Jalal v. Bajic
- Vernon Broderick
- 1:19-cv-11963
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Jalal v. Bajic, Judge Broderick denied sealing, dismissed the case, and directed the clerk to close it.
Malek Jalal, the self-represented plaintiff, was affected by the denial of his sealing request and the dismissal and closure of the case.
What happened
In Jalal v. Bajic, Malek Jalal, who was representing himself, sent a letter voluntarily dismissing the case and asking that the court record be sealed.
The court treated the request as a motion to seal. It found that Jalal had provided no support for sealing and had not shown that sealing was necessary, so the request to seal was denied.
Judge Broderick ordered that the case be dismissed and directed the clerk to mail the order to Jalal and close the case.
The detailed version
- Jalal v. Bajic · No. 1:19-cv-11963
- Vernon Broderick
- Nov. 5, 2020
Background
Malek Jalal, representing himself, filed a letter stating that he was voluntarily dismissing the case. He also asked that the case be removed from court and public records and not be viewable on the internet. The court interpreted that request as a motion to seal the case.
Sealing Request
The court explained that civil proceedings, motions, related documents, and docket sheets generally have a presumptive public-access right under the First Amendment, as well as a common-law right of access to judicial records. A party seeking to seal records must provide a sufficient justification, and sealing must be necessary to protect a higher value and narrowly tailored to that purpose.
Jalal submitted only the two-sentence dismissal-and-sealing letter and provided no support for sealing the case. The court held that this submission was insufficient to meet the burden of showing that sealing was warranted, even while giving deference to a self-represented party.
Disposition
The court denied Jalal's request to seal the case. It further ordered that the case be dismissed and directed the clerk to mail a copy of the order to Jalal and close the case.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.