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Friday, September 29, 2006

Courts - More on: An end to secret dockets in Florida?

This ILB entry from Sept. 10 contained a quote from the St. Petersburg Times:

When state Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Lewis heard that court cases were being kept off the public docket in jurisdictions around Florida, his response was one of shock. "I almost swallowed my tongue," Lewis told the Miami Herald.
Since then, numerous additional cases have turned up. The Palm Beach Post reported yesterday, in a story I picked up thanks to the Kentucky Divorce Law Journal:
DELRAY BEACH — The divorce of Leslie Alexander, billionaire owner of the Houston Rockets basketball team, is one of a handful of local divorces sealed and excised from public view for years as if it never even existed.

In 2003, Alexander split with wife Nanci, after agreeing to pay her $150 million. The couple asked that their entire divorce file be sealed, and a senior circuit judge, Allen Kornblum, obliged.

The order stood until last week when another circuit court judge, Art Wroble, ruled it was sealed improperly and ordered the Alexanders' divorce opened.

The ruling comes in the wake of reports about supersealed cases being kept around Florida, including divorces and civil suits of the rich and connected -ó contrary to the state's public records law and the spirit of openness at every courthouse door. The chief judge of Florida, Fred Lewis, has said he about swallowed his tongue when he heard the reports and is acting swiftly to change things. * * *

Florida judges can legally seal sensitive material, such as financial or medical information, but not entire divorce files and not without some kind of public notice, which did not happen in the Alexanders' case. * * *

It is unclear exactly what Judge Kornblum accepted as a the legal reason to seal the file.

Kornblum is deceased. And the key pieces of paper explaining such decisions are now missing from the public file.

"It's highly unusual," said the chief guardian of the court records, Clerk and Comptroller Sharon Bock. "Whenever a file or document is missing it's of great concern to us."

Bock said "search protocols" are underway trying to find the missing materials. She speculated they may be in attorneys' files.

Weissman said he was surprised the Alexander divorce was kept entirely out of public view.

Before the unsealing of the divorces, if a person entered the case number or the names of the parties, the clerk's computer system would indicate no case existed. The case numbers and names have since been restored.

Palm Beach County's secret dockets pale in comparison to those of Broward County. A Miami Herald investigation there this year revealed more than 400 cases kept on a secret docket in Broward County, including dozens of divorces and civil suits involving politicians, judges and lawyers.

Chief Judge Kroll said she soon expects directives from the Florida Supreme Court about sealing procedures. The high court is considering a dramatic and swift response: possibly requiring judges to hold hearings and give advance public notice before sealing a court case.

In the nascent proposals, judges around the state would have to explain in writing what information in a sealed court case is being kept from the public.

This recalls the Orange County casino case earlier this year, where an entire suit had been placed under seal, including the docket entries, until an enterprising reporter broke the story.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 29, 2006 07:44 AM
Posted to Courts in general