Can a victim witness prosecuter ever have their affidavit & court records sealed because of personal information?
Can the victim of a violent crime who has sensitive personal information included in the affidavit and possibly court records ever get those sealed or is there any advice for when this happens?
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3 Answers
It depends on the state you are in. Here., for example, is material in Connecticut”
” 6. What becomes unavailable to the public when a file is sealed by the court?
Only those portions of the file that the judge has ordered sealed. In the event of a partial sealing, certain information in the court file will continue to be available for public inspection.
7. When do sealed materials become available to the public and how will news professionals or members of the public know when a sealed file becomes disclosable?
Materials ordered sealed by the court are disclosable once the sealing order expires. News professionals or members of the public should make note of the date when the sealing order will expire. Please be aware that, in many cases, the information may not be disclosable at any point in the future.
8. What items are automatically sealed by statute?
Generally, communications and records of a party to the action between the following individuals are sealed:
psychologist and patient;
psychiatrist and patient;
battered women’s or sexual assault counselor and victim;
Judicial Branch employee and employee assistance program counselor;
physician, surgeon or health care provider and patient;
marital and family therapist and person consulting such therapist; and,
social worker and person consulting such social worker. ”
Source.
Yes, but such records are really very easy to get into.
Your personal identifiers should have been redacted from any public records before they were made public. I guess this depends on the particular state in which your records are housed, but here in SC, no personal identifiers are allowed in the filed records, to include but not limited to SS#s, street addresses, phone numbers, date of birth.
Here’s a link to what my state did about that: http://www.sccourts.org/whatsnew/displaywhatsnew.cfm?indexID=400
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