Opinion ID: 796936
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Order Denying Motions to Seal Complaint

Text: 20 Along with her complaint, Beverly filed two motions in the district court seeking to seal the complaint and other documents filed in the case or to proceed under a pseudonym. See R. docs. 2,3. As an alternative, she requested that documents filed in the case not be placed on PACER, the court's internet filing website. In support of her motion, Beverly argued that because she has been denied access to Joseph, she was not able to speak to him prior to filing the lawsuit. She maintained, however, that he would be profoundly embarrassed if the details related in the complaint were to become publicly available. Id. doc. 3 at 3. And she argued that releasing the complaint to the public would constitute[ ] a profound invasion of her own privacy. Id. A magistrate judge denied both motions, holding that Beverly failed to demonstrate any basis for sealing documents filed in the case. Beverly appealed the decision to the district court judge, who upheld it by order dated December 16, 2005, concluding that the magistrate's decision was not contrary to law. 21 Whether judicial records and other case-related information should be sealed or otherwise withheld from the public is a matter left to the sound discretion of the district court. Nixon v. Warner Commc'ns, Inc., 435 U.S. 589, 599, 98 S.Ct. 1306, 55 L.Ed.2d 570 (1978). Accordingly, we will not disturb the district court's decision to keep the case file public unless we have a definite and firm conviction that [it] made a clear error of judgment or exceeded the bounds of permissible choice in the circumstances. Moothart v. Bell, 21 F.3d 1499, 1504 (10th Cir.1994) (quotation omitted). Beverly fails to convince us under this standard that the district court abused its discretion in denying the relief requested in her motions. 22 Courts have long recognized a common-law right of access to judicial records. Nixon, 435 U.S. at 597, 98 S.Ct. 1306; Lanphere & Urbaniak v. Colorado, 21 F.3d 1508, 1511 (10th Cir.1994). This right, however, is not absolute. The presumption of access ... can be rebutted if countervailing interests heavily outweigh the public interests in access. Rushford v. New Yorker Magazine, Inc., 846 F.2d 249, 253 (4th Cir.1988). The party seeking to overcome the presumption bears the burden of showing some significant interest that outweighs the presumption. Id. We agree with the district court that Beverly failed to demonstrate a basis for sealing the complaint or other documents in the case. The complaint contains a detailed history of Beverly's on-going feud with her family and discloses that Joseph has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. We are not convinced, however, that Beverly's privacy concern with respect to this information is sufficiently critical to outweigh the strong presumption in favor of public access to judicial records. Cf. James v. Jacobson, 6 F.3d 233, 239 (4th Cir.1993) (holding that plaintiffs should have been permitted to use pseudonyms so as to prevent their children from learning the true identity of their biological father). We also note that much of the information contained in Beverly's complaint appears to have been disclosed previously in the public probate court proceedings, further undermining her privacy concerns.