LGR 15. DESTRUCTION, SEALING, AND REDACTION OF COURT RECORDS

                 (c) Sealing or Redacting Court Record

                                    (1) Motions to Destroy, Redact or Seal. Motions to destroy, redact or seal all or part of a civil or domestic relations court record shall be presented, in accordance with GR 15 and GR 22, to the assigned judge or if there is no assigned judge, to the Seattle Chief Civil Judge for civil cases with a Seattle designation and to the Chief Judge in Kent for civil cases with a Kent designation, the Chief Unified Family Court Judge for family law cases with children, with the following exceptions. 
                                                    (A) Guardianship, Trusts and Probate: (Title 11) Motions may be presented to any regularly sitting (but not a pro tem) Ex Parte and Probate Commissioner. 
                                                    (B) Vulnerable Adult Protection Order: (RCW 74.04) Motions may be presented to any regularly sitting (but not a pro tem) Ex Parte Commissioner.
                                                    (C) Minor/Incapacitated Settlement: The motion shall be presented to the judicial officer who approved the minor settlement unless the judicial officer who approved the minor settlement is a pro tem commissioner, in which case the motion shall be brought before the assigned judge or any regularly sitting Ex Parte and Probate Commissioner. 
                                                    (D) Name Changes Based on Domestic Violence: If no assigned judge, motion may be presented by the requesting party to any regularly sitting (but not a pro tem) Ex Parte and Probate Commissioner.
                                                    (E) Financial Source Documents, Personal Health Care Records and Confidential Reports in Title 26 Cases: In a proceeding brought pursuant to RCW 26, “financial source document”, “personal health care record” and “confidential report” as defined under and submitted in accordance with GR 22 will be automatically sealed by the clerk without court order, if accompanied by the proper cover sheet. See, also, LFLR 5(c) and LFLR 11 with respect to family law court records in general. 
                                    (2) Orders to Destroy, Redact or Seal. Any order containing a directive to destroy, redact or seal all or part of a court record must be clearly captioned as such and may not be combined with any other order; the clerk’s office is directed to return any order that is not so captioned to the judicial officer signing it for further clarification. See also LCR 26(c), LCR 79 (d)(6), LFLR 5(c) and LFLR 11. The clerk is directed to not accept for filing and to return to the signing judicial officer any order that is in violation of this order.
                                    (3) Motions to Seal/Redact Filed Contemporaneously with Confidential Document(s). 
                                                    (A) Contemporaneously with filing the motion to seal, the moving party shall provide the following as working copies: 
                                                            (i) the original unredacted copy of the document(s) the party seeks to file under seal to the hearing judge in an envelope for in camera review. The words “SEALED PER COURT ORDER DATED [insert date]” shall be written on the unredacted document(s). The following information shall be written on the envelope:

The case caption and cause number; a list of the document(s) under review; and the words “SEALED PER COURT ORDER DATED [insert date].”

                                                            (ii) a proposed redacted copy of the subject document(s). 
                                                            (iii) a proposed order granting the motion to seal, with specific proposed findings setting forth the basis for sealing the document(s). 
                                                    (B) If the hearing judge denies the motion to seal, the judge will file the original unredacted document(s) unsealed with an order denying the motion. The words “SEALED PER COURT ORDER FILED [insert date]” will be crossed out on the unredacted document(s).
                                                    (C) The unredacted document(s) shall not be filed electronically. If submitted through the Clerk’s Working Copies Application, the unredacted document(s) will be placed, by the Clerk’s Office, in an envelope as described above. 
                                                    (D) If the hearing judge grants the motion to seal, in whole or in part, the judge will file the sealed document(s) contemporaneously with a separate order granting the motion. If the judge grants the motion by allowing redaction, the judge shall write the words “SEALED PER COURT ORDER DATED [insert date]” in the caption of the unredacted document before filing. 
                        (e) Motions to Unseal or Examine. See LCR 77(i)(11) with respect to motions to unseal or examine a sealed court record.

[Adopted effective September 1, 2008; amended effective January 1, 2009; January 1, 2009; September 1, 2009; September 1, 2010]