Kelly v. Kasim International Corporation
- Lewis Liman
- 1:21-cv-08134
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
Kelly v. Beliv, Judge Liman granted Beliv’s request to redact sensitive medical testimony from its opposition to class certification.
Beliv may redact the specified portions of Kevin Kelly’s deposition testimony from its publicly filed opposition, limiting public access to information concerning Kelly’s medical condition.
What happened
In Kevin Kelly v. Beliv LLC, Beliv asked to redact portions of Kelly’s deposition testimony from its publicly filed opposition to Kelly’s request to certify a class. Kelly did not oppose the request.
The court explained that filings used in judicial proceedings are generally presumed open to the public. It ruled that the privacy interest in Kelly’s medical condition outweighed that presumption and granted Beliv’s request.
Judge Lewis J. Liman directed the Clerk of Court to close the docket entry concerning the request. The opinion does not describe the court’s ruling on class certification itself.
The detailed version
- Kelly v. Kasim International Corporation · No. 1:21-cv-08134
- Lewis Liman
- Mar. 12, 2024
Background
Beliv LLC asked the court to allow redactions of portions of Kevin Kelly’s deposition testimony in the publicly filed version of Beliv’s opposition to Kelly’s motion for class certification. Kelly did not submit an opposition to Beliv’s request.
Court’s analysis
The court described a presumption of immediate public access to judicial documents under both common law and the First Amendment. It applied a three-step test: whether the filing is a judicial document, the weight of the public-access presumption, and whether competing interests outweigh that presumption.
The court determined that Beliv’s opposition to the class-certification motion was a judicial document. It then concluded that the sensitivity of Kelly’s medical condition outweighed the presumption of public access. The opinion also noted that personal and financial information can implicate significant privacy interests.
Ruling
The court granted Beliv’s request to redact the specified portions of the deposition testimony. It also directed the Clerk of Court to close Docket No. 46. The opinion does not decide the underlying class-certification motion.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.