Current through Vol. 42, No. 1, September 16, 2024
(a)
Filings under seal. Although the Office of Administrative
Hearings: Child Support (OAH) court records are public records, per Section
32.1 of Title
12 of the Oklahoma Statutes (12 O.S. § 32.1) and 51 O.S. § 24A.30,
OAH may order any material in the record sealed, per 12 O.S. § 3226(C)(2)
and 51 O.S. § 24A.29.
(1) Materials are
not sealed when the administrative law judge (ALJ) determines that a reasonable
redaction resolves the issue or that the request is overbroad, such as an
attempt to seal a general category of materials. When the motion to seal is
denied, OAH directs that the materials are stricken or unsealed, with or
without redaction as directed by the ALJ.
(2) Any protective order that authorizes
materials to be filed or admitted under seal identifies those materials. The
protective order is accessible to the same extent as any other document in the
OAH court record.
(3) When the
motion to seal is granted, OAH retains authority to unseal the material or
order the person who initially submitted the material to OAH to submit a
redacted version into the record. This authority may be exercised either upon
the court's own motion or pursuant to a party's written motion, served upon all
non-moving pro se parties and attorneys of record, and subsequently approved
after an ALJ hearing.
(b)
Redaction. It is solely the
responsibility of counsel and the parties to ensure that all filed pleadings,
papers, exhibits, or other documents are redacted as permitted by these rules
or the assigned ALJ. The party submitting the redacted documents must not
redact the originals; the redaction is made on copies of the originals, with
the redacted copies submitted in substitution for the originals. OAH personnel,
including clerks and administrative law judges, do not review any document to
verify redaction and have no duty to do so.
(1) The parties may refrain from including or
may redact all but the last four digits, when inclusion is necessary, of the
personal identifiers from any submission, such as Social Security, taxpayer
identification, routing, or financial account numbers.
(2) When a filer includes personal
information, such as Social Security numbers, tax identification numbers,
routing numbers, financial account numbers, driver license numbers, dates of
birth, addresses, or other sensitive information, in any document filed with
OAH, electronically or otherwise, the document becomes a public record as
filed.
(c)
Filing
errors.
(1) Filers make every effort
to ensure they do not file a document other than the one intended to be filed,
that it is filed in the correct case, and the document does not contain
information that must be filed under seal or with redaction.
(2) When a document is filed into the wrong
case, the OAH clerk is notified by submitting a "Notice of Erroneous Filing" in
paper form into the correct case. The OAH clerk is authorized to move the
document after inspection, without alteration; however, the OAH clerk may
impose the correct OAH case number on the document in the upper right hand
corner when necessary. The OAH clerk may move the document through electronic,
mechanical, or a combination of the two means. The filer does not refile the
document unless directed to do so. Alternatively, the OAH clerk, after
inspection of the document, may decline to move the document when the "Notice
of Erroneous Filing," itself, is in error. The "Notice of Erroneous Filing" may
be obtained from the OAH clerk or found on the Oklahoma Department of Human
Services website. The filer is required to provide copies of the "Notice of
Erroneous Filing" to all other parties and attorneys and to file a certificate
of mailing, delivery, or service in OAH.
(3) When the OAH clerk determines the
requesting party's "Notice of Erroneous Filing" is in error and declines to
move the document, he or she notifies the requesting party by correspondence,
with a copy of the correspondence filed in the same case as the "Notice of
Erroneous Filing." The requesting party may be required to provide copies of
such correspondence to the other pro se parties and attorneys of record and
file a certificate of mailing, delivery, or service in OAH.
(4) When OAH discovers a filing error, the
OAH clerk may enter a "Notice of Erroneous Filing," move the document, notify
the original filer, and file a certificate of mailing, delivery, or service.
The original filer may be required to provide copies to the other pro se
parties and attorneys of record and file a certificate of mailing, delivery, or
service in OAH.
(d)
Confidentiality. Nothing in this rule impacts the confidentiality
of juvenile records or any other records the Legislature determined are
confidential.
