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A good step toward open court files

When state Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Lewis heard that court cases were being kept off the public docket in jurisdictions around Florida, his response was one of shock. "I almost swallowed my tongue," Lewis told the Miami Herald. But then shock turned to action as Lewis enlisted the state's clerks of court to suggest new statewide rules. The clerks have returned with a set of reasonable changes to current practices that would reduce the likelihood of court documents being put out of public reach.

The Florida Association of Court Clerks and Comptrollers draft proposal would sharply restrict the ability of judges to remove all evidence of a case's existence from the public docket. This has been a problem in the Broward Circuit Court in particular, where more than 400 divorce, negligence and other types of civil and criminal cases were wiped from the public record. A Herald investigation found that many of those cases involved politicians, judges and other highly visible or well-connected people.

In Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties, a number of cases that are typically public had been left off the docket as well, although not to the extent it had occurred in Broward. There also did not appear to be a pattern of protecting certain special people from embarrassment or scrutiny.

The recommendations by the clerks organization, supported by both Pinellas County Court Clerk Ken Burke and Hillsborough County Court Clerk Pat Frank, include a process for sealing court files that would require judges to hold an open hearing after the public is provided with due notice. If a judge agrees to seal part of the court record, there would have to be a written order describing in specific terms the parts of the record to be closed.

The proposed rules would not have an effect on those cases that the law designates as confidential, such as adoptions and dependency cases.

The clerks also suggested that the chief judge in every circuit review all cases sealed since 2003 to determine if any cases had been improperly put off limits to the public.

Now the Florida Supreme Court will go through its rulemaking process and determine the final standards. It is important that uniformity be established in the state's court system, and the proposed rules offered by the clerks association are a good place to start.

[Last modified September 9, 2006, 20:28:37]