Anstead v. Virginia Mason Medical Center

Opinion

THE HONORABLE JOHN C. COUGHENOUR 1 2 3 4 5 6 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON 9 AMY ANSTEAD, CASE NO. C21-0447-JCC 10 Plaintiff, ORDER 11 v. 12 VIRGINIA MASON MEDICAL CENTER, et al., 13 Defendants. 14 15 This matter comes before the Court on Plaintiff’s unopposed motion to seal (Dkt. No. 16 194)the exhibits attached to the Declaration of Elizabeth A. Hanley (Dkt. No. 195) in Support of 17 Plaintiff’s Opposition to Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment. (Dkt. No. 189.) While the 18 public has a common law right to inspect and copy public records, including those from judicial 19 proceedings, these rights are not absolute. They must yield when (1) sealing a document serves a 20 compelling interest, (2) that is substantially likely to be harmed if the document is not sealed, and 21 (3)there are no less restrictive alternatives for protecting the interest. See United States v. Doe, 22 870 F.3d 991, 998 (9th Cir. 2017). Given the sensitive nature of the medical health information 23 and non-public data contained in the exhibits at issue, these criteria are met here. Accordingly, 24 Plaintiff’s motion to seal (Dkt. No. 194) is GRANTED and the Clerk is DIRECTED to maintain 25 Docket Number 195 under seal. 26 1 DATED this 27th day of June 2023. A 2 3 4 John C. Coughenour 5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

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