REDACTING TRANSCRIPTS
The District of Maine is participating in a pilot project regarding the
electronic availability of transcripts and the redaction of certain personal
data information. The court will follow the Judicial Conference policy on
electronic availability of transcripts of court proceedings before making
official transcripts of civil court proceedings electronically available.
The pilot project will apply to all transcripts of civil proceedings ordered
on or after January 5, 2004.
The policy establishes a procedure whereby counsel can request the redaction
from the transcript of specific personal data identifiers before the transcript
is made electronically available to the general public. A party must file
a notice of intent to request redaction within five business days of the
filing of the official transcript by the court reporter. If a party fails
to request redaction within this time frame, the transcript will be made
electronically available without redaction.
If a party files a redaction notice, the transcript will not be made remotely
electronically available to the general public until the redactions are performed.
Within 21 calendar days from the filing of the transcript with the clerk,
or longer if ordered by the court, the parties must submit to the court reporter
or transcriber a statement indicating where the personal identifiers appear
in the transcript by page and line and how they are to be redacted. For example,
if a party wanted to redact the Social Security number 123-45-6789 appearing
on page 12, line 9 of the transcript the statement would read: Social Security
number 123-45-6789 on page 12, line 9 should be redacted to read xxx-xx-6789.
Only the following personal identifiers may be automatically redacted:
minors’ names, social security numbers, dates of birth, financial account
numbers, and home addresses. If a party wants to redact other information,
that party must file a motion requesting further redaction, served on all
parties and the court reporter within the 21-day period.
