Favorite Quotes

"Once you walk into a courtroom, you've already lost. The best way to win is to avoid it at all costs, because the justice system is anything but" Sydney Carton, Attorney. "There is no one in the criminal justice system who believes that system works well. Or if they are, they are for courts that are an embarrassment to the ideals of justice. The law of real people doesn't work" Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law Professor.



Saturday, January 9, 2010

A Federal study shows a lack of standards for sealing cases.

The study found that there is "seldom" a public record of why a sealing was justified, and notes that in cases sealed from the start, "there will almost never be an opportunity for public challenge, because there will be no public record of the case."
The study also found that some courts intentionally leave sealed cases out of the electronic case management and filing system, meaning the public would never know a case was filed. It also notes that it did not count cases with "highly redacted docket sheets" and every document sealed as a sealed case.


Links:http://www.rcfp.org/newsitems/index.php?i=11199
http://www.fjc.gov/public/pdf.nsf/lookup/sealcafc.pdf/$file/sealcafc.pdf

No comments: