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Court policies on sealed and secret information diverge.

Article Excerpt
A wealth of case information--dockets, orders, oral arguments, opinions--is immediately available online with the click of a mouse. Still, some courts keep their cases and records completely hidden from public view--and this is cause for concern, say advocates of open courts.

After media reports last year revealed that cases in Florida were being "supersealed"--so that the case appeared not to exist at all, rather than simply being marked "sealed"--the state supreme court amended procedures on sealing cases, but critics say the problem persists.

Some federal courts seem to be moving toward more openness, but the Eleventh Circuit recently reaffirmed its policy of keeping oral argument transcripts and recordings secret.

The problem of hidden cases in Florida remained largely under the radar until news media broke the story. In April, the Florida Supreme Court adopted amendments--on an interim, emergency basis--to procedures for sealing court records in civil cases. The court noted...

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