Bernstein v. Banco Popular North America
- Beth Freeman
- 5:25-cv-02204
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 3
In Bernstein v. Banco Popular North America, Judge Freeman granted plaintiffs’ motion to keep health information under seal.
The order protects the plaintiffs’ confidential health information by keeping the specified exhibits under seal; it also limits public access to those exhibits.
What happened
In Bernstein v. Banco Popular North America, the plaintiffs asked to seal exhibits filed with a motion to extend pretrial deadlines. The defendants did not respond.
The court applied the standard for sealing filings connected to pretrial scheduling and found that the exhibits contained confidential health information. It also found that the requested sealing was limited to the information at issue and that no less restrictive option would protect it.
Judge Beth Labson Freeman granted the plaintiffs’ requests and ordered the exhibits filed at ECF No. 65 to remain under seal.
The detailed version
- Bernstein v. Banco Popular North America · No. 5:25-cv-02204
- Beth Freeman
- June 6, 2025
Background
The plaintiffs filed an administrative motion to seal exhibits submitted with their motion to extend pretrial deadlines. The defendants did not respond.
Legal standard
The court explained that filings connected to the merits of a case generally require compelling reasons for sealing, while filings only tangentially related to the merits may be sealed for good cause. Because this motion concerned relief from a pretrial schedule, the court applied the good-cause standard. The court also considered the Northern District of California’s requirements that sealing requests be supported when necessary and narrowly tailored to seal only material that can properly be kept confidential.
Discussion
The court found that the material concerned health information that the plaintiffs had deemed confidential. It determined that the plaintiffs had established compelling reasons to seal information that could reveal confidential details about their health. The court also found that the requests were narrowly tailored and that no less restrictive alternative to redaction would adequately protect the information.
Disposition
The court granted the plaintiffs’ requests to file the exhibits at ECF No. 65 under seal. Judge Beth Labson Freeman ordered those exhibits to remain under seal.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.