From the Hotline

By Teri Henning, General Counsel
Pennsylvania Newspaper Association

Q: A local Magisterial District Judge has been redacting birth dates, witness names and other information from court files before providing them to us. Is that OK?

A: No. There is a strong presumption of access to court records and proceedings and this applies to records in the case files at District Judge’s offices as well. District Judges must permit access to and provide copies of all records in their case files, with very limited exceptions (for example, Pennsylvania law protects the identities of child victims of physical or sexual abuse).

District Judges cannot selectively redact dates of birth, addresses or other pieces of information contained in these files.

After hearing of this problem, the PNA contacted the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts to address our members’ concerns. The AOPC responded quickly by issuing a memo to all District Judges affirming public access to court files.

Click here to find a copy of the AOPC memo on access.

Significantly, the AOPC memo includes the following:

In summary, courts must permit public access to all information/documents in the court’s official paper case files, unless the court is aware of specific controlling legal authority (e.g., 42 Pa.C.S. 5988 which restricts access to identities of child victims of sexual or physical abuse) or an order to seal issued by the court of common pleas or an appellate court that would prohibit the release of certain information.

Reporters should feel free to take this memo to any District Judge who is inappropriately restricting access to case files. The memo also attaches the AOPC policy on public access to magisterial district court records, which can also be found at www.aopc.org/index/PublicAccess/indexpubaccess.htm under "District Justice Data Public Access Policy."

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