Day v. GEICO Casualty Company

Background

Defendants GEICO Casualty Company, GEICO General Insurance Company, and GEICO Indemnity Company filed two administrative motions to seal on September 15, 2023. One motion concerned portions of GEICO’s motion for summary judgment and supporting materials. The other concerned portions of GEICO’s motion to decertify the class and supporting materials. Jessica Day did not oppose either request.

Legal standard

The court began with the strong presumption that judicial records should be publicly accessible. Because the materials related to summary judgment and class decertification, the court applied the “compelling reasons” standard. Under that standard, a party must show specific reasons that outweigh the public’s interest in access. The court also noted that sealing requests must be narrowly tailored and explain why disclosure would cause harm and why a less restrictive alternative would not be sufficient.

Court’s ruling

The court combined its analysis of the two motions because they sought to redact the same or substantially similar information. It found that the requests were narrowly tailored to confidential business and financial information whose disclosure could give other insurers a competitive advantage by revealing GEICO’s business operations.

The court granted both administrative motions to seal. It granted sealing for specified portions of GEICO’s memoranda supporting summary judgment and class decertification; specified portions of Russell Ward’s declarations; the entirety of Exhibits E and G to those declarations; the entirety of Exhibit K, a non-public settlement stipulation; and the entirety of Exhibits BB, CC, and DD, which contained confidential financial and business information. The order did not decide the merits of GEICO’s summary-judgment or class-decertification motions.