HOW TO AVOID PUBLIC COURT FILES

How to avoid public court files which reveal personal information to the media or anyone interested enough to view your court file.

Often celebrity, public figures and exceedingly wealthy clients as well as those who wish to remain private or keep their court file out of the hands of their future grown children, may agree with their opposing party to choose one of the following dispute resolution vehicles.

Private Judging: This dispute resolution remedy can effectively resolve disputes, in most cases more expeditiously and often more economically than the typical adversarial process. Additionally private judges may have qualitatively better family law experience than the judicial officers at court.

This process may include settlement conferences, case-management conferences, hearings on 1 or more issues, and trial. A private judge is endowed with the authority of the court and matters may be appealed similar to typical court decisions in the case of judicial error or abuse of discretion. Alternatively the parties could choose a more informal process from their private judge to streamline resolution of the issues.

While although technically this option is subject to possible attendance by the media in rare instances and typically only in the case of celebrity, will that happen. In the current economic climate private judging makes sense given that in most cases parties must provide for their own court reporters due to court budget cutbacks. What is more important the costs for employing a private judge can often be saved by avoiding delays alone; for example, repeated returns to court requiring counsel to review and prepare the issues multiple times to stay sharp with the facts and applicable law can be prohibitively expensive.

Written by Renee Marcelle
For more information, contact the Family Law Offices of Renee M. Marcelle at (415) 456-4444, or online at http://www.familylawmarin.com/ --