Greene County Court of Common Pleas, General Division Sealing & Redaction Procedures

Sealed documents must be submitted to the Clerk in a sealed envelope whose face includes the case caption, document title, sealing-order date, and the notation “DOCUMENTS UNDER SEAL.”

Sealed documents shall be filed with the Clerk, secured in a sealed envelope, with the face of the envelope containing the case caption, a descriptive title of the document (unless such information has been included among the information sealed), the date of the order permitting the item to be sealed, and a conspicuous notation stating “DOCUMENTS UNDER SEAL.”

Personal and private information may not be included in filed documents, including exhibits and addenda, unless it is necessary and relevant to the case.

2. Filing parties and legal counsel shall not include personal and private information in any document filed with the Court unless such inclusion is necessary and relevant to the case. This requirement extends to and includes exhibits or addenda attached to filings, such as preliminary and financial reports which itemize state liens that use social security numbers as case numbers, or medical records.

When a Social Security number must be included, only its last four digits may be used.

a. Social Security Numbers: If an individual's social security number must be included in a document, only the last four (4) digits of that number shall be used.

When a financial account number must be included, only its last four digits may be used.

b. Financial Account Numbers: If financial account numbers must be included in a document, only the last four (4) digits of these numbers shall be used.

When a minor child's name must be included, only the child's initials may be used.

c. Names of Minor Children: If the name of a minor child must be included in a document, only the initials of the child’s name shall be used.

Entries and orders containing personal information must be partially redacted, unless all identifier digits are absolutely necessary, in which case the prescribed submission process applies.

5. Entries and orders that necessarily include personal and private information shall have such personal data and identifiers partially redacted as outlined in this rule, unless it is absolutely necessary to include all digits in a personal identifier. In the event that it is absolutely necessary to include all digits in a personal identifier, the entries and orders must be submitted to the Clerk of Court's as follows:

When full personal identifiers are absolutely necessary in an entry or order, both the original and a redacted copy must be submitted to the clerk, and the redacted copy must carry the specified caption and redaction notations.

a. The original document that includes the personal and private information; and b. A redacted copy that indicates in the caption above the title of the 13 ===== PAGE 14 ===== action “Redacted Copy, Personal and Private Information Redacted” and has the notation “redacted” at all places in the document where such information was removed.

The clerk may refuse an unredacted document that was not submitted in accordance with the personal-information redaction rule.

6. The Clerk of Courts may refuse to accept for filing any document that contains personal and private information that has not been redacted and submitted in accordance with this rule.

When a filing contains confidential, in-camera, or nonpublic exhibits, the filing party must note the confidentiality and file a motion to seal the exhibits or prevent public access.

V. Confidential Information. If a pleading or document contains exhibits that are confidential, are being submitted for an in camera review, or otherwise claimed to not be subject to public inspection, the filing party shall specifically note that in the filing and file a motion to have said exhibits sealed or not made available for public inspection by persons accessing public information in the case management system.

The Clerk must not accept a document for filing under seal unless a motion to seal it has been made and approved by the Court.

The Clerk shall not accept any document to be filed under seal unless a motion to file the document under seal has been made and approved by the Court.

A sealed document must be scanned and entered on the electronic docket as a secured document.

The sealed document shall be scanned and entered as a “secured” document on the electronic docket.

Unless otherwise ordered, documents submitted for in camera review must go directly to the assigned judge or magistrate rather than being filed with the clerk.

Unless otherwise ordered by the assigned Judge or Magistrate, documents submitted for an in camera review shall be submitted directly to the assigned Judge or Magistrate and not filed with the Clerk.

The Clerk must file-stamp the sealed envelope, docket the filing as made under seal, and retain the envelope in the Clerk’s office.

The Clerk shall file stamp the face of the envelope, enter on the docket that the document was filed under seal and retain the envelope in the Clerk’s

Filing parties and counsel alone are responsible for redacting personal identifiers, and the clerk will not review filings for compliance.

4. It is the sole responsibility of the filing parties and counsel to redact these personal identifiers from filed documents. The Clerk of Courts will not review each document for compliance with this rule.

Documents requested to be filed under seal may not be attached to the motion because the motion itself will not be sealed.

The documents that are petitioned to be filed under seal shall not be attached to the motion, as the motion will not be sealed.

The court will sign both the original and redacted journal entries.

c. The Court will sign both journal entries.