Court of Common Pleas of York County, Pennsylvania Sealing & Redaction Procedures

CRITICAL

Filed documents must omit covered personal data identifiers unless an exception applies; if the information must be included, use only the specified partial identifiers.

(d) A filed document in a case shall not contain any of the personal data identifiers listed in this rule unless otherwise required by law or permitted by order of court, or unless redacted in conformity with this rule. The personal data identifiers covered by this rule and the required redactions are as follows: (1) Social Security Numbers. If an individual’s Social Security Number must be included in a document, only the last four digits of that number shall be used; (2) Dates of Birth. If an individual’s date of birth must be included, only the year shall be used; (3) Financial Account Numbers. If financial account numbers must be included, only the last four digits shall be used.

CRITICAL

A filing party seeking to file a document under seal must designate it as sealed in the CountySuite Portal and separately submit a proper request; the designation alone does not seal it.

Documents intended to be filed under seal shall be designated by the filing party as “sealed” in the CountySuite Portal. However, designation of documents as “sealed” does not seal the documents. The filing party must submit a proper request for sealing documents in addition to making the designation in the CountySuite Portal.

CRITICAL

Parties must not file both redacted and unredacted versions of the same document.

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

WARNING

Parties alone are responsible for redacting personal identifiers, and the Prothonotary will not review documents for compliance.

(5) The responsibility for redacting these personal identifiers rests solely with the parties. Documents will not be reviewed by the Prothonotary for compliance with this Rule.

WARNING

For documents handled under this section, filing details and the document title appear in the electronic filing system, while the documents are viewable only by the court, prothonotary staff, and case participants.

The filing details and document title will appear in the electronic filing system. The documents can be viewed only by the court, prothonotary staff, and case participants.

INFO

A party may file under seal a summary reference list matching redacted information to the complete personal data identifiers.

(4) A party wishing to file a document containing the personal data identifiers listed above may file, under seal, a summary reference list indicating the redacted information and their corresponding complete personal data identifiers.