Rule 42-49A. Sealing or Limiting Disclosure of Documents in Criminal Cases

(a) Except as otherwise provided by law, there shall be a presumption that documents filed with the court shall be available to the public.

(b) Except as provided in this section and except as otherwise provided by law, including Sections 36-2, 40-29 and 40-40 through 40-43 and General Statutes § 54-33c, the judicial authority shall not order that any files, affidavits, documents, or other materials on file with the court or filed in connection with a court proceeding be sealed or their disclosure limited.

(c) Upon written motion of the prosecuting authority or of the defendant, or upon its own motion, the judicial authority may order that files, affidavits, documents, or other materials on file or lodged with the court or in connection with a court proceeding be sealed or their disclosure limited only if the judicial authority concludes that such order is necessary to preserve an interest which is determined to override the public's interest in viewing such materials. The judicial authority shall first consider reasonable alternatives to any such order and any such order shall be no broader than necessary to protect such overriding interest. An agreement of the parties to seal or limit the disclosure of documents on file with the court or filed in connection with a court proceeding shall not constitute a sufficient basis for the issuance of such an order.

(d) In connection with any order issued pursuant to subsection (c) of this section, the judicial authority shall articulate the overriding interest being protected and shall specify its findings underlying such order and the duration of such order. If any finding would reveal information entitled to remain confidential, those findings may be set forth in a sealed portion of the record. The time, date, scope and duration of any such order shall be set forth in a writing signed by the judicial authority which upon issuance the court clerk shall immediately enter in the court file and publish by posting on a bulletin board adjacent to the clerk's office and accessible to the public. The judicial authority shall order that a transcript of its decision be included in the file or prepare a memorandum setting forth the reasons for its order.

(e) Except as otherwise ordered by the judicial authority, a motion to seal or limit the disclosure of affidavits, documents, or other materials on file or lodged with the court or in connection with a court proceeding shall be calendared so that notice to the public is given of the time and place of the hearing on the motion and to afford the public an opportunity to be heard on the motion under consideration. The notice of the time, date and place of the hearing on the motion shall be posted on a bulletin board adjacent to the clerk's office and accessible to the public. The procedures set forth in Sections 7-4B and 7-4C shall be followed in connection with a motion to file affidavits, documents or other materials under seal or to limit their disclosure.

(f) (1) A motion to seal the contents of an entire court file shall be placed on a calendar to be held not less than fifteen days following the filing of the motion, unless the judicial authority otherwise directs, so that notice to the public is given of the time and place of the hearing on the motion and to afford the public an opportunity to be heard on the motion under consideration. The notice of the time, date and place of the hearing on the motion shall be posted on a bulletin board adjacent to the clerk's office and accessible to the public. The procedures set forth in Sections 7-4B and 7-4C shall be followed in connection with such motion.

(2) The judicial authority may issue an order sealing the contents of an entire court file only upon a finding that there is not available a more narrowly tailored method of protecting the overriding interest, such as redaction or sealing a portion of the file. The judicial authority shall state in its decision or order each of the more narrowly tailored methods that was considered and the reason each such method was unavailable or inadequate.

(g) With the exception of orders concerning the disclosure of any documents pursuant to General Statutes § 54-33c or any other provision of the General Statutes under which the court is authorized to seal or limit the disclosure of files, affidavits, documents, or materials, whether at a pretrial or trial stage, and any order issued pursuant to a court rule that seals or limits the disclosure of any affidavit in support of an arrest warrant, any person affected by a court order that seals or limits the disclosure of any files, documents, or other materials on file with the court or filed in connection with a court proceeding, shall have the right to the review of such order by the filing of a petition for review with the Appellate Court within seventytwo hours from the issuance of such order. Nothing under this subsection shall operate as a stay of such sealing order.

(h) The provisions of this section shall not apply to pretrial settlement conferences or negotiations or to documents submitted to the court in connection with such conferences or negotiations.

Committee Notes

amended June 21, 2004, to take effect Jan. 1, 2005.) 235. In In re the Application of the Herald Co. , 734 F.2d 93, 102 (2d Cir. 1984), the court stated that ''a motion for court- room closure should be docketed in the public docket files maintained in the court clerk's office. . . . The motion itself may be filed under seal, when appropriate, by leave of the court . . . .'' (Citation omitted.) See also In re Knight Publishing Co ., supra, 235; In re Knoxville News-Sentinel Co. , 723 F.2d 470, 474–76 (6th Cir. 1983). It is intended that the use of pseudonyms in place of the name of a party or parties not be permitted in criminal matters. HISTORY—2005: Prior to 2005, the third sentence of sub- section (d) read: ''The time, date, scope and duration of any such order shall forthwith be reduced to writing and be signed by the judicial authority and be entered by the court clerk in the court file.'' COMMENTARY—2005: As used in subsection (a) above, the words ''Except as otherwise provided by law'' are intended to exempt from the operation of this rule all established proce- dures for the sealing or ex parte filing, in camera inspection and/or nondisclosure to the public of documents, records and other materials, as required or permitted by statute; e.g., Gen- eral Statutes §§ 12-242vv (pertaining to taxpayer information), 52-146c et seq. (pertaining to the disclosure of psychiatric records) and 54-56g (pertaining to the pretrial alcohol educa- tion program); other rules of practice; e.g., Practice Book Sec- tions 7-18, 13-5 (6) through (8) and 40-13 (c); and/or controlling state or federal case law; e.g., Matza v. Matza , 226 Conn. 166, 627 A.2d 414 (1993) (establishing a procedure whereby an attorney seeking to withdraw from a case due to his client's anticipated perjury at trial may support his motion to withdraw by filing a sealed affidavit for the court's review). The above amendment to subsection (d) establishes a mechanism by which the public and the press, who are empow- ered by this rule to object to pending motions to seal files or limit the disclosure of documents in criminal matters, will receive timely notice of the court's disposition of such motions. General Statutes § 51-164x (c) gives any person affected by a court order sealing a file or limiting the disclosure of a docu- ment in a criminal action the right to the review of such order by filing a petition for review with the Appellate Court within seventy-two hours from the issuance of the order. The above section shall not apply to motions and orders made pursuant to General Statutes § 54-33c concerning the limitation of the disclosure of affidavits in support of search warrant applications.