WSR 01-16-002

RULES OF COURT

STATE SUPREME COURT


[ July 17, 2001 ]

IN THE MATTER OF THE ADOPTION OF THE AMENDMENTS TO GR 22 )

)

 ORDER

NO. 25700-A-713

     The JIS Committee having recommended the adoption of the proposed amendment to GR 22, and the Court having considered the amendment and comments submitted thereto, and having determined that the proposed amendment will aid in the prompt and order administration of justice;

     Now, therefore, it is hereby

     ORDERED:

     (a) That the amendment as attached hereto is adopted.

     (b) That the amendment will be published in the Washington Reports and will become effective October 1, 2001.

     DATED at Olympia, Washington this 17th day of July 2001.
     Alexander, C.J.
     Smith, J.

      Sanders, J.
     Johnson, J.

      Chambers, J.
     Madsen, J.

      Bridges, J.
     Ireland, J.

      Owens, J.


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.

COMMENT


     A party shall not be required to provide a residence address in the publicly available case record. Pattern forms shall be modified, as necessary, to reflect the intent of this rule. Parties to a family law case must provide a service or contact address that will be publicly available.


     (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.

COMMENT


     This rule shall not prohibit making an index of family law case records generally available to the public in electronic form. Electronic access to family law case records is limited to responses to specific requests. However, JIS Data Dissemination Policy prohibits the release of information, which will have the effect of providing access to lists of individuals, which will be used for the purpose of facilitating a profit making activity.


     (2) Restricted Access. The Confidential Information Form, Sealed Financial Source Documents, Domestic Violence Information Form, Notice of Intent to Relocate required by R.C.W. 29.09.440, 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, Notice of Intent to Relocate required by R.C.W. 29.09.440, 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, which may be submitted by a party as financial source documents under the provisions of section (e) of this rule.

COMMENT


     Documents not meeting the definition of "Sealed Financial Source Documents" or that otherwise meet the definition but have not been submitted in accordance with (e)(1) are not automatically sealed. Section (e)(3) provides authority for the court to seal documents containing restricted personal identifiers upon motion of a party, or on the court's own motion during a hearing or trial.

    
     (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.

COMMENT


     See comment to (d)(3) above.


     (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), or access is restricted under section (c)(2).


COMMENT


     If a party files documents containing "restricted personal identifiers" without following the procedure for sealing those documents provided in section (e), such documents shall be publicly available in the case record. Access to documents specifically listed in section (c)(2) is restricted. Those documents are only available to the public under the provisions of subsections (2) and (3) below.

     (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.

     Reviser's note: The typographical errors in the above material occurred in the copy filed by the State Supreme Court and appear in the Register pursuant to the requirements of RCW 34.08.040.

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