Recently, the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Hillsborough County, Florida issued a statement regarding the statutory requirements pertaining to redaction practices and their impact on Hillsborough County Court files.  Effective January 1, 2012, Florida Statute 119.0714(2)(e)(1) requires the Clerk of Court to keep Social Security, bank account, debit, charge, and credit card numbers contained in court records confidential and exempt from public access.  Due to this statutory requirement, there will be a waiting period of three business days for non-party public records requests in order to allow the Clerk time to redact this information.  If the request can be fulfilled in less than three working days, the non-party will be notified by the Clerk’s office.  The file will be held for ten working days from the date of the initial file request.  This recent amendment is expected to filter statewide and affect other Florida courts, as well.

The Florida Supreme Court has also rewritten Rule 2.420 of the Rules of Judicial Administration which addresses access by the public to court records and to administrative records of the judicial branch.  Along with the Florida Constitution and statutes, it regulates what records are open to the public and how they can be reviewed.  The changes apply to all documents filed in all state courts in Florida by all parties, and define a number of critical responsibilities with which all attorneys will have to be familiar and follow. 

Rule 2.420(d)(1)(B) identifies nineteen categories of confidential information that are automatically exempt from a presumption of public access.  These categories include adoption records, Social Security numbers, bank account, charge, debit and credit card numbers and certain medical records.    If the confidential material is within one of the nineteen designated exemptions, the attorney should file a Notice of Confidentiality indicating whether any confidential information is included within the submitted document, specifying the confidentiality provision that applies to the identified information, and identifying the precise location of the confidential information within the document being filed without revealing the information. 

If the Clerk of Court agrees with the Notice, confidentiality must be protected unless otherwise ordered by the Court.  If the Clerk disagrees, he or she must send a notice to the attorney within five days of the filing of the document, and maintain confidentiality for ten days thereafter or until any Motion to Determine Confidentiality is resolved.  If the Clerk disagrees and the attorney has a good faith belief in confidentiality, the attorney should file a Motion to Determine Confidentiality of Court Records.  The Motion must identify the record or portion of the record claimed to be confidential as specifically as possible without revealing the information asserted to be confidential.  Upon receipt of the motion within the ten day period, the Clerk is then required to maintain confidentiality until the Motion is determined or until further order of the Court.  The Court must then hold a hearing on the Motion as soon as practicable, but no later than thirty days from the date the Motion was filed.

If you have any questions on this matter, please contact Mr. Alan C. Kingsley, Esq. Alan practices in the Real Estate Default Group focused on foreclosure services in the Ft. Lauderdale, FL office of Weltman, Weinberg & Reis Co., LPA. He can be reached at 954.740.5242 and akingsley@weltman.com.