Auglaize County Court of Common Pleas Sealing & Redaction Procedures

CRITICAL

A petitioner’s notification form containing identifiers in a protection order case must be kept in a confidential, nonpublic file and not disclosed to the respondent or respondent’s counsel.

The Court orders on Protection Order cases any Petitioner filing that form with those identifiers shall be maintained by the Clerks in a confidential file, shall not be a public record, and shall not be disclosed to the Respondent of Respondent’s Counsel.

CRITICAL

When personal identifiers are omitted from a case document, the information must be submitted on Form 5.1 and kept as a non-public record in a separately marked confidential envelope.

The parties when omitting personal identifiers from a case document shall submit that information to the Court or Clerk on a separate form designated by the Court in this rule as Form 5.1. Such completed forms shall only be accessible as provided for in the Rules of Superintendence, which will be deemed by the Court as a non-public record. The information will be kept in a separate envelope within the case filed and marked as follows: “CONFIDENTIAL FILE – To be opened by Court/Clerk Personnel ONLY.”

CRITICAL

Personal identifiers required for an order must be placed on a separate document, maintained like the identifier information sheet, and transmitted to the appropriate recipient as needed to carry out the order.

When issuing orders or other documents that require personal identifiers such as on arrest warrants or garnishment orders, those personal identifiers shall be provided on a separate document and not be a part of the case document. That document shall be maintained by the Clerk in the same manner as the personal identifier information sheet, and shall be transmitted by the Clerk to the Sheriff, law enforcement agency, garnishee, or other appropriate party or person as needed to carry out the warrant or order as appropriate.

CRITICAL

The filing party and counsel must remove personal and private information from filed documents, including exhibits and addenda; the Clerk is not responsible for removing it.

It is the responsibility of the filing party and counsel to remove personal and private information from a document filed with the Clerk of Court’s office. The responsibility of the filing party and counsel to remove personal and private information extends to and includes exhibits or addenda attached to filings, such as preliminary and final judicial reports, which itemize state tax liens that use social security numbers as case numbers, or medical records. The Clerk of Courts and Deputy Clerks shall have no responsibility for the removal of any personal and private information filed in a public document in the Clerk of Court’s office.

CRITICAL

A filing in a civil or criminal case may not contain a person’s full Social Security number, although the last four digits may be included at the filer’s discretion if relevant; the stated warrant exception applies.

(B)(2)(a) Effective immediately, no party or any representative of any party shall cause to be filed in any civil or criminal case any pleading or filing that contains the full social security number of any person, and the Clerk shall not accept for filing any pleading or filing that violates this rule, except as provided in Rule 6(B)(2)(b) below. A party or representative thereof may, at their discretion, file a pleading or filing containing the last four numbers of a person’s social security number, if such number is relevant to the case or controversy.

CRITICAL

An arrest-warrant, summons, or bench-warrant request and the issued warrant or summons may include the full Social Security number and date of birth; after return of service, the Clerk must place a copy redacting the first five Social Security-number digits in the file and retain the original separately with restricted access.

(B)(2)(b) Notwithstanding this rule, any request for issuance of an arrest warrant, summons or bench warrant, and the actual warrant or summons issued thereafter, may include the full social security number and date of birth of the person named therein. The Clerk shall, upon return of service of the warrant or subpoena replace the original with a redacted copy (ies) upon which the Clerk shall redact the first five numbers of such social security number, retaining the original document (s) in a separate envelope maintained with the file, with said documents open only to inspection to judicial staff, clerk’s staff or upon Court order.

CRITICAL

Before e-filing, filers must remove or redact specified personal and private information from documents.

Before e-filing, counsel, parties and other persons must make sure the first five digits of a social security number, financial account numbers, medical records, driver’s license numbers, and similar private information are removed/redacted from the pleading, motion, or document.

CRITICAL

The filing party is solely responsible for redacting personal, confidential, or private information.

Redactions of personal, confidential, or private information is solely the responsibility of the party filing the document.

CRITICAL

Social Security numbers and other information that must be excluded from the public record must be redacted under the applicable court rules.

All social security numbers and other information that must be excluded from public record shall be redacted in accordance with the rules of this court and the Rules of Superintendence.

WARNING

Personal information in pre-June 30, 2009 filings and records or transcripts received from another court is public, but an affected person may petition for removal; if granted, the information is kept separately as non-public and a redacted copy is placed in the public file.

Any personal and private information in documents filed prior to June 30, 2009, is considered public. Any personal and private information in records or transcripts transmitted to this court from another court is considered public. A party or an attorney in a case, or any other person whose personal and private information is contained in a public record of this court may petition the court for the removal of personal and private information, and if the request is granted, the personal and private information will be removed from the file-stamped document and placed in a separate envelope and deemed a non-public record. A redacted copy of the document will be placed in the public case file.