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  1. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
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    8,238

    Default Re: Can a Court Record Be Sealed Without Your Knowing

    Hearsay is a rule of evidence that applies in court. I won’t get into the details of it here as is doesn’t really matter to what has been asked so far. I don’t know what you mean by “factual evidence” but it is important to understand that circumstantial evidence and the testimony of witnesses are every bit as valid as evidence as a scientific test. A police investigation and criminal prosecution can be based on circumstantial evidence or testimony alone, and convictions have been won on such cases. The type of evidence does not matter so much as to how strong the particular evidence is in proving one or more elements of a crime. Unfortunately TV and movies have given the general public a very bad understanding of what is necessary to support a prosecution.

    It not very uncommon to seal court records other than certain juvenile/family law court records and certain records/cases involving national security. The laws of some states also allow sealing of arrest or conviction records if certain conditions are met. Michigan Court Rule 8.119(I) deals with sealing of court records and applies to the sealing of any court record in Michigan courts unless some other law provides a more specific rule (like the law sealing certain arrest records, for example). Among the rules provided are:
    • that the court may only seal the case upon the request of a party to the case; the court may not seal the records sua sponte (i.e. on the court's own motion);
    • the records may only be sealed upon a showing of good cause;
    • the court will provide notice of the request to seal the records to all interested parties in the case; and,
    • importantly, provides that the opinion/order to seal the record cannot itself be sealed.

    What this means is that the court could not seal the case without first notifying of the defendant of the request (presumably by the state) to seal the record, so the answer to your first question is no, the court could not seal it without the defendant being notified. Moreover, because the order sealing the records cannot itself be sealed, there will be a record with the court that the record was sealed. So the case would not simply disappear without a trace. The court must also send a copy of the order sealing the records to the clerk of the Supreme Court, so there will be a record there as well of that the case was sealed.

    The main points of the rules for sealing cases was emphasized in a memo from the Supreme Court to the lower courts a couple of years ago, which you can read here: http://courts.mi.gov/Administration/...CS-2013-04.pdf

    A party the to the case may well be prohibited from distributing information that was in the court file by the order sealing the case. One would have to read the order to determine that.

    Bottom line here is that if the case was sealed, you can find that out as there will be a record of that. If the case was not sealed, there is some other reason why it is no longer accessible on the web site.

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