Rivera v. Pratt, LLC

Background

The defendant filed a letter in response to an order requiring confirmation that the parties had agreed on dates for depositions before the case-management conference. The defendant separately asked for permission to file the letter under seal, meaning outside the publicly accessible court docket.

The letter referred to medical information concerning a nonparty deponent. The filing request asserted that publicly sharing the information could violate the nonparty’s privacy interests, including protections identified in the request as applying under HIPPA.

Court’s Analysis

The court explained that filed documents are generally presumed to be accessible to the public. A party seeking to overcome that presumption must show that sealing is necessary to protect an important interest and is narrowly limited to that purpose. The court noted that courts regularly seal medical information because a person’s privacy interest in their own medical information can outweigh public access.

Ruling

The court found that the sensitive medical information of a nonparty justified provisional filing of the letter under seal. The court stated that it would review the submission and then decide whether it should remain sealed or whether the parties should propose narrowly tailored redactions. The opinion ended with the court’s order that this be done.