Unlawful Practices
7
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 6, Section 171A
8
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Arrest and Conviction Records – Resources for Job Seekers, Workers and Employers
9
Cornell Law School. 803 CMR 2.11 – Requirements for Requestors to Request CORI
10
Mass.gov. How to File a Complaint of Discrimination
11
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 276, Section 100A – Requests to Seal Files
12
Mass.gov. Find Out If You Can Expunge Your Criminal Record
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code Section 922 – Unlawful Acts
14
General Court of Massachusetts. Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 6, Section 177
15
U.S. Department of State. Passport Information for Law Enforcement