If a party alleges in an affidavit or a pleading under oath that the health, safety or liberty of a party or minor child would be jeopardized by disclosure of identifying information appearing in any document filed with the court, the clerk shall seal the identifying information and shall not disclose the information to any other party or to the general public. Disclosure may be ordered only after a hearing in which the court takes into consideration the health, safety, and liberty of the party or minor child and determines that the disclosure is in the interest of justice. The court is authorized to enter any orders in furtherance of the purposes of this section. A party filing an action for parentage by assisted reproduction or gestational carrier agreement may request an order sealing the records from the public to protect the privacy of the child and the parties. Adoption records are confidential pursuant to 18-A M.R.S. § 9-310.
Rule 102.Confidentiality
Adopted July 1, 2016 · Last verified July 8, 2026
In one sentenceRule 102 lets the court seal identifying information in a Family Division filing when a sworn statement shows disclosure would jeopardize a party's or child's health, safety, or liberty, permits disclosure only after a hearing weighing those interests, and separately allows sealing records in assisted-reproduction or gestational-carrier parentage actions to protect the child's and parties' privacy.
Full Text of Rule 102
Advisory Committee’s Notes & Reporter’s Notes
Advisory Note - July 2016
The first sentence of additional language reflects a provision in the Maine Parentage Act that allows parties who wish to obtain a “birth order” to establish parentage and parental rights and responsibilities for a child conceived through assisted reproduction to ask the court to seal the record of the proceeding. See 19-A M.R.S. § 1928(1)(B). The second sentence simply reminds the court and the parties of the statutory imposition of confidentiality on adoption records.
Advisory Notes — June 2008
Rule 102 is based on 4 M.R.S. §§ 8-A & 8-B and 19-A M.R.S. §1753(5) and follows FAM DIV III.K. It appears in the beginning of this chapter, as the possibility of confidentiality is an important qualification to be understood early in case processing. If identifying information is sealed, the clerk’s office must serve the party who sought confidentiality with all the filings made by the other party. In drafting this rule, the committee initially considered adding a requirement that the party seeking confidentiality, if not represented by counsel, provide an alternate mailing address for use by the court and by the other party unless otherwise ordered by the court. This was intended to avoid adding workload to clerks’ offices. The Family Division staff recommended that this requirement not be added, as it anticipates that clerks’ offices can handle any necessary forwarding without great difficulty.
Plain-English Summary
When a party alleges in an affidavit or a sworn pleading that disclosing identifying information filed with the court would jeopardize the health, safety, or liberty of a party or a minor child, the clerk seals that information and withholds it from other parties and the public. Disclosure can happen only after a hearing at which the court weighs the health, safety, and liberty interests at stake and finds disclosure serves the interest of justice, and the court can enter whatever orders further protect those purposes. A party bringing a parentage action based on assisted reproduction or a gestational carrier agreement can separately ask the court to seal the record from the public to protect the child's and the parties' privacy, and adoption records remain confidential under 18-A M.R.S. § 9-310 regardless.
Frequently Asked Questions
When can identifying information in a Family Division filing be sealed?
When a party alleges in an affidavit or sworn pleading that disclosure would jeopardize the health, safety, or liberty of a party or a minor child; the clerk then seals it and withholds it from other parties and the public.
Can sealed Family Division information ever be disclosed?
Only after a hearing at which the court considers the health, safety, and liberty interests involved and determines disclosure is in the interest of justice.
Are adoption records confidential under Rule 102?
Adoption records are confidential under 18-A M.R.S. § 9-310, a separate statutory protection the rule points to rather than something Rule 102 itself creates.
Source & verification. The rule text and Advisory Committee’s Notes / Reporter’s
Notes are reproduced verbatim from the official Maine Rules of Civil Procedure (Me. R. Civ. P. 102), prescribed by the
Supreme Judicial Court of Maine (4 M.R.S. § 8, the Rules Enabling Act). The plain-English summary is original and written by us. Last verified July 8, 2026. ·
Official source
Also known as: sealing family court records Maineconfidential filing Family Divisionassisted reproduction privacy Maine