Montgomery County, TX Sealing & Redaction Procedures

CRITICALCivil cases

Any document containing Protected Health Information that is offered in Court must be sealed for exhibit filing with the District Clerk and for the appellate record, whether or not it is redacted or admitted.

It is further ORDERED that any document containing Protected Health Information, whether redacted or not, which is offered in Court, whether admitted as evidence or not, will be sealed for purposes of filing exhibits with the District Clerk and for the purpose of the appellate record.

CRITICALCivil cases

Documents containing sensitive data must have that data redacted before attorneys or parties file them.

Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 2lc defines Sensitive Data as “consist[ing] of; (1) a driver’s license number, passport number, social security number, tax identification number, or similar government-issued personal identification number; (2) a bank account number, credit card number, or other financial account number; and (3) a birth date, a home address, and the name of any person who was a minor when the underlying suit was filed”, and prohibits attorneys and parties from filing documents “unless the sensitive data is redacted.”

CRITICALCivil cases

Any document containing Protected Health Information offered in Court must be sealed for filing exhibits with the District Clerk and for the appellate record, whether redacted or not and whether admitted or not.

It is further ORDERED that any document containing Protected Health Information, whether redacted or not, which is offered in Court, whether admitted as evidence or not, will be sealed for purposes of filing exhibits with the District Clerk and for the purpose of the appellate record.

WARNINGCivil cases

The District Clerk may restrict unredacted documents containing sensitive information from being posted on the internet without further court order.

ORDERED that the District Clerk may, without further order of the Court, restrict documents containing sensitive information which is not redacted from being posted on the internet.

WARNINGCivil cases

If a filed document violates the redaction rule, the clerk may require or allow the party to resubmit a redacted substitute document, which may be posted online.

It is further ORDERED that if a filed document contains unredacted sensitive data in violation of the rule, the clerk may require or allow the party to resubmit a redacted, substitute document pursuant to Rule 21c(e), which may be posted on the internet.