Legal Research

Secret Dockets

By RGault

For several years we have been hearing about "secret dockets" in federal courts - crime-related cases which do not appear in any public list of cases before the court.  The practice was exposed in the Southern District of Florida in 2003, according to this 2004 newspaper article, and declared unconstitutional by 11th Circuit in United States v. Ochoa in October 2005, but it appears to be alive and well in Washington, D.C., according to this study from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press in March 2006. 

This month a Miami Herald report indicates that circuit courts in Broward, Palm Beach, and Pinellas County have "supersealed" certain civil cases and removed them from the public docket.  There appears to be some controversy over whether the judges actually intended for the cases to be removed from the public docket or whether they just wanted personal information in the cases to be kept confidential.

Whether the courts are concerned about personal privacy or witness protection, the existence of secret dockets raises serious constitutional issues.

Posted by Robin Gault

Full post as published by FSU College of Law Library Blog on April 17, 2006 (boomark / email).