Court Opinion

ID: 9782459
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 18:40:33.827857+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:35:01.337056
License: Public Domain

CRONE, Judge,
concurring.
I fully agree with Judge Najam’s decision. I write separately, however, because I feel that this decision should be published to underscore the importance of complying with Indiana Administrative Rule 9(G)(l)(b)(xviii) by using the parties’ initials instead of their full names in Review Board case captions and opinions.
In a recent ease before this Court, L.M. v. Review Board of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, 951 N.E.2d 301 (Ind.Ct.App.2011), the Review Board, represented by the Attorney General, filed a motion requesting an order that “this Court publish the names of the parties, both individuals and employing units, in this, and in all future cases involving the Department.” In the published opinion in that case, the panel chose to use the parties’ names instead of initials and attempted to justify the same under existing rules and statutes. I believe that choice was contrary to law.
To better understand my position, it would be helpful to consider the following legal provisions that govern the confidentiality of certain information in Review Board cases. Indiana Administrative Rule 9(G)(1) says, “The following information in case records is excluded from public access and is confidential: ... [(b) ](xviii) All records of the Department of Workforce Development as declared confidential by Ind. Code § 22-4-19-6.” Indiana Code Section 22-4-19-6 says,
Except as provided in subsections (d) and (f) [which are not relevant here], information obtained or obtained from any person in the administration of this article and the records of the department relating to the unemployment tax or the payment of benefits is confidential and may not be published or be open to public inspection in any manner revealing the individual’s or the employing unit’s identity, except in obedience to an order of a court or as provided in this section.
Ind.Code § 22-4-19-6(b). Finally, Administrative Rule 9(G)(4)(d) says,
Orders, decisions, and opinions issued by the court on appeal shall be publicly accessible, but each court on appeal should endeavor to exclude the names of the parties and affected persons, and any other matters excluded from public access, except as essential to the resolution of litigation or appropriate to fur*605ther the establishment of precedent or the development of the law.
(Emphasis added.)
It is important to note that the Indiana Supreme Court adopted Administrative Rule 9(G)(l)(b)(xviii) at the specific request of a former Chief Judge of this Court. On August 6, 2009, that judge wrote a letter to Chief Justice Randall Shepard that reads as follows:
In recent months, our administrative staff has been struggling with how to best ensure compliance with Administrative Rule 9 in appeals arising from unemployment compensation decisions of the Review Board of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. Indiana Code section 22-4-19-6 makes the records of the Department of Workforce Development relating to the payment of benefits confidential, but it is not referenced in Administrative Rule 9. As it currently stands, Administrative Rule 9(G)(1)(b) requires that information “excluded from public access pursuant to Indiana statute” is confidential. For the sake of clarity to litigants and the courts, I recommend that the Rule’s list of records excluded from public access under Administrative Rule 9(G)(l)(b)(i)-(xvii) be expanded to include specific reference to Review Board matters and Indiana Code section 22^-19-6.
I also ask that the Clerk be directed to immediately begin treating the entire case file in Review Board matters as excluded from public access, in much the same way that the Clerk handles case records in juvenile and paternity matters. As a practical matter, such treatment of Review Board cases will be much less cumbersome on the Clerk’s office, which currently routes every Review Board order not filed on light green paper to this Court for an order to the parties to re-file their documents in accordance with the procedures of Trial Rule 5(G) and Appellate Rule 9(J).
Not coincidentally, the Indiana Supreme Court’s Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure adopted Administrative Rule 9(G)(l)(b)(xviii) on September 15, 2009, to clarify the rule and specifically include the Department of Workforce Development records, and that provision became effective on January 1, 2010. It is difficult to discern how the author of the letter requesting the adoption of Administrative Rule 9(G)(l)(b)(xviii) also could have authored L.M., which ignores the existence of that letter and contradicts its content.
To reiterate, in L.M. the Review Board filed a motion requesting an order that “this Court publish the names of the parties, both individuals and employing units, in this, and in all future cases involving the Department.” The Review Board stated that it had “not disclosed the names of individuals and employing units in appeals of Review Board decisions to the Indiana Court of Appeals and the Indiana Supreme Court” since June 2009 in compliance with an order from this Court issued in two prior cases. The Review Board further stated that it “now suggests that a proper interpretation of Indiana Code section 22-4-19-6 is that it protects unemployment records from public access and from use while that information resides with the Department” but that “the names of individuals and employing units need not be kept confidential in actions involving the court system in an otherwise public proceeding.” (Emphasis added.)
In its decision in L.M., another panel of this Court addressed the Review Board’s motion to publish the names of the parties as follows:
Indiana Code section 22^-19-6 is directed to the Department of Workforce Development. The statute initially *606states that employers are to “keep true and accurate records containing information the [Department considers necessary” and that the records are open to inspection by an authorized representative of the Department. Ind.Code § 22-4-19-6(a). It then imposes the following obligation on the Department:
(b) ... [I]nformation obtained or obtained from any person in the administration of this article and the records of the department relating to the unemployment tax or the payment of benefits is confidential and may not be published or be open to public inspection in any manner revealing the individual’s or the employing unit’s identity, except in obedience to an order of a court or as provided in this section.
This is essentially the same obligation that has been imposed on the Department since 1947.
