Full Article
Indiana Court Times
June 26, 2014
by Ruth Reichard
Some cases are embarrassing for the parties involved—with free, easy public access to many court records via the Internet, some people rue the day they ever decided to go to the courthouse and file a case.
For a variety of reasons, the parties would rather their employers, in-laws, landlords, or bank loan officers were oblivious to their legal history. Because of this, trial courts sometimes find themselves presented with a motion to seal the case records—whether it is a protection order case, a debt collection case, a dissolution of marriage case, or another matter that is potentially regrettable.
But once a case has been filed, what can a judge do? Can we “put the toothpaste back into the tube?”
The default answer to this question is “no—not easily.” After all, Article 1, Section 12 of the Indiana Constitution states in pertinent part that “All courts shall be open . . .” The first section of Indiana’s Access to Public Records law, at Ind. Code 5-14-3-1, likewise contains a strong, unequivocal statement that “it is the public policy of the state that all persons are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those who represent them as public officials and employees.” Further, the statute “shall be liberally construed to implement this policy and place[s] the burden of proof for the nondisclosure of a public record on the public agency that would deny access to the record . . .” Nevertheless, section 5.5 of the statute does offer a legal means by which courts can seal records.
So, assuming that a party has properly filed a motion to seal the case records under Ind. Code 5-14-3-5.5, can a judge simply decide it has merit and grant the motion without a hearing?