Hello,

I am interested in finding the following information:

1) Cases where an individual has attempted to sue a large corporation
(either successfully or unsuccessfully) and has run up against the
corporation citing sealed records to block a fair access to
information pertinent to the case.

2) How does the sealing of records affect the development of both
Common and Tort law (if at all)?

Thank you.

---

Clarification of Question by catania-ga on 10 Mar 2005 18:20 PST

I appreciate the comment so I will do my best to clarify my question.

First, the sealed records answer I am looking for is specific to the
court sealed records of corporations.  For example, a person trying to
sue Pharmaceutical Company X potentially not having access to the
sealed records of this company when they might (and most likely would)
carry a signficant amount of weight on the side of the plaintiff.

http://www.hipaa.org/ is a good jumping-off point.  

As a further point of reference, this case:
http://www.altcorp.com/DentalInformation/recordssealed.htm involves
the government asking the federal court to seal vaccination records.

Another example is: http://www.yourlawyer.com/practice/news.htm?story_id=8874&topic=Vioxx
where the information sealed in the records would have a very direct
impact against Merck.

I anticipate using this feature of Google very consistently and would
appreciate as much information as can be found on this subject.

Thank you.

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 15 Mar 2005 05:06 PST

catania-ga,

Hello there, and thanks for asking quite an interesting question.  I'm
a big proponent of open access to information myself, so the question
of when it is appropriate for there to be sealed records is an
important one to me.


I can probably address the first of your questions, in terms of cases
that involve sealed company records.  It would be helpful to know if
there is a particular jurisdiction (e.g. a state) of interest to you.


But the second question is a bit harder to interpret.  Can you give me
a bit more insight as to what you're after here?  Also, how important
is Question @ relative to Question 1 -- if I feel I can only answer
Question 1, how should I proceed?

I look forward to hearing from you on this.

pafalafa-ga

---

Clarification of Question by catania-ga on 17 Mar 2005 10:44 PST

I appreciate your reply and I'm going to cancel this question and
divvy it into two separate questions.  The jurisdiction is not crucial
but anything in Florida would be the most applicable for what we're
trying to do.  Thanks again.

Isn't the sealing of records something that only applies to government
records, e.g., adoptions, juvenile court cases, and reguires a legal
basis?
Can/may a company claim that its records "are sealed"?
A search of "sealed records" turned up lots (I obviously didn't go
through all 1.3 million), but the ones I saw were all related to
matters where the "state" in some form was involved, and one was an
article that suggested that a state governor was overstepping his
authority by having records sealed.

Hello Catania,  I just noticed your clarification. (If it had been
posted as a comment, I would have noticed sooner.)  I'm no legal
beagle, so I cannot help you further, but I would have thought that a
researcher would have jumped on a mex. priced question, especially
since you are asking for specific information and not a solution.
Maybe it would help to post the question again under "Business and
Money" in the hope that there are commenters and researchers who just
scan that area.
Good luck