Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Sealing & Redaction Procedures

CRITICALCivil cases

Unless law, court rule, or court direction requires otherwise, filed documents may include only the specified limited personal identifiers; parties alone are responsible for redacting them, and the Prothonotary and Clerk of Courts will not review compliance.

(iii) Unless required by an applicable law or rule of court or unless so directed by the court, parties or their attorneys may include in documents filed of record only (a) the last four digits of a social security number or taxpayer identification number; (b) the month and year of a person's birth; and (c) the last four digits of financial account information. Responsibility for redacting personal identifiers rests solely with the parties and documents will not be reviewed by the Prothonotary or Clerk of Courts for compliance with this requirement.

CRITICAL

Parties must not file both a redacted and an unredacted version of the same document.

Parties are expressly prohibited from filing two versions of any document, i.e., a redacted version and an unredacted version.

CRITICAL

Counsel and unrepresented parties must keep confidential information out of filed legal papers and include relevant confidential information on the approved AOPC Confidential Information Form.

Counsel and unrepresented parties must adhere to the PUBLIC ACCESS POLICY OF THE UNIFIED JUDICIAL SYSTEM OF PENNSYLVANIA and refrain from including confidential information in legal papers filed with the Clerk of Courts or the Court whether filed electronically or in paper format. Counsel and unrepresented parties must include confidential information relevant to the case on the approved AOPC Confidential Information Form.

WARNINGCriminal cases

Original questionnaires of impaneled jurors must be kept in a sealed file and not destroyed before the specified trial term unless the Court orders otherwise.

All original questionnaires of all impaneled jurors shall be retained by the Court Administrator in a sealed file and shall not be destroyed until the commencement of the trial term one (1) year after the trial term in which they were selected, unless otherwise ordered by the Court.

INFO

Confidential juror questionnaires must be kept securely by the court-appointed official custodian and are not public records.

Confidential Juror Information Questionnaires (questionnaires) will be maintained securely in the office of >> the courtappointed official custodian. The questionnaires shall not constitute a public record.