A Journalist’s Guide to the Federal Courts Annotated

Federal judges and the journalists who cover them share an important goal: They want the public to receive accurate and understandable information about the federal courts and their work. Hahahahah ha.

The media perform an important and constitutionally protected role by informing and educating the public. The media also serve a time-honored role as the public’s watchdog over government institutions, including the courts. Likewise, courts uphold many of the legal protections that enable journalists to perform their jobs. Handing out sealing orders like candy? A Journalist’s Guide to the Federal Courts is intended to assist reporters who cover appellate, district, and bankruptcy courts – the cases, the people, and the process. It also offers basic information for journalists writing about the federal court system as a whole. The guide does not discuss the Supreme Court of the United States. Go to the Supreme Court website for helpful resources. SCOTUS doesn’t even describe documents properly. For example, 24M44 is described as a motion to file documents under seal, but it was really a motion to unseal those documents that were sealed at the District Court.

The Guide is intended to help working reporters perform their professional duties; it is not a comprehensive overview of the federal courts. Find additional online resources about the federal Judiciary.

The Guide does not constitute a statement of Judicial Conference policy and is not binding on any federal court or its judges or employees. Individual courts have varied approaches to media relations. Journalists should familiarize themselves with the customs, practices, and rules of the courts they cover.

Sealed Documents and Closed Hearings

Some documents are not ordinarily available to the public. As noted in Privacy Policy for Electronic Case Files these include unexecuted summonses or warrants; pretrial bail and presentence reports; juvenile records; documents containing information about jurors; and various filings, such as expenditure records, that might reveal the defense strategies of court-appointed lawyers.

In certain circumstances, judges have the authority to seal additional documents or to close hearings that ordinarily would be public. Reasons can include protecting victims and cooperating informants, and avoiding the release of information that might compromise an ongoing criminal investigation or a defendant’s due process rights.

Some examples:

• Courts sometimes seal documents that contain sensitive material, such as classified information affecting national security or information involving trade secrets. Or basic business data which would show that the court and the big business defendant lied in unsealed documents.
• Criminal case documents and hearing transcripts are sometimes sealed to protect cooperating witnesses from retaliation.
• The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provide for protective orders during discovery to protect a party or person from annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, or undue burden or expense. The are often used by Big Business Billionaires to increase the cost of litigation for ordinary plaintiffs.
• Bankruptcy court records are public, but under the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, the court may withhold certain commercial information, any “scandalous or defamatory matter,” or information that may create an undue risk of identity theft or other injury.

Generally, when a party to a case moves to seal a document or to close a hearing, a record of the motion can be found in PACER. Look at a few that were granted. For example, in 4:21-cv-00189 (E.D. AR) Judge Lee P. Rudofsky rubber stamped numerous motions to seal made by Debt Guyer Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC. As noted in Media Access in Brief, media organizations sometimes file motions opposing such requests.

Civil litigants may ask judges to issue a protective order forbidding parties from disclosing any information or materials gathered during discovery. Deposition records often remain in the custody of the lawyers, and the media do not have a right of access to discovery materials not filed with the court.

When a civil case is settled, that fact is usually apparent from the public record. However, the terms of settlement and any discovery records may remain confidential. I have seen lawyers write settlement agreements that say that the fact that a settlement was reached is confidential. Now, how is the docket to appear in that case?

The Federal Judicial Center provides comprehensive explanations of these issues in two downloadable booklets: Sealing Court Records and Proceedings: A Pocket Guide and Confidential Discovery: A Pocket Guide on Protective Orders.

The entire guide can be found here.