|
Court News Ohio
New Rule
Adopted to Protect Personal Information in Juvenile and Domestic Cases
By Dan Trevas
November 23, 2015
The Ohio Supreme Court has adopted an amendment to the Rules of
Superintendence that would require local courts to protect sensitive
personal information contained in the records of juvenile and domestic
relations civil proceedings.
The final amendment comes after the Supreme Court’s Advisory Committee
on Children and Families received public comment from 20 individuals
and associations including the Ohio Association of Domestic Relations
Judges, the Ohio Public Defender, and the Ohio Clerk of Courts
Association. The new amendment requires each local court, in
conjunction with the clerk, to determine the manner by which sensitive
documents are designated and maintained.
The amendment, Sup.R. 44(C)(2)(h), will restrict the following
sensitive documents from public access by not defining them as a “case
document”:
Health care records
Drug and alcohol reports
Guardian ad litem reports
Home investigation reports
Evaluations and reports relating to child custody,
allocation of parental rights and responsibilities, parenting time,
companionship and visitation
Domestic violence assessments, not including
petitions for civil protection orders or criminal charges in another
court
Supervised parenting time, companionship, visitation
or exchange information
Financial records and disclosure statements
Asset appraisals and evaluations
The following records in these proceedings will remain accessible:
Dockets
Complaints
Responses
Answers
Motions
Decisions
Judgment Entries along with Orders
The protected information would be accessible only to parties and their
legal representatives in these proceedings. Analogous to the way
records in civil commitment proceedings in probate court are treated,
clerks of court would continue to enter each document on the docket to
maintain the integrity of the case record, however, non-parties will
not have access to sensitive family information that relates to health,
abuse, financial, and familial history.
The amendment was proposed by the Advisory Committee’s Subcommittee on
Family Law Reform Implementation after it researched practices in other
states, surveyed Ohio courts on the current treatment of family
information, and conferred with professionals in juvenile and domestic
relations law. The amendment mirrors the recommendations of the Ohio
Task Force on Family Law and Children and the Supreme Court’s Report
and Recommendations on Family Law Reform. These reports can be found on
the Supreme Court’s website.
Only minor changes were adopted after the comment period that opened in
December 2014 and closed in February 2015. The Advisory Committee told
the Court the amendment codifies existing Ohio court practices,
minimizes the risk of injury to the child, and protects individual
privacy rights while balancing judicial accountability and
accessibility. It will take effect on Jan. 1, 2016.
|
|
|
|
