Cleveland partner David Marburger, an authority on litigating legal issues arising from the content side of the communications industry, especially First Amendment and media law, had an opinion column published in the December 21 edition of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
According to Marburger, writing for the Ohio News Organization, a cooperative of eight major Ohio newspapers, "the Ohio Supreme Court is deciding whether to approve a special commission's proposed rules to govern public access to court records. The 19-member commission, comprised principally of judges of domestic relations, juvenile, probate and municipal courts, with one court of appeals judge and one general division common pleas judge, approved the proposed rules with one dissenting vote."
Marburger's column details some of the more restrictive provisions which were removed from the proposed rules, but states, "the proposals approved by the commission remain a mess. If a judge has sealed a court record—ordered that the public can't see it—the proposed rules erect a thick legal barrier against overturning that order. They would bar that judge or an appellate court from later lifting the order except where there is "clear and convincing evidence" that the public's right to see court records "is no longer outweighed" by the reason for initially sealing the record. Clear-and-convincing evidence is the most difficult burden to overcome in civil cases. It would place a heavy burden on anyone trying to unseal the record, one that has never existed before."
To read the full column from the Plain Dealer website, click here.