General Question

VisionaryAdvait's avatar

Can a victim witness prosecuter ever have their affidavit & court records sealed because of personal information?

Asked by VisionaryAdvait (167points) February 14th, 2010

Can the victim of a violent crime who has sensitive personal information included in the affidavit and possibly court records ever get those sealed or is there any advice for when this happens?

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

3 Answers

marinelife's avatar

It depends on the state you are in. Here., for example, is material in Connecticut”

” 6. What becomes unavailable to the public when a file is sealed by the court?
Only those portions of the file that the judge has ordered sealed. In the event of a partial sealing, certain information in the court file will continue to be available for public inspection.

7. When do sealed materials become available to the public and how will news professionals or members of the public know when a sealed file becomes disclosable?
Materials ordered sealed by the court are disclosable once the sealing order expires. News professionals or members of the public should make note of the date when the sealing order will expire. Please be aware that, in many cases, the information may not be disclosable at any point in the future.

8. What items are automatically sealed by statute?
Generally, communications and records of a party to the action between the following individuals are sealed:

psychologist and patient;
psychiatrist and patient;
battered women’s or sexual assault counselor and victim;
Judicial Branch employee and employee assistance program counselor;
physician, surgeon or health care provider and patient;
marital and family therapist and person consulting such therapist; and,
social worker and person consulting such social worker. ”

Source.

davidbetterman's avatar

Yes, but such records are really very easy to get into.

VS's avatar

Your personal identifiers should have been redacted from any public records before they were made public. I guess this depends on the particular state in which your records are housed, but here in SC, no personal identifiers are allowed in the filed records, to include but not limited to SS#s, street addresses, phone numbers, date of birth.
Here’s a link to what my state did about that: http://www.sccourts.org/whatsnew/displaywhatsnew.cfm?indexID=400

Answer this question

Login

or

Join

to answer.

This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.

Your answer will be saved while you login or join.

Have a question? Ask Fluther!

What do you know more about?
or
Knowledge Networking @ Fluther