December 22, 2017

On January 8, 2018, a new statewide public records access policy goes into effect which will govern how Court records at all levels will be available for viewing. Parties to actions and their counsel of record will have one level of access to Court dockets, both in person and online, and the general public will have another, more restrictive level of access. The goal of the policy is to balance the public’s Constitutional right to open access to the Courts against litigants’ and related parties’ rights to protect confidential information.

Attorneys and self-represented parties will be responsible for submitting documents to the Court with either a “Confidential” designation as specified in the policy, or to redact certain “confidential” information within the document, again, as specified in the policy, prior to filing documents with the Court. Nevertheless, all Opinions, Orders of Court and the docket list will be viewable online without restriction.