Divorce Records: What is Public Information?

The court system is designed on the precept that information on all possible proceedings be available to anyone seeking it. This applies to almost every piece of personal information that comes up in a court case (unless you are a public figure, then more complex rules apply). This means that if you get a divorce, you are potentially exposing quite a bit of personal information to the world.

What Information About a Divorce Proceeding is Public?
The succinct answer is “all of it, unless special circumstances apply.” Every piece of paper, motion, pleading, court order, and decree that occurs over the course of a divorce is available to anyone who requests it (and generally pays a nominal fee). This hardly means that everyone will know all of the details of your divorce — the effort required to obtain these records is such that only people who have a good reason to care will go through it. Your neighbors and even your friends and family aren’t going to shell out the money and wait the time.

What “Special Circumstances” Could Get a Divorce Record Sealed?
The law is designed to keep the justice system as transparent and citizen-friendly as possible, so sealing a divorce record is a very rare event. But in cases where highly sensitive or highly prejudicial information is involved, it’s possible to petition a judge to get a divorce record sealed. Examples include (but are not limited to):

• Allegations of a highly inflammatory nature, such as sexual abuse, if later proven false,
• Allegations of a highly inflammatory nature made against a public figure, true or false,
• Business information that rises to the level of a trade secret, or
• Civic information that rises to the level of national security secret.

Sealing Is Not All-or-Nothing
It’s quite possible (and in fact somewhat normal) for a judge to only seal one part of a record — each individual part of a case can be sealed. So you could ask for the records from a particular divorce and end up getting all of the financial discovery, all of the child custody and support information, and so on, but not the spousal support or any information about why the couple divorced in the first place.

The Best Way to Get a Divorce Record Sealed
There are a good number of factors that a judge must balance when someone requests that a divorce record be sealed. These include:

• The public’s potential future interest in the divorce details,
• What harm is likely to befall the litigants if the records are exposed,
• The possibility to protect the litigants with some action other than sealing the record,
• What harm is likely to befall the litigants’ children if the records are exposed,
• And others.

The court’s imperative to always keep the best interest of any affected children in mind during a divorce is your friend here — if you feel that a seal is strictly necessary, finding a solid attachment between the seal and the long-term well-being of the children involved is the most reliable way to seal a divorce record.

If you’re frightened that the public availability of your divorce record will have dire consequences for you and/or your child(ren), call Gucciardo Family Law at 248-723-5190 — we can help.