Over 2,300 court records sealed since 2003
From Sunshine Review
10 August 2008
A recent study done by the Tulsa World found Oklahoma district court judges have sealed thousands of records from public view. In fact, since 2003 over 2,300 cases received a judge's order to seal at least one record.
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[edit] Information worth sealing?
The 2,300 records sealed include financial records from companies and hospitals, wrongful death suit settlements, divorce proceedings, protective orders, and name changes.
Previous president of Freedom of Information Oklahoma, Joey Senat, was fairly shocked by the number of sealed records. He stated, ""This is a real indication there are two systems — one for the rich and powerful and one for the rest of us. The public has been left out of this process. One thing we need to remember is that the judges who are signing those orders are elected and the court clerks are elected. If we want our records to stay open and stay available, we need to be aware of who we are electing as court clerks and judges. Open government needs to be the issue."[1]
The World requested information from the state's 77 court clerks, only to discover that just seven of those keep track of sealed records, while 3 were able to provide lists of case numbers. The three providing information included Tulsa County (204 cases with at least 1 record sealed), Oklahoma County (292 cases), and Wagoner County (2 cases).
[edit] New Rules?
In March of 2008, the Oklahoma state Supreme Court attempted to enact new rules relating to the information court clerks keep. Their recommendations included keeping information such as birth dates and home addresses out of public files, while telling filers to leave out references to things such as a person's employment history, financial information, and other personal details.
These rules were met with such opposition from businesses, employers and the media that they were ultimately suspended. Among the criticism was that public information is used to check criminal history and other applicable information.
Administrative director of the courts, Michael Evans, said the state Supreme Court does not have information on sealed records because there simply are no rules that exist to track them.
[edit] "Justice for Sale"
In response to this, Senat stated, "If there is no method of tracking this, how will the public ever know what is going on? This is not what our court system is supposed to do. Justice is better served when it operates in the open."
Equally frustrated over the issue, Mark Thomas of the Oklahoma Press Association said, "It gives the appearance that justice is for sale in Oklahoma, like it was 50 years ago. We should avoid that appearance at all cost. On occasion, there is a valid reason to seal a court record, but it should be an extreme rarity. If the public pays for our court system, then we ought to know who it's being used for. If you want privacy, settle your affairs in private."
