IN THE MATTER OF THE ADOPTION OF NEW RULE GR 22

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ORDER NO. 25700-A-699

     The JIS Committee having recommended the adoption of proposed new rule GR 22, and the Court having approved the proposed new rule for publication;

     Now, therefore, it is hereby

     ORDERED:

     (a) That pursuant to the provisions of GR 9(f), the proposed new rule as attached hereto is to be published for comment in the Washington Reports, Washington Register, Washington State Bar Association and Office of the Administrator for the Court's websites expeditiously.

     (b) The purpose statement as required by GR 9(d), is published solely for the information of the Bench, Bar and other interested parties.

     (c) Comments are to be submitted to the Clerk of the Supreme Court by either U.S. Mail or Internet E-Mail by no later than April 30, 2001. Comments may be sent to the following addresses: P.O. Box 40929, Olympia, Washington 98504-0929, or Lisa.Bausch@courts.wa.gov. Comments submitted by e-mail message must be limited to 1500 words.

DATED at Olympia, Washington this 8 day of February 2001.

Gary L. Alexander

Chief Justice

GENERAL RULE 22. ACCESS TO FAMILY LAW COURT RECORDS

     (a) Purpose and Scope of this Rule. This rule governs access to family law case records, whether the records are maintained in paper or electronic form. The policy of the courts is to facilitate public access to court records, provided that such access will not present an unreasonable invasion of personal privacy, will not permit access to records or information defined by law or court rule as confidential, sealed, exempted from disclosure, or otherwise restricted from public access, and will not be unduly burdensome to the ongoing business of the courts.

     (b) Definition and Construction of Terms.

     (1) "Case record" means any record pertaining to a particular case or controversy maintained by the court in paper or electronic format.

     (2) "Family law case" means any case filed under Chapters 26.09, 26.10, 26.12, 26.18, 26.21, 26.23, 26.26, 26.27, 26.50, and 26.52 RCW.

     (3) "Personal Privacy" is unreasonably invaded only if disclosure of information about the person or the family would (a) be highly offensive to a reasonable person and (b) is not of legitimate concern to the public.

     (4) "Public access" means unrestricted access to view or copy a requested document filed in a court case.

     (5) "Restricted personal identifiers" means a party's social security number, a party's driver's license number, a party's telephone number, social security number of a child and date of birth of a child.

     (6) "Sealed financial source documents" means income tax returns, W-2s and schedules, wage stubs, credit card statements, financial institution statements, check registers, as well as other financial information sealed by court order.

     (c) Access to Family Law Case Records.

     (1) General Policy. Except as provided in RCW 26.26.200 and subsections (c)(2) and (c)(3) below, all case records shall be open to the public for inspection and copying upon request. The Clerk of the court may assess fees, as may be authorized by law, for the production of such records. Individual documents may be requested electronically.

     (2) Restricted Access. The Confidential Information Form, Sealed Financial Source Documents, Domestic Violence Information Form, and any Personal Information Sheet necessary for Judicial Information System purposes shall only be accessible as provided in sections (f) and (g) herein.

     (3) Excluded Records. This section (c) does not apply to records, documents, or papers that are sealed as provided in GR15 (c)(2)(B), or to which access is otherwise restricted by law.

     (d) Restricted Personal Identifiers Not Required-Except. Parties to a family law case shall not be required to provide restricted personal identifiers in any document filed with the court or required to be provided upon filing a family law case, except:

     (1) "Sealed financial source documents" filed in accordance with GR ___(e)(1) below:

     (2) The following forms: Confidential Information Form, Domestic Violence Information Form, Vital Statistics Form, Law Enforcement Information Form, Foreign Protection Order Information Form, and any Personal Information Sheet necessary for Judicial Information System purposes.

     (3) Court requested documents that contain restricted personal identifiers.

     (e) Sealing Financial Source Documents-Cover Sheet.

     (1) Financial source documents shall be submitted to the clerk under a cover sheet designated "SEALED FINANCIAL SOURCE DOCUMENTS" for filing in the case record of family law cases.

     (2) All financial source documents so submitted shall be automatically sealed by the clerk. The coversheet or a copy thereof shall remain part of the public court file.

     (3) The court may order that any financial source documents containing restricted personal identifiers be sealed if they have not previously automatically been sealed pursuant to this rule.

     (f) Access by Courts, Agencies and Parties to Restricted Documents.

     (1) Unless otherwise provided by statute or court order, the following persons shall have access to all records and files in family law cases:

     (A) Judges, commissioners, and other court personnel carrying out the business of the court.

     (B) Any state administrative agency of any state that administers programs under Title IV-A, IV-D, or IV-E of the federal Social Security Act.

     (2) Except as otherwise provided by statute or court order, the following persons shall have access to all documents filed in a family law case, except the Personal Information Sheet, Vital Statistics Form, Confidential Information Form, Domestic Violence Information Form, Law Enforcement Information Form, and Foreign Protection Order Form.

     (A) Parties of record as to their case.

     (B) Attorney as to cases where they are attorneys of record.

     (g) Public Access to Restricted Case Records.

     (1) Information filed by a party in any file or record, that is not a sealed financial source document as defined by (b)(6), shall be available to the public unless sealed by the court under section (e)(3).

     (2) The parties may stipulate in writing to allow access to the public to any files or records otherwise restricted under section (c)(2) above.

     (3) Any person may file a motion, supported by an affidavit showing good cause, for access to any document otherwise restricted under section (c)(2) above, or to be granted access to such documents with specified information deleted. Written notice of the motion shall be provided to all parties in the manner required by the Superior Court Civil Rules. If the person seeking access cannot locate a party to provide the notice required by this rule, after making a good faith reasonable effort to provide such notice as required by the Superior Court Rules, an affidavit may be filed with the court setting forth the efforts to locate the party and requesting waiver of the notice provision of this rule. The court may waive the notice requirement of this rule if the court finds that further good faith efforts to locate the party are not likely to be successful.

     (4) The court shall allow access to restricted documents, or relevant portions of restricted documents, if the court finds that the public interests in granting access or the personal interest of the person seeking access outweigh the privacy interests of the parties or dependent children. If the court grants access to restricted documents, the court may enter such orders necessary to balance the personal privacy interests of the parties or dependent children with the public interest or the personal interest of the party seeking access, consistent with this rule.

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