Opinion ID: 1581877
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Development of Procedures for Sealing Court Records

Text: While the Access Committee was developing its proposed amendments to rule 2.420, the Court issued an opinion in the initial sealing case, In re Amendments to Florida Rule of Judicial Administration 2.420Sealing of Court Records & Dockets, 954 So.2d 16 (Fla.2007). There, in response to Florida news media reports of hidden cases and secret dockets, the Court adopted new rule 2.420(d) [10] to provide a procedure for seeking to seal noncriminal trial court records under rule 2.420(c)(9) [11] and for seeking to unseal those records. 954 So.2d at 17. Because the Rules of Judicial Administration Committee (RJA Committee) had focused only on the sealing of noncriminal court records, the Court declined to adopt suggested procedures that would have broadly required that all sealing orders in criminal cases be kept confidential and not posted in order to protect confidential informants. See id. at 23 n. 13 (declining to adopt proposals by the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association and the Florida Public Defender Association to keep sealing orders in criminal cases confidential in order to protect confidential informants). Rather, the Court asked the RJA Committee to work with the Criminal Procedure Rules Committee (CPR Committee) to propose rule amendments to address the sealing of court records in criminal cases. 954 So.2d at 23. By follow-up letter, the committees were asked to specifically address the concerns raised about the need to protect confidential informants. The Court also asked the RJA Committee to work with the Appellate Court Rules Committee (ACR Committee) to consider the need for rules governing requests to seal appellate court records. Id. In October 2007, the RJA Committee filed its report and proposals, encompassing the work of the three rules committees. The proposals, which were endorsed by the CPR Committee, included new procedures for sealing criminal trial court records. The RJA Committee offered, with the endorsement of the ACR Committee, a brief commentary to rule 2.420 to address the sealing of appellate court records. The RJA Committee's report is the subject of the instant case. Before the RJA Committee's proposals were filed, the Court had sua sponte drafted a new rule to govern the sealing of appellate court records and sought input on the procedures from the chief judges of the district courts of appeal. After the chief judges had commented and after the RJA Committee's report was filed, the Court drafted additional changes to rule 2.420, incorporating most of the RJA Committee's proposals into its proposed amendments. The Court sought comments on the two sets of amendments. A number of comments were filed, including comments from The Florida Bar's Special Joint Committee on Changes to Rule 2.420 (Special Joint Committee), [12] which was created to study the Court's proposals for sealing appellate court records.