Amendments to Fl. Rule of Jud. Admin. 2.420

954 So. 2d 16, 2007 WL 1012924
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedApril 5, 2007
DocketSC06-2136
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 954 So. 2d 16 (Amendments to Fl. Rule of Jud. Admin. 2.420) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Amendments to Fl. Rule of Jud. Admin. 2.420, 954 So. 2d 16, 2007 WL 1012924 (Fla. 2007).

Opinion

954 So.2d 16 (2007)

In re AMENDMENTS TO FLORIDA RULE OF JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION 2.420 — SEALING OF COURT RECORDS AND DOCKETS.

No. SC06-2136.

Supreme Court of Florida.

April 5, 2007.

Gary Devenow Fox, Chair, Rules of Judicial Administration Committee, Miami, Florida, William C. Vose, Chair, Florida Bar Criminal Procedure Rules Committee, Orlando, Florida, Scott M. Dimond of Dimond, Kaplan and Rothstein, P.A., Miami, Florida, and John F. Harkness, Jr., Executive Director, J. Craig Shaw, Bar Liaison, The Florida Bar, Tallahassee, Florida, for Petitioner.

Carol Jean LoCicero and Deanna K. Shullman of Thomas and LoCicero, PL, Tampa, Florida on behalf of Florida Media Organizations; Carol M. Touhy, Deland, Florida on behalf of the Honorable Diane M. Matousek, Clerk of the Circuit Court, Seventh Judicial Circuit; Arthur I. Jacobs, General Counsel, Florida Prosecuting Attorneys *17 Association, Jacobs and Associates, P.A., Fernandina Beach, Florida and Penny H. Brill, Assistant State Attorney, Eleventh Judicial Circuit, Miami, Florida on behalf of the Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association; John Eddy Morrison, Assistant Public Defender, Eleventh Judicial Circuit, Miami, Florida, Robert Dewitt Trammell, General Counsel for Florida Public Defender Association, Inc., and Nancy Daniels, Public Defender, Second Judicial Circuit, Tallahassee, Florida on behalf of Florida Public Defender Association, Inc.; W. Hampton Keen of Lytal, Reiter, Clark, Fountain and Williams, LLP, West Palm Beach, Florida on behalf of Don Fountain, Jr.; the Honorable Judith L. Kreeger, Circuit Judge, Eleventh Judicial Circuit, Chair, Committee on Access to Court Records, Miami, Florida on behalf of Supreme Court Committee on Access to Court Records, Responding with comments.

PER CURIAM.

At the request of the Court, the Florida Bar's Rules of Judicial Administration Committee (RJA Committee) has filed an out-of-cycle report proposing procedures for sealing court records. See Fla. R. Jud. Admin. 2.140(f). This report addresses highly serious concerns first identified by Florida news media reports about hidden cases and secret dockets, sometimes called "supersealing." These reports identified practices that, however unintentional, were clearly offensive to the spirit of laws and rules that ultimately rest on Florida's well-established public policy of government in the sunshine. We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 2(a), Fla. Const. As explained below, the public's constitutional right of access to court records must remain inviolate, and this Court is fully committed to safeguarding this right.

The Florida Constitution mandates that the public shall have access to court records, subject only to certain enumerated limitations, see art. I, § 24, Fla. Const., and this Court has adopted rules of procedure recognizing this right of public access to court records. See Fla. R. Jud. Admin. 2.420. These rules identify a narrow category of court records where public access is automatically restricted by operation of state or federal law or court rule, see Fla. R. Jud. Admin. 2.420(c)(7)-(8), such as in child dependency cases. See, e.g., § 39.0132(3)-(4), Fla. Stat. (2006); Fla. R.App. P. 9.146(f). Otherwise, our rules strongly disfavor court records that are hidden from public scrutiny. The rules provide only a limited veil that is restricted to a second category of court records where a set of carefully defined interests are involved. See Fla. R. Jud. Admin. 2.420(c)(9); see also Barron v. Fla. Freedom Newspapers, Inc., 531 So.2d 113 (Fla. 1988).

With these principles in mind, the Court today adopts on an interim, emergency basis the amendments to rule 2.420 set forth herein. These amendments provide a procedural vehicle for making circuit and county court records in noncriminal cases confidential under rule 2.420(c)(9), on the one hand, and for unsealing court records that have been made confidential under that rule, on the other hand. The following are among the procedures we adopt:

1. A request to make court records in noncriminal cases confidential must be made by written motion.
2. A public hearing must be held on any contested sealing motion and may be held on certain uncontested sealing motions.
3. A sealing order issued by a court must state with specificity the grounds for sealing and the findings of the court that justify sealing.
*18 4. All sealing orders must be published to the public.
5. A nonparty may file a motion to vacate a sealing order.
6. A public hearing must be held on any contested motion to vacate a sealing order and may be held on certain uncontested motions to vacate.
7. A court may impose sanctions on any party who files a sealing motion without a good-faith basis and without a sound factual and legal basis.
8. Most significant for our purposes here, by mandating that the case number, docket number, or other identifying number of a case cannot be made confidential, the removal from public view of all information acknowledging the existence of a case is expressly not allowed.

These procedures, which are intended for use in noncriminal cases, are adopted in the same spirit of openness and transparency that has informed the Court's case law and rules of procedure throughout its modern history.[1] Their adoption reaffirms our courts' commitment to ensuring that the public has proper access to court records and case information, and this will prevent a recurrence of the practices that gave rise to the present concerns. The procedures we adopt today are not the Court's final statement in this area. Given the importance of this issue, the Court will continue to work with the appropriate committees to achieve uniform statewide procedures to address all aspects of this issue. Specifically, as for criminal case records, we refer the matter back to the appropriate committees for additional study. We also refer to the appropriate rules committees the issue of whether procedures similar to those adopted here are needed to address requests to seal appellate court records.

PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In response to media reports concerning hidden cases and secret dockets, the Florida Association of Court Clerks and Comptrollers (FACCC), at the Court's invitation, suggested amendments to the following rules: Florida Rules of Judicial Administration 2.051 (renumbered 2.420[2]), Public Access to Judicial Branch Records, and 2.075 (renumbered 2.430[3]), Retention of Court Records, and Florida Rule of Criminal Procedure 3.692, Petition to Seal or Expunge. After the Court reviewed the proposals, Chief Justice Lewis notified the RJA Committee and the Criminal Procedure Rules Committee (CPR Committee) that the Court would like those committees to consider the proposals and to file out-of-cycle proposed rule amendments on an expedited basis to address the concerns raised by the media. Further, the Chief Justice, on behalf of the Court, directed the chief judges of the circuit courts to promptly take the following action: (1) establish a procedure for reviewing sealed cases or sealed court records in their circuits similar to the procedures already established in certain circuits; (2) submit a report explaining the status of their review of such cases or records; and (3) describe the steps taken, or to be taken in the immediate future, to address this issue.

The chief judges subsequently filed their reports.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
954 So. 2d 16, 2007 WL 1012924, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/amendments-to-fl-rule-of-jud-admin-2420-fla-2007.