CALIFORNIA FAMILY LAW
...Procedure Before Trial/Hearing
......Sealing Files
 23 Cards On This Topic:
  • Sealing court files.
  • Sealing of court files.
  • Procedures for filing records under seal.
  • Motion to seal files before privately compensated temporary judge shall be heard by presiding judge.
  • Reports containing psychological evaluations or custodial recommendations shall be confidential within court files.
  • Upon [ex parte] request, court shall order pleading listing parties' financial assets and liabilities and their location or identifying information sealed; unsealing on good cause. [Held Unconstitutional]
  • Uniform Parentage Act records may be sealed.
  • The People may assert a public interest to unseal documents used at F/L trial or submitted as a basis for adjudication.
  • The sealed records rules apply to discovery materials "used at trial or submitted as a basis for adjudication."
  • Financial privacy must be balanced against the federal constitutional right of access to court records.
  • Protective orders regarding use of documents exchanged in proceedings are not subject to unsealing motions.
  • 1000s of irrelevant pages should not have been analyzed under sealing rules as they had no bearing on court's adjudicatory function and were out of the ambit of public's right of access to court records.
  • Trial ct. properly refused to destroy reports referring to H's juvenile ct. records where authors did not inspect any documents therein and reports were completed before the sealing of the juvenile records.
  • Sealing orders are subject to continuing review and modification by the trial judge who sits in the same judicial proceeding.
  • Fam. Code §2024.6 is unconstitutional on its face.
  • While court does possess inherent authority to restrict temporarily public access to court records, it is limited power, exercisable under exceptional circumstances and on good cause showing.
  • Fam. Code §214 only authorizes closing, under some circumstances, of court hearings and proceedings, and is not generally applicable to issue of sealing court files.
  • Order sealing file cannot be basis for invasion of privacy tort action against attorney for other spouse.
  • Order sealing record properly lifted as unlawful prior restraint on press.
  • Files in dissolution action are presumptively public record. Dissolution actions are in public forum which may result in disclosure of private information.
  • Party seeking to deny public access to court records must show compelling reasons why and to what extent these records should remain private; parties' stipulation insufficient.
  • Premarital health examination reports confidential.
  • Petitions and reports in proceedings relating to freeing of minor from parental control are confidential.


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