Rule 5-III.Sealed or Confidential Documents

Court records are public by default, and Rule 5-III spells out what it takes to overcome that default. Absent statutory authority permitting sealing on its own, no case or document may be sealed without a written court order. A party who wants to file something under seal must accompany it with a motion to seal, or point to an order that already permits sealing, and the document is treated as sealed while that motion is pending. In electronically filed cases, the motion to seal itself must be e-filed in a version redacted for the public record, with the material to be sealed filed separately alongside it, and any later sealed filings in the case must be labeled as sealed and filed electronically as well. Skip the motion to seal, and the document lands in the public record regardless of what the filer intended.

Rule 5-III(b) covers a related but distinct situation: materials submitted for the court's confidential in camera review, rather than filed under seal outright. Anything submitted for in camera inspection that is subject to a protective order, an existing sealing order, or a pending motion to seal must be delivered to the clerk securely sealed, with a conspicuous notation such as "DOCUMENT UNDER SEAL" or "DOCUMENTS SUBJECT TO PROTECTIVE ORDER" on the outside.

The rule also covers the logistics. The face of the envelope or box needs the case number, the court's title, a descriptive title of the document, and the case caption — unless that information is itself part of what has been ordered sealed — along with the date of the sealing order or a reference to the statute permitting it. Sealed materials that are not filed electronically must go to the clerk's office during regular business hours; leaving them at the courthouse security desk is not allowed.