Monday, November 3, 2008

Proposed Sealing of Court Records

The Rules of Judicial Administration Committee has filed with the Florida Supreme Court a report and proposed amendments to rule 2.420, Public Access to Judicial Branch Records, addressing the sealing of circuit and county court records in criminal cases.

The Committee proposes adoption of new rule 2.420(e), Request to Make Circuit and County Court Records in Criminal Cases Confidential, as well as several minor changes to subdivisions (c), Exemptions, and (d), Request to Make Circuit and County Court Records in Noncriminal cases Confidential. In addition to the Committee’s proposals, the Court sua sponte has drafted proposed amendments to rule 2.420 addressing the sealing of appellate court records in both non-criminal and criminal cases and addressing several additional matters.

The court invites all interested persons to comment on the proposed amendments, which are available online here.

An original and nine paper copies of all comments must be filed with the court on or before January 15, 2009, with a certificate of service verifying that a copy has been served on the address below, as well as a separate request for oral argument if the person filing the comment wishes to participate in oral argument, which may be scheduled in this case:

Judge Judith Kreeger
Chair, Committee on Access to Court Records
c/o Steve Henley
Office of the State Court Administrator
Supreme Court Building
500 South Duval Street
Tallahassee 32399-1900

The committee chair has until March 16, 2009, to file a response to any comments filed with the court.

Source:
Amendments to rules governing access to judicial branch records

See also:
Panel offers rules on which court records should be available online

Proposed amendments dealing with sealing court records and documents

In Re: Sealing of Court Records and Dockets

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sealed records are for the convenience of the court -- to cover up bad decisions, incompetence, and injustice to the people who stand in front of the judiciary to be judged.

Always say NO to sealed records!

Anonymous said...

I agree. This is outrageous. Sealed criminal case files? Keeping the dirty secrets behind closed doors, wheeling and dealing?

Why are there protections for those who break the laws?

And, what else are they hiding.....hmmmmmmmmm?

What happened to OPEN RECORDS LAWS?

Anonymous said...

Courts are funded by the public. Records should not be sealed!