S.M. v. The City of New York

Background

S.M. asked for permission under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2(d) and the parties’ protective order to file Exhibits 18 and 19 to a motion to compel under seal. The exhibits were documents produced by Good Shepherd Services.

S.M. stated that the exhibits contained confidential information about the care of minors in foster care and sensitive commercial terms between the City of New York and Good Shepherd Services concerning residential-care services. The protective order allowed the parties to designate certain documents as confidential and required a court application before filing materials containing that information in redacted or sealed form.

Legal standard and ruling

The request cited Second Circuit law concerning the common-law presumption that court documents should be publicly accessible. Courts balance that presumption against competing considerations, including privacy interests, potential harm from disclosure, the public interest, and whether the documents are important to deciding the case.

The court granted S.M.’s request to file Exhibits 18 and 19 under seal. The order states that the parties’ privacy interests in the information described above outweighed the presumption of public access. The order was signed by Magistrate Judge Robert W. Lehrburger.