Jackson County Court of Common Pleas, General & Domestic Relations Divisions Sealing & Redaction Procedures

CRITICAL

A person alleging that disclosure of identifying information would jeopardize their or their child's health, safety, or liberty may request that their address be placed under seal and mark each address requested to be sealed.

☐ Pursuant to R.C. 3127.23(D), I allege that my health, safety, or liberty or that of my child(ren) would be jeopardized by the disclosure of identifying information to my spouse or the public. Therefore, I request that my address be placed under seal. I have marked the corresponding box next to each address I am requesting to be sealed.

CRITICAL

Personal identifying information must be redacted before filing, including from attached exhibits and addenda.

A. In accordance with Sup. R. 45(D), social security numbers and other personal identifying information, whether relevant to the case or not, must be redacted from documents before the documents are filed with the Court. This requirement includes exhibits or addenda attached to filings such as preliminary judicial reports, financial reports, and medical records, etc.

CRITICAL

When personal identifiers are redacted, the party must submit or file them on a separate Clerk-provided form, which will be kept from public view.

D. Pursuant to Sup. R. 45(D)(2), when personal identifiers are redacted from a document submitted to a Court or filed with the Clerk, the party must submit or file that information a separate form provided by the Clerk and this information will be held in a format that cannot be viewed by the public (Appendix I).

CRITICAL

Documents filed in domestic relations cases that contain sensitive personal information must be maintained in a separate family file, which is a paper court record; the directly accessible public record is the record available on the Clerk’s website or public terminal.

33.2 Documents filed in any domestic relations case containing sensitive personal information shall be kept in a “family file”, separate from the public case file otherwise maintained by the Clerk of Courts. The family file shall be maintained by the Clerk of Courts in such manner and in such location as the Clerk deems appropriate. The family files shall be the paper Court records held by the Clerk of Court’s. The Court record that shall be available by direct access shall be the record available to the public by accessing the Clerk of Court’s public website or by the public terminal located outside the Clerk of Court’s Office.

CRITICAL

The family file must contain the listed financial, health, assessment, evaluation, report, record, and appraisal materials, as well as other items directed by the Court.

33.3 The family file shall contain items as follows: 1. Affidavit of indigency, financial records and financial disclosure statements regarding property, debt, taxes, incomes and expenses, including collateral source documents attached to or filed with records and statement, including, but not limited to, income tax returns; 2. Health care documents, including, but not limited to, physical health reports psychological assessments and any other mental health or counseling documents; 3. Drug and alcohol assessments, screens and reports; 4. Guardian Ad Litem reports, including collateral source documents attached to or filed with the reports; 5. Home studies, including collateral source documents attached to or filed with the studies; 6. Child custody evaluations, including collateral source documents attached to or filed with the evaluations; 7. Domestic violence reports and screenings including, but not limited to, risk assessments. 8. Supervised parenting time/companionship/visitation records and reports, including, but not limited to, exchange records and reports; 9. Genetic testing relationship reports; 10. Asset appraisals/valuations; 11. Other items directed by the Court.

CRITICAL

Documents filed in the public case file that contain Social Security numbers or other individual personal identifiers must be redacted by the filing party.

33.5 If there are documents which are to be filed in the public case file containing social security numbers or any other individual personal identifiers, the same shall be redacted by the filing party on those documents in the public case file.

CRITICAL

For good cause, the Court may order confidential documents filed under seal by the Clerk; those documents are inaccessible without Court permission.

33.9 Notwithstanding the provisions of this rule, the Court, for good cause, may order certain confidential documents to be filed under seal by the Clerk. Said documents would not be accessible to any person without permission of the Court.

CRITICAL

Specified healthcare, treatment, guardian ad litem, financial, appraisal, and legally confidential documents are confidential and inaccessible to non-parties and attorneys of record unless admitted as evidence, subject to the stated caveat.

37.3 Any of the following types of documents filed with the Clerk shall be deemed confidential documents not accessible to non-parties and attorneys of record unless admitted as evidence in a hearing or trial in this Court and not otherwise deemed to be confidential: • Healthcare documents, including but not limited to physical health, psychological health, psychiatric health, mental health, and counseling documents. • Drug and alcohol use assessments and treatment facility/agency reports. • Guardian Ad Litem reports in general division cases. • Financial records regarding property, debt, taxes, income and expenses including collateral source documents filed with records and statements. • Asset appraisals and evaluations. • Any other documents deemed to be confidential pursuant to State or Federal Law including rules of the Court.

CRITICAL

Social Security numbers and other information excluded from public records must be redacted, and the Clerk must file the original petition under seal; the quoted text ends before specifying what follows.

6. 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. Upon filing of a Petition, the Clerk shall file the original under seal for

CRITICAL

The clerk must maintain this document in the confidential portion of the case and restrict access to the record.

Please maintain this document in the CONFIDENTIAL portion of this case. Access to the record must be restricted to avoid access to the closed portion of the record.

WARNING

Check the box requesting that an address be sealed only if disclosure of the address or identifying information would jeopardize the health, safety, or liberty of you or your children.

ONLY CHECK THE FOLLOWING BOX IF YOU BELIEVE THAT THE HEALTH, SAFETY, OR LIBERTY OF YOURSELF OR YOUR CHILD(REN) WOULD BE JEOPARDIZED BY THE DISCLOSURE OF YOUR ADDRESS OR IDENTIFYING INFORMATION.

WARNING

A party alleging that disclosure of identifying information would jeopardize health, safety, or liberty may request that an address be sealed and must mark the corresponding box for each address requested to be sealed.

Pursuant to R.C. 3127.23(D), I allege that my health, safety, or liberty or that of my child(ren) would be jeopardized by the disclosure of identifying information to my spouse or the public. Therefore, I request that my address be placed under seal. I have marked the corresponding box next to each address I am requesting to be sealed.