Fresno Superior Court Sealing & Redaction Procedures

Records may be filed under seal only with a court order and after compliance with California Rules of Court 2.550 and 2.551; the parties’ agreement or stipulation alone is insufficient.

B. Parties seeking to file records under seal must follow California Rules of Court, rules 2.550 and 2.551. No records may be filed under seal without a court order. The court will not permit a record to be filed under seal based solely on the agreement or stipulation of the parties.

A sealing order must be sought by noticed motion or, when appropriate, ex parte application, and in civil cases the filing must be calendared with a hearing date, department, and time or it will be rejected.

C. An order allowing filing records under seal will only be issued on noticed motion, or, in the appropriate circumstances, ex parte application. In civil cases, the party seeking the sealing order must obtain a date and time for the hearing of the motion or application from the law and motion clerk. E-filed motions or ex parte applications without a calendared hearing date, department, and time will be rejected.

Records proposed for sealing must be conditionally lodged under seal when the sealing motion or application is made, unless good cause excuses lodging or the records were already lodged.

D. The records that a party is requesting be placed under seal must be lodged conditionally under seal in conformity with California Rule of Court, rule 2.551(d) and Local Rule 4.1. when the motion or application is made, unless good cause exists for not lodging them or the records has previously been lodged.

Filings that refer to conditionally sealed or sealed material must include a public redacted version and a complete unredacted version conditionally lodged under seal, with the prescribed cover legend on the public version.

F. Any motion or application, any opposition, and any supporting documents referring to material lodged conditionally under seal, or material that has been ordered sealed, must be filed in a public redacted version and lodged in a complete, unredacted version conditionally under seal. The cover of the redacted version must identify it as “Public—Redacts materials from conditionally sealed record” or “Public – Redacts Sealed Material,” as appropriate. (Effective January 1, 2021, New)

A noticed motion under Code of Civil Procedure section 237 is required for personal identifying information of trial jurors sealed by the court.

personal juror identifying information of trial jurors that has been sealed by the court pursuant to Code of Civil Procedure § 237, a noticed motion in accordance with that section is required.

Financial institution account statements are confidential and available only to the Court and its personnel for review, with further disclosure permitted only by court order.

The Court shall keep the financial institution account statements confidential, except such shall be available to the Court and Court personnel for use in reviewing accountings and reports and shall be subject to further disclosure only upon order of the Court.