Filing under seal is a procedure allowing sensitive or confidential information to be filed with a court without becoming a matter of

public record Public records are documents or pieces of information that are not considered confidential and generally pertain to the conduct of government. Depending on jurisdiction, examples of public records includes information pertaining to births, deat ...

. The court generally must give permission for the material to remain under seal. Filing confidential documents "under seal" separated from the public records allows

litigants A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. T ...

to navigate the judicial system without compromising their confidentiality, at least until there is an affirmative decision by consent of the information's owner or by order of the court to publicize it. When the document is filed under seal, it should have a clear indication for the

court clerk A court clerk (British English: clerk to the court or clerk of the court ; American English: clerk of the court or clerk of court ) is an officer of the court whose responsibilities include maintaining records of a court and administering oaths ...

to file it separately – most often by stamping words "Filed Under Seal" on the bottom of each page. The person making the filing should also provide instructions to the court clerk that the document needs to be filed "under seal". Courts often have specific requirements for these filings in their Local Rules. Normally records should not be filed under seal without court permission. However,

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (officially abbreviated Fed. R. Civ. P.; colloquially FRCP) govern civil procedure in United States district courts. They are the companion to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Rules promulgated by the ...

5.2 allows a person making a redacted filing to also file an unredacted copy under seal.

References

Judicial legal terminology American legal terminology Civil procedure legal terminology United States civil procedure {{law-term-stub