Northern District of Texas Sealing & Redaction Procedures

CRITICALCivil cases

Parties must file motion for leave to seal with specific identification and detailed analysis

a Party seeking to file a specific document under seal must move for leave to do so and must: a. identify precisely what information (pages, lines, etc.) the Party wants sealed; b. conduct a line-by-line, page-by-page analysis explaining and briefing why

WARNINGCivil cases

Two standards for sealing: good cause for discovery materials, stricter balancing test for judicial records.

The Fifth Circuit explained that “courts should be ungenerous with their discretion to seal judicial records, which plays out in two legal standards.... The first standard, requiring only good cause, applies to protective orders sealing documents produced in discovery. The second standard, a stricter balancing test, applies [o]nce a document is filed on the public record – when a document becomes a judicial record.” Id. at 419 (cleaned up) (emphasis added); see also id. (noting that, “at the adjudicative stage, when materials enter the court record, the standard for shielding records from public view is far more arduous” (emphasis removed)).

WARNINGCivil cases

Trade secrets and confidential informant identities are valid reasons to seal documents.

The panel acknowledged that, “even under the stricter balancing standard, litigants sometimes have good reasons to file documents (or portions of them) under seal, such as protecting trade secrets or the identities of confidential informants.” Id. at 419.

WARNINGCivil cases

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently warned that – where, “increasingly, courts are sealing documents in run-of-the-mill cases where the parties simply prefer to keep things under wraps” – “the working presumption is that judicial records should not be sealed.” Le v. Exeter Fin. Corp., 990 F.3d 410, 417, 419 (5th Cir. 2021) (emphasis added).

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently warned that – where, “increasingly, courts are sealing documents in run-of-the-mill cases where the parties simply prefer to keep things under wraps” – “the working presumption is that judicial records should not be sealed.” Le v. Exeter Fin. Corp., 990 F.3d 410, 417, 419 (5th Cir. 2021) (emphasis added).