Pursuant to this statute, unemployment records within the Department have always remained confidential. However, once a case was appealed to this Court, and despite the obligations of section 22-4-19-6, which have existed for over sixty years, the Attorney General (who represents the Review Board), employers, employees, other attorneys before this Court, and both the Indiana Supreme Court and this Court routinely disclosed the full names of the parties in pleadings and in opinions on appeal.
On January 1, 2010, Administrative Rule 9(G), which concerns information in court records that is excluded from public access, was amended to incorporate by reference Indiana Code section 22-4-19-6. This amendment has led some to believe that we are now required to keep the names of the parties confidential on appeal. Others disagree. Since January 1, 2010, there have been sixteen reported cases from this Court in which the Review Board is named a party. Four of those cases have used the full names of the parties. See Koewler v. Review Bd. of Ind. Dep’t of Workforce Dev., 951 N.E.2d 272 (Ind.Ct.App.2011); Lush v. Review Bd. of Ind. Dep’t of Workforce Dev., 944 N.E.2d 492 (Ind.Ct. App.2011); Wolf Lake Pub. Inc. v. Review Bd. of Ind. Dep’t of Workforce Dev., 930 N.E.2d 1138 (Ind.Ct.App. 2010); Value World Inc. of Ind. v. Review Bd. of Ind. Dep’t of Workforce Dev., 927 N.E.2d 945 (Ind.Ct.App.2010).
Section 22-4-19-6(b) includes an exception for “an order of a court,” and Administrative Rule 9(G)(4)(d) provides that although courts on appeal “should endeavor to exclude the names of parties and affected persons, and any other matters excluded from public access,” they may disclose names “as essential to the resolution of litigation or appropriate to further the establishment of precedent or the development of the law.” Although there are some who believe that disclosing the names of the parties in this case does not meet either provision, we note that using initials or other generic identifiers in every case makes one virtually indistinguishable from another. For example, the designation the Clerk’s Office gave this case is “L.M. v. Review Board.” A search of our docket by litigant name yields over 100 cases designated “Review Board.” If we use L.M., the somewhat more descriptive initials of the claimant in this case, a search of the docket yields thirty-four cases already given that designation.
In sum, Administrative Rule 9(G) merely incorporated Section 22-4-19-6 as it had been interpreted for decades. With that in mind, reading the authority granted by Administrative Rule 9(G)(4)(d) together with section 22-4-19-6(b)’s exception for court orders and considering the Review Board’s inter*607pretation of its own obligations under the statute as well as the interpretation of the statute by the Indiana Supreme Court and this Court in countless cases for over sixty years, we believe it is appropriate for this Court to use the full names of parties in routine appeals from the Review Board.
951 N.E.2d at 304-06 (footnote omitted).
I disagree with this analysis in several respects. First, the history lesson regarding Indiana Code Section 22-4-19-6 is irrelevant, given that the statute specifically applies to the Department and not this Court. The much more recently enacted Administrative Rule 9(G)(l)(b)(xviii) does apply to this Court, however, and I believe that we must follow it until it is repealed by the Indiana Supreme Court.
Second, as for the complaint that “using initials or other generic identifiers in every case makes one case virtually indistinguishable from another,” that may be true as far as the case captions are concerned, but our written opinions are easily search-able online by interested members of the bar and public. In any event, I do not believe that minor annoyances are sufficient grounds for disregarding a rule adopted by our supreme court, and I do not believe that disclosing the names of the parties in unemployment cases is “essential to the resolution of litigation or appropriate to further the establishment of precedent or the development of the law” for purposes of Administrative Rule 9(G).
Third, to the extent L.M. suggests that Indiana Code Section 22-4-19-6(b)’s exception for “an order of a court” authorizes our disclosure of the parties’ names in written opinions, I would simply note that the statute applies only to the Department and that an “order” is not the same thing as an “opinion,” as Administrative Rule 9(G) makes clear.
More generally, I am dubious about the propriety of a single panel of this Court issuing a ruling on a motion in a single case that will affect the privacy rights of unemployment litigants in future cases. Such issues must be governed by relevant procedural rules and written opinions interpreting those rules. As far as I am aware, the confidentiality issue was not raised by the L.M. parties before the Review Board or in their appellate briefs.
Our Court has recently debated the use of names instead of initials in Review Board cases and has been unable to reach a consensus. A member of our Court appeared before the Indiana Supreme Court’s Records Management Committee on May 13, 2011, to request the amendment of Administrative Rule 9(G)(1)(b) (xviii) to allow the use of parties’ full names in Review Board cases. The committee denied my colleague’s request.
Presently, I do not see how Administrative Rule 9(G) and Indiana Code Section 22-4-19-6 can be read to allow the disclosure of the full names of unemployment claimants and employers in decisions issued by this Court. The Clerk of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, and Tax Court for the State of Indiana agrees with my interpretation of Administrative Rule 9(G)(l)(b)(xviii), as evidenced by its caption for this case in this Court’s electronic docket: “Company v. Review Board.” I have no position on the propriety of or the wisdom behind the rule as written, but I believe that we must follow it until such time as it is repealed by our supreme court. I would encourage our supreme court to visit this issue by court opinion or rule change to give proper guidance in and finality to this matter.